Education - Senate and House

Order. Medico chair you have any of thank you say today I do not know all right then we'll get started and I guess I need to consideration approve the April fourth and fifth meetings. I have a motion to have second of second all in favor say aye. Holub against that I didn't figure it would be motion carries all right at this time will move a real quickly down to item D. because I know we have some long discussion today and miss Julie Holt will let you start of we missed jasmine's right there with you ready to go for today so we're so excited not really but. We're here. We're excited your it's your program go ahead. And so thank you representative Cozart Senator Elliot members of the committee I'm Julie helped with the pure of Legislative Research. And this is my colleague when enters to. So today we will be continuing with our process for stating adequacy for this biennium and just to remind everyone where we are in the process we started out looking at the overview of pending and then spending and then last month we started looking at red or those expenditures what are they buying so we did a real deep dive into everything about teachers and we also looked at Basilides said today will continue along and that theme and we'll be looking at what's going on in the school building so what are learning expectations and how are those delivered for students at large and that's going to include a report on career and technical education today the Melinda today looking at waivers from education laws and rules and how those waivers are granted and tomorrow will continue looking at learning programs for our special population of students and needs and so they'll be for individual reports that and there be a lot of commonalities you'll notice something that is so with that said we will move on we also each time try to provide you this tracking sheet and this just leads us all to keep up with where we are in terms of complying with the adequacy study statute so everything you see in bold on white background we've already covered those highlighted areas are the reports will cover today in the areas of the statute that and those reports As You now Michelle is will email the reports in the presentations from these meetings to you after the meetings but they're also available on the website so you can go to the B. L. R. page and to adequacy reports and and draw your way down if you want to get presentations or reports that way. Senate we're gonna get moved into our first report is that which is our learning expectations report so we look first at the state guidance for what our students are what Arkansas has said we want our students to know and be able to do by the time the graduate high school then a look at more specifically at the academic standards and that is something that's very specifically called for in the adequacy statute it is a review of that as well also look at the advance records requirements and offerings in Arkansas as well as some of the more recent initiatives that we've put in place and will end up looking at digital learning and this is something we've looked at in this report for many years but of course it takes on a little more significance this year with COVID situation. So in terms of state guidance the one place that we find that is actually in the law itself and this is six fifteen twenty nine oh one which is the codification of the new accountability system law that was passed in twenty seventeen that was at nine thirty in a cause for the department of education to establish academic standards that define what students shall know and be able to demonstrate in each content area. Then it goes on to say that the standards will be reviewed periodically to make sure that they remain rigorous and that they prepare students for college career and community engagement. And the desi standards for accreditation so this is our rule you'll find a listing of all of the course areas that are to be taught at each grade level we're gonna take a closer look at all that in a minute. And then the third place the fines and guidance is and this these committees definition of adequacy and one of the M.. Paragraph says that advocacy is the standards included in the state's curriculum and career and technical frameworks which define what Arkansas students are to be taught including specific grade level curriculum and a mandatory thirty eight Carnegie units defined by the Arkansas standards of accreditation to be taught at the high school level in here I did want to just point out a little discrepancy between this definition in the law as it currently is because no longer do the M. thirty eight have to be taught and the required to be offered so there's and just that little bit of discrepancy there. So moving into the academic standards. If you go to disease website and look under curriculum you find a page with these nine subject areas on them and these are the subject areas for which daisy has created specific academic standards for all of the courses that are taught within these areas so say we were looking for English language arts and click on that button we would see a list that looks like this and so you can see that you can go to each grade level and find that document that shows what's to be taught. So we had the first grade M. E. L. A. standards this is what the document actually looks like in this one happens to be a thirty seven page document in twenty five of those pages contain these individual standards so this of course is a tool for teachers to use but also parents could get on the site and and see what their students are and supposed to be taught each year. The M. standards for accreditation say that. Students in grades K. three four shall receive instruction annually in these subjects and you'll see its the come common core subjects plus Arkansas history and then there is that requirement for forty minutes at the instructional day to be used for recess each day. I move that to grades five through eight in those students so as to the receive instruction annually in these courses and the main addition here is that addition of career and technical education. And then when we get it to grades nine through twelve that's when we see the required thirty eight courses and high schools are is to teach thirty eight unique's courses designated by the subjects and so even if I have a class that meets and the definition of two subjects they're still need to be thirty eight courses that are offered in the may hear me say teach because of so that for many years but but the law is that they need to be offered. So every year the state board approves a list of courses and this is the list and it's in your report if you do want to look at it more closely later on and because I know this is difficult to read but this is a list of courses and there are courses in addition to the thirty eight for which there approved standards but the thirty eight noted on here. That those courses answer there proved generally early in the spring semester before the fall semester at all take effect so this sheet here was approved in January of twenty twenty and the main difference from that seat and the courses that have been approved to the previous year where the addition of these two nine semester long an English courses and these are courses offered at the tenth grade level tenth and twelfth grades levels they M. before this students to grade nine English grade ten English grade eleven English in grade twelve English to be able to graduate so now in grades eleven and twelve these are taught at the schools students could take for these courses in lieu of grade eleven and grade twelve English and you'll notice that these are more career focused courses and when they were introduced to the State Board back in January twenty twenty and the explanation was given that it's the probably won't be that many schools able to offer these the first year and because it just takes goals awhile to make that Tippit however you do see that all ten courses were taught in at least one school with film as literature being the most prevalent it was in twenty three high schools and the least frequent was reading and writing for stem professions and that was at Marmaduke high school. So within those thirty eight we find our graduation requirements for our and. Our students and we actually have two pathways to diplomas there's what's called the smart Court upon the which is the default pathway so to have a student not follow that a parent or guardian actually has to come in apply for a. Fill out a waiver form and receive a waiver from that in twenty twenty one there were fewer than three percent of students in seventh through twelfth grades who had a waiver so the vast majority of students are following this marker curriculum so what's the difference between smart core and core it really comes in those four mass support smart course student is required to maintain regulate through algebra one geometry algebra two and a fourth year higher level math course to get with the waiver those last two years of math can be substituted with approved courses either from math or computer science. So that's the best sets of diplomas have required twenty two credits in schools or districts can decide to have higher level requirements for graduation that for the state there has to be these twenty two credits. So we look at our comparison states that we've been using throughout this report and their graduation requirements in this chart just shows you the six six contiguous states Arkansas and and here you see that we have we require twenty two and others require that many or more if you look at the other states that are listed in your report you're right you'll actually see were higher than a good number of states I think Wyoming was the one with the fewest that I saw and they had thirteen courses that they required for graduation and there's and couple states and I can't remember who they are but they actually left it up it was a local decision on what those graduation requirements for. And just to make note because I've got asked reckons four point five and English that point five this is in C. national center of education statistics data from twenty eighteen but that point five includes our oral communication requirement. So what we're talking about or and high school seniors I wanted in another quick little reminder we have been asked as we go through the roof the report to remind you of the recommendations made in twenty twenty by ofgem like pay like an associates so as to be broached topics that they've made recommendations for we will be including those recommendations so just wanna remind everybody that we're not making the recommendations for simply reviewing recommendations that were made by a PA so one of the recommendations that they did have was for this committees to consider formalizing a definition of college and career readiness and they wrote definition which is included and in full in your report and I've got it on the slide so I will scroll through here and let you see them these these M. this definition contains three types of skills is generally M. capabilities you want students to have them behavior skills and then college and career preparation knowledge and skills according to the recommendation and when they reported ten twenty twenty they said it this definition or adopted it would Pat Arkansas among fifteen states that included those three types of skills and you'll see some of that reflected as we scroll through here and I'll try to try to slow down for you to read it. Okay and if you didn't get to read that again it's on page seven of your report. So now I move into a discussion of advanced courses so we're gonna talk about Advanced Placement concurrent and gifted and talented education. Advanced Placement there was a law put in place in two thousand five requiring schools to start offering Advanced Placement and it gave them four years to phase in at least four eighty courses one in each of the core subject areas of social science English math and science and if you remember at the time the thirty eight had to be taught so on top of those thirty eight which now are offered these also these had to be offered in addition to teaching those thirty eight so So by two thousand nine those were to be offered everywhere And so these this map shows you where they were actually taught in twenty twenty one and so we had two hundred thirty six or ninety one percent at the state school districts and open enrollment charter schools that were actually teaching AP courses within those districts and charter systems or two hundred sixty eight high schools and then twelve junior highs with ninth grades that fit into those high schools and teaching at least one AP course spring Dale taught the most unique AP courses with forty three and there were twelve schools that taught when a course that school year. There were at eighty courses had enrollment of almost forty eight thousand but that representative twenty eight thousand individual students meaning that there were some students who took more than one AP course during the school year in this chart shows that ten classes with the largest enrollment numbers. In terms of concurrent credit courses were AP courses had had to be offered or must be offered concurrent courses the losses may be offered and this is done in partnership with an Arkansas institution of higher education and the A. M.. A. AP courses at I think I forgot to mention AP courses are graded on a five point scale concurrent courses may be rated on a five point scale and there been several laws over the reason over the years that have an increased access for students to concurrent credit courses so ACT eleven eighteen of twenty seventeen said enabled free and reduced lunch students to be able to take up to six hours a concurrent cursed courses at no charge and then two years later ACT four fifty six created the Arkansas concurrent challenge scholarship and this is using money that is left over from the Arkansas challenge academic challenge scholarships which is that scholarship that's provided to students once they're actually in college so this says that students can use that for concurrent courses and start beginning to earn those college credits while they're still in high school that scholarships are given in amounts of up to a hundred twenty five dollars and up to five hundred dollars maximum and and follow twenty twenty according to the division of higher education seventy four hundred students received those scholarships accounting for twelve thousand five hundred scholarships and it is just over one point two million dollars in scholarships that was given and then you can see in spring twenty twenty one those same numbers according to the Division higher education all students were able to receive a scholarship that year because it is dependent on how much money is left over from this academic challenge. In terms of gifted and talented I'm assessment hold you back in February this is funded outside of adequacy yet it is the law states that fifteen percent of the pending that's provided for Agassi has to be matched in the multiplied times five percent a previous eight M. average daily membership or enrollment to come up with what's to be spent for GT and there is a series of their rules that were promulgated in two thousand nine that established how gifted and talented students are identified in twenty twenty one we had forty thousand students identified as needing and gifted and talented education services and the rules stipulate that those can provided in a number of ways because there's no one set way to meet all the needs of gifted and talented students so some schools made to pull out programs especially in the lower years in high school the students may be directed to the A. P. IP or concurrent courses and then there are some specific courses covid is G. T. courses and they're eighty five hundred students enrolled in those courses in twenty twenty one. Okay moving on to a couple of new initiatives M. we're going to talk about the computer science and the rise programs. So computer science initiative was instituted with act one ninety seven and twenty fifteen and S. As required that each public high school in public charter high school would offer a course of high quality in computer science in grades K. through eight words to have learning and standards that would be incorporated into instruction so in twenty twenty one we had well over twelve thousand five hundred students enrolled in those are individual students enrolled in computer science courses in two hundred eighty eight schools and two hundred twenty seven districts and charter school systems. And M. as you all are probably quite aware that introduction of Cuban Peter sciences a mandatory offering has garnered the state national recognition from organizations such as Facebook and Microsoft over the years starting next school year and students beginning and then I cried will need to complete a computer science course before they graduate. The reading initiative for student excellence was created with act ten sixty three of twenty seventeen and according to does the literature this act was somewhat in response to the reading scores for in the twenty fifteen exams. The premise being that reading by third grade has been found by number of researchers to be a prime indicator for success in later years of schooling and in twenty fifteen we had fifty percent of our third graders scoring ready or above on the ACT aspire exam and then there were thirty nine percent scoring reading ready on the ACT college placement exam. You can see the program was this was not really instituted into twenty eighteen and even before that the third grade reading scores have been increasing and they continue to increase and so of course and notice recommend in twenty twenty and then we know there was a good deal of learning loss across the state across the nation and due to covid that hurt the twenty twenty one scores. And this is the pattern for all grades that are tested with the ACT aspire and YC some very ability and that I will say that in twenty twenty one even after co that that students in the fifth and eighth grade was going at higher levels than they were in twenty sixteen. In terms of the and college level ACT that graduating seniors took their and the scores has its continued to gradually decline since that initial year. So now we're gonna I'm gonna in this report talking about digital learning and I said as I said digital learning has been around for a while and originally it was called and distance learning and it was put in place early in the century or millennium or early two thousands and said really dress teacher shortages and so teachers could be in remote areas we had an Arkansas distance learning center and there were several co ops that offer this service and I would teach three compressed video two students who are on campuses and this allowed and schools to be able to offer courses that they didn't have the teaching staff and you remember at this time that's when the thirty eight had to be taught so this was an and needed service at that time at twelve eighty of twenty thirteen and. Put in place a requirement for students to take a digital learning court before they graduated because that's the way the world was moving in that direction and then of course in twenty twenty COVID nineteen hit and made digital learning and and assess city for almost every student in school district in the state. So when that happened and everyone was sent home we were finishing up the twenty twenty adequacy study presentations so we were able to put out a quick survey to superintendents to see how they were doing with technology at the time and we heard You know several things but the main things we heard from them in that first spring is they were really worried about this divide that could was happening between learning of their students and their two ways that this happened the role superintendent said there were many students and teachers even in their areas that didn't have access to broadband and superintendents who were in in urban areas where there was more access we're noting that divide occurring between families who could afford and as he could not afford. We an Assam similar questions during our most recent survey that and this went out at the end of twenty twenty one so the year everybody was back in school for the most part and had started receiving those as or funds and on average superintendents reported to us at that twenty five percent of those S. R. dollars which for those federal COVID dollars were spent on technology and we had almost eighty percent he told us that that is our friends were adequately meeting or exceeding their needs and then eighty six percent of our superintendents that year and reported that their districts broadband was sufficient either most or all of the time and that was that was up from earlier years to. So we M.. The Department had codes codes put in place for students and how they were learning in and whether they were learning and then the traditional classroom whether they're at home on the computer or it is some combination and so if you look we looked at the the data and on average and found that sixty six percent as students did most of their learning in the traditional classroom while about a fifth of the students were learning remotely and the for the most of the time. We asked our principles and about how instruction was delivered and and most of them told us that they had teachers who are teaching both in the classroom and virtually at the same time and there are a few that have teachers in the classroom only in a few that have been remote only. We also ask the teachers similar questions and we had eighty percent of the teachers has said that they were teaching both ways yet sixty nine percent said that they had the support and the resources they needed to be effective teachers during the pandemic. this question looks at real time interactions that students or teachers were able to have with their students in this question was asked only to those who were teaching either part or all of the time and virtually and you can see that a lot of that interaction occurred either during the online lessons or during and sessions that may have been scheduled or even and scheduled and there were twelve percent he said now interactions the card. The teachers he taught personally also overwhelmingly responded that they didn't believe their students were learning as well virtually. Well we had seven percent is stated that students learn just as well there were no teachers the test said that students are learning better virtually and we were able to Requested that test score data set that we get that's the individual student level so that and with the coating of how the students for learning and so we and I did some analysis of those scores and as you can see the students to scored higher rates radium and exceeding on this fire and we're in the classroom the hybrid students birth scored it rights just a little bit behind that and then the. Virtual were less and we divided out the categories just to make sure that this wasn't being entry and influenced by free and reduced lunch because we know of the correlations with achievement so we wanted to look in to each of the individual populations so does the math scores and a similar and the patterns were similar for the LA scores that the gaps were an much narrower. And in terms of research on digital learning there was quite a bit of research before co that occurred and It tended to agree that that digital learning was great because it off it did offer more access to more courses for many students who might not be able to have access in their own school building although there were several and studies that found that less learning was retained at the end of the course and when learned virtually only. During the research really reflected a lot what we heard from our superintendents is that there's a growing and gap in learning and it's based on all the indicators are superintendents talked about it's really that access to broadband the having The ability to see use that plus you know the expertise to use that in the home and but. And and then that's true for teachers and for students and there have of course hasn't been any research yet that's post code and I mentioned that there will be lots of cities standing there will probably be some new ways of delivering instruction through this method that will be helpful that will come out of office. And that is the end of this report will be glad to answer questions. We ask questions here we'll start off with the FOR Senomyx. Thank you Mr so on the slide you're showing the schools are offering a few courses look like there were a couple districts that weren't offering a few courses do we know why they weren't offering a few forces in is the department working with them to. Well we know that they were teaching them so that it could be that they were offering and that there were no students to sign up so some of them I know that smaller schools often have a harder time offering AP courses and having them run went that so. So we're pretty positive they were offered in just no students took it or do we need to get resources to the school so that they can offer like they're supposed to. And maybe that's the department that that would be more of a department I can tell you from the date at that there was no enrollment in those courses okay now Mister chairman of the property time I'd be interested in hearing from the Department what the status is on that is. Ballinger. Thank you Mr chair for the foreign language requirement where it says to a does that mean they have to take two years of a state of the same course or they have to take to separate well that's on the list of what's to be offered yeah so and and it is two of two languages you know French one into Spanish one and two so to be offered okay right showed. Isn't there is there a number of years they have to take that course is their first and second year or just take that one does not part of the graduation requirements okay so just take something just offered okay go ahead I'll get back in the queue Mr. Up for the community engagement a standards One of the this is all by rule I was trying to read were quickly ahead in the appendage to see what is it that we're teaching that has that helps us meet that standard. Do you know offhand if I if we're trying to figure out what the set standard what actually is in the literature from the Department I know that the department's develop some programs that I would want to turn that over because of not steady okay despite with the department's to that And for and for the Chart for the charter schools that are not offering AP classes do you know by any sense from the history here if those quite those service same charter schools have ever offered AP classes I would have to look at that okay if you don't you could that would be fine in fact that I would like to know that not just for the charters but for the others as well because I really am curious about why it's not being one there are not being taken even if they're offered. And with the Department comes maybe You can talk to us about this difference between offered an actually taken if indeed school districts are doing anything to help encourage students to take the classes because we know most is not going to step up and say I want something that's more difficult so I'm just curious about that department with document here that said Mr thank you. Representative correct. Thank you Mr Wever here on your right when it comes to concurrent courses is that curriculum come directly from a particular college or higher education. Type. They partner with the institutions so it would depend on institutions courses I do believe there's been some coordination done so that courses can be accepted across that but that's probably more of a to a division of higher education question okay do you know if there's any Monitoring ten to assure that that course taken in high school is is comparable to what they would receive if they took that course in college. I'd let me look into that I'm I'm I want to say that their standards and that it has to be an approved course at a college level but on let me look into that for you thank you. The representative Godfrey. Thank you Mr chair and over here to your left and personal thank you all so much for another great presentation for your responsiveness and that and in between I appreciate your thoroughness and in detail and then all of your reports I wanted to circle back and to that definition of career readiness on page eight I'm because that really kind of caught my eye and no we talk a lot about getting and you know access to lots of different post high school opportunities but I did notice and in one of the slides that talk specifically about career readiness as academic knowledge and to be able to be successful in a first year college course I'm not that really did kind of jumped out to me I I'm glad to see that because I think that we should be equipping students academically as well as some of those additional skills and competencies that crossover and regardless of opportunity but did just want to clarify that was the recommendation I'm from the consultancy in twenty twenty four kind of the newly revised definition of career readiness and that it does include. The ability for students to be successful in a first year college course even if they choose not to go to college. The definition that's in there was word for word from the consultants great thank you. Representative fight. Thank you Mr chair back in twenty thirteen we had a bill adding American Sign Language for foreign language credits I just wondered how that is going if it's being used in very many schools. I have not looked at that specifically but I'll be glad to look into thank you. Senator Chesterville. Thank you Mr chairman to is on college and career readiness on page eight it says demonstrated capability such as communication critical thinking collaborative problem solving time and time management and information technology skills and the second bullet says develop behavioral skills and dispositions such as dependability perseverance working effectively with others adapting in managing stress how does one measure that. Again this is APA's recommendations and so this is more for discussion on wait we're not here to answer their questions okay so this is from the report right that's what I have yeah we instituted any of this and we're looking at what we may do next time what what what is that we've been asked to review their recommendations and this was one of their recommendations that would be interesting to know how one translates that into. Actually observing and determining whether or not the objective has been met would you agree I'll agree with that all right thank you. All right let's move on to do to. Okay now we will okay Bosch's get that we're going next will be career technical education. It should be it's D. chair and seventy two. So the review and analysis of career and technical education is not explicitly required as part of the biennial adequacy study however this report and has been prepared in response to the edge Education Committee is request but it's also worth noting that the adequacy definition does make references to I'm current technical education as you can see there I'm and I did add it identifies the standards included in the state's curriculum and career technical frameworks and which define what Arkansas students are to be taught including the specific grade level curriculum and the mandatory thirty eight units of credits are part or part of the basis for identifying what resources are required to achieve adequate funding in K. twelve schools and part of that thirty eight AM hours as curriculum includes six career and technical education I will get into what those requirements are exactly here in just a little while. So Arkansas statute requires a rigorous CTV program of study that link secondary and post secondary education combining academic and technical education in a structured sequence of courses to be offered and it should it permits the awarding of post secondary credits that ultimately lead to a credential. It further and defines you know of what a program of study it is and that means that it begins with the expiration of career options it supports the basic academic and life skills it supports basic academic and life skills and enables the achievement of high academic standards leadership high skill high wage employment preparation and advance continuing education. So because current technical education is rooted in the mission of preparing students for future careers we wanted to provide information on the current landscape of education attainment and employment in Arkansas in here this table shows this is actually developed by the Arkansas division or work for services and it provides the top ten occupations in Arkansas based on the projected number of annual job openings I'm in these occupations are that are shown are provided by the levels of education that are typically needed so I'll give you just a second to look at that. So now get into the discussion CT oversights so the statute says the general control and supervision of all programs of vocational technical and occupational education in secondary education education excuse me secondary institutions is the authority responsibility at the state board of education and the Division of career and technical education. And I'm the Division current technical education has several responsibilities but here are some of that so they adopt rules governing CTE programs prescribed academic standards for the programs and for teachers they approved programs of studies the courses and courses that districts can offer based on federal requirements and state requirements and they insure CT instructors are appropriately licensed and permitted. And they receive and distribute federal and state funds intended to support CTP and secondary schools. So this was not duly talk just talked about in her presentation but specifically for C. T. the DCC E. says that to me Arkansas stares for Accreditation regarding CT school districts are required to provide all students in grades five through eight instruction and through the courses of keyboarding or key code. And career development so they have to have either the keyboarding key code and career development it's additionally issued is required to have a student success plan on file by the end of eighth grade and I won't go into all the details at the student's success plan because Elizabeth will go into a lot more detail in June whenever she gets her gives her next presentation but that is a requirements and then for grades nine through twelve you can see that as part of the thirty eight units of instruction there are nine of those have to be sequence career technical education courses and representing three occupational areas so and those have to fall within one of those five occupational areas that you see there. So in terms of C. T. E. finding I'm the matrix is not provide a dollar amount specifically for C. T. E. am however districts can and do use their foundation funding to provide career technical education instruction but there are and several other sources of funding made available for current technical education and those main sources are listed here in court includes the I'm Carl D. Perkins federal severance the state started grants secondary technical center state funding and then there are a few other smaller state grants for special programming and such as the Arkansas career coach program and the jobs for Arkansas graduates program. So we'll dig a little deeper into some of these funding sources so here you see the total funding that was provided for and Perkins in twenty twenty one and only seats in and to clarify that that total funding includes at funding for post secondary and higher education so not all of this went to secondary education I am three point eight million went to secondary schools and twenty twenty one so I only see TV programs of study or modified program's approved by the C. T. E. are eligible for Perkins funding and those funds are used to improve the CTE programs and services for students enrolled in those programs and and there's some other uses that are outlined in the Perkins and five plan that that they can use that funding for eighty five percent of the funds are distributed to local recipients with the father split between secondary and post secondary education so you can see there that postsecondary get seventy five percent and then at excuse me secondary get seventy five percent and then postsecondary gets twenty five percent. And there is a formula used for that distribution and what that is a seventy percent is based on the number of persons aged five to seventeen there was not an easy district from families with incomes below the poverty line and in the other thirty percent is based on the number of persons aged five to seventeen that reside in each district or on the actual K. twelve enrollment in district as reported to the national center for education statistics. So is the and again again and I said earlier that school districts received close to three point eight million and twenty twenty one. So process started grants annually so those grants are provided on a competitive basis tourist assess was start up expenses Avenue program of study and these awards are exclusively exclusively for Adam career technical education program equipments are required training supplies assessment and software and to support the newly approved at programs of study you see here that for twenty twenty one there is almost two point five million dollars in funding made available and here you see that the factors used for determining include the funding that's available state priority labor and market data and evaluation review of application and rubric. In twenty twenty one numbers two point four million dollars was awarded and two fifty nine schools for the start up of thirty five new programs of study in this table here shows what programs of study received over and received a hundred thousand dollars or more in total funding but if you want to see a full list of all of the awards that were provided in twenty twenty one and those are in the appendix of the report. Then for secondary technical centers and funding to support these centers is determined by DCT in consultation with the office of skills development and is ultimately approved by the state board of education and these are centers are established to serve high school students from several school districts in different locations so they're typically sponsored by high schools are two year colleges and their services are needed they show that their services are needed to support economic industrial and employment development efforts and here and you will see that there was a little over nineteen million dollars in funding and out of that nineteen a little over nineteen million in funding sixteen point seven million was actually spent in twenty twenty one I'm from vocational center and aid to the secondary technicals centers. So now we'll start talking about the programs of study. So to have a new city program of study approved those obviously go through the dirt thirty CT and their review using multiple factors and that includes you market inclusion the state standards local industry needs and those applications to implement new programs of study are reviewed by content area personnel within and the Department of Education with heavy input from industry leadership and secondary and post secondary partners. In addition to everything is listed there and programs a settlement offer a credentialing opportunity to the students from the state's list of approved credentials which is driven which is also driven by business and industry. So it's easy programs the ones they're already approved there also reviewed annually to ensure that their meeting that Perkins five definition of a program and study to ensure that their meeting all the policies and procedures are outlined by D. C. T. E. um and that they were are all following all of the required guidelines. So Arkansas city programs of study are offered in sixteen career cluster areas that fall under those five occupational areas that were and mentioned earlier and you can see those here on the side it's the architect that agricultural science and technology down to the trade and industry and so sixteen clusters aligned under those five occupational areas and I'm dizzy II defines a career cluster as a grouping of occupations and brought industries into a national classification of sixteen clusters that are based upon common knowledge and skills. And there are in twenty twenty one there were sixty programs of study offered and. By M. Arkansas schools. And there are over three hundred DCT improved industry recognized credentials. So here's a further break down as regency the you see the five occupational areas list across the sixteen clusters there always to those below and then in parentheses is the number of programs that were offered in twenty twenty one for each of those career cluster areas and Justin out there are four career cluster areas that fall under more than one occupational area. And that's kinda small on this act was kind of small too but there there's bigger versions in your report. And. This table provides information on the actual programs offered by career cluster and it Page eight of your report has this it's much bigger and easier to read but that provides a breakdown of the actual and programs of study that what they're offered for each of the career the sixteen career clusters. So in terms of easy to labor in person now schools we do not offer required programming study on their campus may utilize other public schools secondary technical center's or post secondary institutions to meet the requirements and but of course this has to be approved by the C. T. E. I'm also city teachers lost hers are submitted through the office of education educator licensure and those teachers that are providing the instruction secondary technical centers they must have a minimum of an associate's degree within the area of instruction completed all background checks and have been all of the college accrediting standards for instructors. So now we'll talk about CTE courses so what is required to offered three different CTP programs which include nine unit units of sequence courses students are not required to take career technical education courses the graduation requirements and is for six hours add career focus or additional content credits but these credits can be filled by courses that are not considered career technical education and twenty twenty one there were a hundred and fifty two non CTE courses that are eligible to fill the career focused graduation requirements and the number of city courses are offered by districts across the strait very widely I'm in twenty twenty one two hundred and fifty of the state's two hundred and fifty eight public school districts and open enrollment charters and taught one or more CTE courses. So in terms of concurrent credit there Arkansas current at credit career technical education courses made available to students in fact forty eight percent of the CTE courses offered in twenty twenty one work concurrent credit courses Adam and Julie mentioned this earlier that and Act four fifty six of twenty nineteen provided funding for concurrent credit expenses for eligible students and that includes crypt those career and technical education concurrent credit courses. They also offer weighted credit courses and and these are those that and they receive the same credit as they would for an AP course and under Act six thirty two of twenty nineteen does in collaboration with the C. T. E. may approve a course for weighted credit if the course exceeds the curriculum standards for non weighted course and leads to an improved industry recognized credential. And twenty twenty case agriculture was the first course waited waited credit course approved under this act but here in just a minute I will provide numbers you'll see that there's been quite a few quite a few more weight courses created since then. There's also what's called work work based learning and this is a nationally recognized and well it's harm and for all work based opportunities and and this includes industry focused experiences that provide an opportunity for students to experience and explore engage in the learning and skills necessary to prepare them for the future work force and this these can be experiences that are in the classroom or outside of the classroom but the Perkins five federal different definition is is sustained enter sustained interactions with industry or community professionals in the real workplace settings to the extent practicable or simulated environments an educational institution the foster in that first engagement with the task required in a given career field that are aligned to the curriculum and instruction. And so according to the C. T. E. the courses that are available and that meet that federal definition our career practicum internships and those can be paid or unpaid and then pre apprenticeship courses. And there are there are lots of rules that are outlining into all of those that are defined by the C. T. E. that as far as students participating in these different types of courses to ensure their supervision you know whenever they're outside of the classroom. So this table shows the total number of CTE courses by course type in twenty twenty one there were offered I mean excuse me that were taught as well as the total enrollment in the number of districts and open enrollment park charter schools in which they were talked. And there were four hundred and fifty seven to state CTE courses that are taught across the state in twenty twenty one and just to know that an appendix either is a map showing CTE courses taught by district across the state. So you can see where for the most the majority or being taught. So now I will discuss the T. E. students. So do you see that identifies a student go seen here in the states part Perkins plan and students are caught and so easy cities that will complete their city program with the most competitive academic technical and employability skills for future success they will have a individual career plan and accomplish the goals goals within that plan is mentioned earlier and they they had actually fifth bill this through the completion of that student success plan that they must have on file by the end of their eighth grade year. they have to develop or they will develop rather and apply personal competencies competencies and soft skills that promote learning and success in college career and life and then one year after graduation each CTE student will be actively engaged in college further career preparation military service and or competitive employment. So this I agree here provides definitions for the different terms used for CTE students so I protest and is a student who has come complete at least one CTE courses there per programs of study a concentrator has completed two of those courses. and then a complete is a student who has completed at least three courses of study in a single program and although industry recognized because certifications are an expected expectation completing your program of study a student does not have to actually earn an industry recognized credential in order to be counted as a complete So here you see the total number of C. T. participants concentrators and complainers in twenty twenty one and so these are out of each other user subset so in twenty twenty one there was a hundred and a little over a hundred thirteen thousand participants added those there were over forty three thousand concentrators and then out of those there were a little over eighteen thousand students there who work at you were complete or stay here. Next Zaid's provide and some different demographic information so while males are am I a little bit higher percentage it's it's it's not too much is pretty split as far as E. T. E. participants and these are just participants is that it's not concentrator complainers as far as race and ethnicity you can see that right down here and and this is very similar to our over overall student population characteristics. This first initial designations Adam English learners making about six point two percent of CTE participants and then you can see is the students with disabilities and then economically disadvantaged and that is defined in terms of the Perkins five languages students meeting that free and reduced reduced lunch This table shows the number of concentrators by career cluster and just a reminder that contractors a student has completed at least two courses and a CTE program of study and so agriculture food and natural resources had the most or the that the highest number of concentrators and this in twenty twenty one with the manufacturing have and the lowest number of concentrators. So as a component of its requirements under the federal Perkins Act easy to EMS report better to the federal government measures of student performance in career technical education and here and you see a table at seven those performance measures and for each of these performance metrics there are definitions that are provided in the appendix of your report they're pretty detailed and but for each of these metrics for all excuse me for all of the performance targets and twenty twenty one they were all met with the exception of postsecondary credentials but according to the city in twenty twenty one that the rather trade twenty one was the first year the state it was am able to be collected. And and they believe that because that that is probably an under estimate of the number of students that have actually obtain postsecondary credentials and although it says postsecondary credentials it's not it's it's more it's actually it's not credential they've earned in post secondary it's that is industry recognized credentials and post secondary placement doesn't just include going to college and the definitions again or in the back but it could include things like going into the military actually being employed job corps and there's there's several that are listed there. So in terms of the T. expenditures just a note that calculating city expenditures K. twelve the city centers in Arkansas can be somewhat difficult to attain because he T. E. instruction is provided in a variety of ways such as one school district and pay another school district for city instruction they can pay the secondary technical centers for instruction but despite these issues this report attempts to document the total as he Teague expenditures using data this recorded in the Arkansas Public School Computer network. So this shows that that were close to a hundred and twenty four million was spent on TTP and as previously explained the reason why there's on any color at the top is because whenever we did our expenditure reports and in the past I don't remember exactly what month that was anymore but I'm we wanted to show the finding foundation funding in the top bar and so it had a collar that CT doesn't receive validation finding so that's the reason why there's no color that's just showing the total spending and then below that you see where the fund source came from so seventy seven percent of CT expenditures were actually from foundation finds. And then you can see where the rest of the funding came from. This table shows and that the vast majority of CT expenditures during twenty twenty one was for teachers grades one through twelve and you can see the rest of those expenditure categories. And the next you slice of the twenty one instructional expenditures by occupational areas so for those instructional expenditures what were the subject areas in which those were taught in here you can see the largest instructional expenditure will work for business and office occupations and you can see maybe and tiny parentheses that includes information tech fundamentals what they refer to is mad which is a mobile applications development and East initiatives which stands for environmental and spatial technology. And and agriculture was next and you can you can see is that we I included the definitions that are directly from the financial accounting manual so you can see what all the that those are supposed to be preparing students for. And then again Julie mentioned that there was an eighty a recommendation for and that this station Dr career readiness definition that includes four academic knowledge and skills capabilities behavior skills and dispositions and post secondary preparation and planning I'm not I'm not gonna read that entire definition again or I didn't I didn't provided in the slides because you have it and the formal presentation but did since this was a C. T. E. report wanted to bring that up again and with that I'll open the floor to questions. Senator just fill thank you Mr chairman looking on page thirteen. And at the slide we're talk about the clusters. And in that cluster is education and training. Are we talking about I need to know if that is referring to those would go into the education profession. Or not. Is there a place in here so we can begin to train teachers. Or is this something totally different we say education and training I don't want to miss speak so I would if I would be happy to get back to you are exactly what the definition of that it is because I am concerned because as defined in those areas of high need Hammer I think educational to be one of those because we have a teacher shortage constantly so that's why I'm trying to get to this and I would appreciate if you have any offense the department could answer thank you so much thank you Mr. See our beloved Senator hammers as. Thank you Mr chair on on our page fourteen we're talking about the expenditure category. Teachers grades one through twelve is right at a hundred. Hundred four million. Is. Is is that first grade through twelfth my understanding that correctly yes Sir. And this is related CT expenses right. That's correct so that's that's the overall is a the way that that that the system it's basically a tag that's down in the system that you need any expenditures for grades one through twelve it gets tagged as teachers grades for one through twelve that could very well be broken down further to shadow. You know that. The vast majority I don't know but it. It does just a tag is not necessarily saying that there was a lot of that expenditure being completed in kindergarten if that makes sense just wondering but does does that imply that there's actually that there's money being allocated to C. T. E. education assigned to a first grade teacher. I would have to go back and I can this aggregate that and provide that information for you I'd like to get that if you don't mind Alexios broken out because I'm I'm trying to rationalize why CT CT funds would be assigned to a first grade teacher second grade teacher maybe there's a perfectly logical explanation but. She's absolutely okay thank you thank you Mr every first grader was to be a fireman or a policeman or something so there you go. All right the that's all questions so we can move along if you already. Are you ready okay so our last report for today concerns waivers and these are waivers from Arkansas's education related laws and rules. So we will do an overview and look at the presence of waivers in other states we'll talk about this waiver pathways in Arkansas so these are the ways that schools can apply for waivers and then we'll do a quick look at waivers and some expenditures and that will come bring us to the end. So waivers have been in use in Arkansas since the early two thousands the first law introducing waivers was in nineteen ninety five and it was the provision that allowed for conversion charter schools in these are schools within regular districts that can apply for waivers to introduce innovation and help improve student achievement in their schools so by nineteen ninety nine there had not actually been any traditional schools that applied for waivers so there is a law passed then allowing for open enrollment public charter school waivers and this allowed a nonprofit groups or orders institutions of higher education to open a charter school that was not tied to geographic area. So. In that first decade of the two thousand see saw growth both of those open enrollment charter schools in conversion charter schools then in twenty thirteen there was another opportunity by which schools could could obtain waivers and again it was to be innovative and in fact it was for districts or schools of innovation and these were somewhat similar to the conversion charter schools the planning process is a little bit different and although the planning time was about the same then in twenty fifteen ACT twelve forties waivers were introduced and these were waivers that allowed a school district that had lost a student to a charter school and open enrollment charter school to then apply for the same waivers that that open enrollment charter school was operating under and then the final expansion of waivers by law was in twenty nineteen and this was ACT eight fifteen and it said that in not only will it just expanded the capabilities so that we're and at twelve forty as students at district had to lose students to a charter school at twelve forty said any district can apply for any waiver that any charter school in Arkansas is operating and or. Then there was that we'll talk about one more pathway that is sort of a sub pathway in this here for and digital learning programs so between all of those in twenty twenty one schools were operating and or a total of eleven thousand four hundred and twenty seven waivers there were eight hundred thirteen schools that were operating and or at least one waiver and they were located in a hundred and twenty nine hundred ninety five of the two hundred thirty five districts and then of course all charters because by definition that's how charters are created. the school is enrolled seventy eight percent of Arkansas students. And waivers as jasmine said about CT is not one of the reports that the adequacy study statute calls for this is I think the third biennium we've been asked to present the report and as you can see from the matrix the waivers to touch on a number of the areas that are funded through the matrix. When we look at other states and we looked at our comparison states again that reviews throughout the report we find that there are not many states that offer waivers to the wide variety of bylaws and rules that Arkansas does and Tennessee and Texas and Kentucky are and the ones that come closest to operating the way we do in terms of waivers. there were about forty three states that do give waivers for charter schools and then they're also quite a few states that offers and waiver specifically for schools of innovation. There are also some waivers out there first print things like the school year or friend mandated class sizes. And then of their number of states that do like Arkansas an offer individuals waivers who are teaching in an area that they're not certified for Adrian touched on these waivers and her last reports that they are not included in this report. So now we'll take a quick look at each of the waiver pathways and in the history report that is in your binder and that'll is business talked about I think back in January there is a complete history of the waiver so we're won't go quite into as much detail as you can find in there if you like it. But we're gonna talk about the five pathways that I named in the introductions of the conversion charters public open enrollment charters schools of innovation which could also be districts of innovation but in Arkansas we tend that schools of innovation and the ACT twelve forty waivers which expanded with that ACT eight fifteen and then the digital learning program waivers. So we'll talk about public open enrollment charters first since they were the first to actually be on the scene any can see in the last five years and we have heard around forty eight to fifty four individual schools these now tend to operate within charter systems so we have twenty three charter systems and that excludes the excel center which is a charter and designed for adults. And those charter systems operated under an average of sixty five waivers of peace that in twenty twenty one and the most common waivers for open enrollment charter schools and that you're related to laws and rules governing teacher salary licensure employing a full time superintendent employing a library media specialist employing a counselor in offering alternative learning environment programs. Looking at them it's even scores between charters and or the open enrollment charter schools and all other schools you can see that there's not huge difference among scores and on entitled students and charter scored slightly higher on a LA and however among free metes lunch students that was slightly lower. And in math scores students and open enrollment charters tended to score slightly lower than other schools. Senate so talk about district conversion charters unlike open enrollment public charter schools that I mentioned do not are not tied to direct the geographic area so they do not have a millage base to support them these goals are within districts and they operate using the same millage rate that that the district as their end as They and submit their applications to the charter authorizing panel just like open enrollment public charter schools and during twenty twenty one school year there were twenty nine of the schools and operating and an average twenty three waivers if he's and the most common waivers for this group of schools was again from teacher salary in license or but also from class size in teaching leads. And here is what the patterns look like in terms of ACT aspire scores for a LA you can see that students in these charters tended to score slightly higher. In LA but slightly lower in math. Next we'll talk about schools of innovation which been around and cents they were created by Act six a one in twenty thirteen There is no cap on the number of the schools that are allowed and they are to and meeting certain goals that had to do with improving achievement in closing achievement gaps. The there were thirty two schools operating under this type of waiver and twenty twenty one and they on average had eight waivers of fees and these waivers we're again right related mostly to the rules governing teacher salary licensure and also instructional day in school calendar. And again the achievement M. levels for those students in those schools versus other schools. Let me get to act twelve forty waivers and this was the law in twenty fifteen that allowed the district a pipe for whatever waiver at charter had that they had lost a student to M. and that again was expanded in twenty nineteen although that's not the reason for the spike in the number at when you get to twenty nineteen there were there was a lot of districts he came asking for a waiver from specific law that year that had to do with the school calendar and that was because the way the calendar well for several years in a row and it made it difficult to start around that August nineteenth start date that was mandated in law and get in all the testing before winter break and so there were quite a few that only had that waiver and that's why you see that drop off in twenty twenty one because the Calendared started resolving itself and then if you remember there been some recent legislation that change that start date so and will probably not see be seeing those type of waivers and however you still had two hundred fifty eight schools operating under an average of ten waivers and peas and again it was T. M. mostly waivers dealing with the teacher licensure and teacher salary but these also included waivers from library media specialist and school counselors. And again achievement patterns fairly similar there's not tons of difference between how the students and the schools of these waivers performed in other schools. But they're slightly less investment and LA. Then the latest on the scene with the digital learning programs pathway and this is sort of a pre packaged almost group of those ACT twelve forty waivers in response to code says school districts who came in and the Department ari dignified waivers they would need to be able to operate it in a digital environment and not run afoul of any of the laws or rules so and these are granted to schools that were already in existence not in the schools and the ones that I've seen there ballot three to twenty twenty four at the latest. The M. there are quite a few six hundred eleven schools and a hundred sixty one districts operating with these waivers and twenty twenty one but not all of them obviously we're we're a fully digital for the year the waivers that were most common for these were from class size instructional day recess in attendance at things that would be associated with having students on campus. Any can see the scores between students and the schools and students and schools about these waivers there is an the difference is almost negligible. That's. And same for math. We also wanted to look at expenditures because we did notice of when we were doing this been there just for a report that a lot of times schools with waivers tended to have lower expenditures and so I looked at three specific positions that I could trace the expenditure data down to and so first I looked at principles and and these were school districts that had had waivers related to principles related to contracts or licensure and with the expectation that the expenditures maybe less of the schools but that's not what I found and the schools with these waivers tended to spend more on their principles and schools without the waivers and however when it comes to positions like counselors and school nurses while there are still expenditures at the schools with waivers they are and less than what you see at schools that do not have waivers from those positions. Then finally we've and this is just looking at the average number of waivers by school and using our B. R. L. R. categories and so no surprise be that there's a difference between charters and districts or the schools within that as an otherwise there's not a real distinct patterns and the schools that are in the smaller range do tend to be charter systems so that may explain that difference and then there again no discernible patterns beyond that. I am looking by region the average number of waivers the lower delta tended to have more on average while southwest had the fewest at seven. And I'll be glad to answer any questions. Representative makes. Thank you Mr chairman I'm a straw for the common it'll get into my question of the thing that kind of jumped out to me the most was waiver no waiver in both math and ESL only fifty percent of our students are scoring proficient and that's failing and I don't know how we fix that but that that was a great concern my my question that I have for you. On the wavers. We all kind of the and and this may be a department question keep track of. When I think you said you did but the waivers that are very common very popular waivers for example if eighty percent of the schools are asking for a waiver from low XYZ that's probably a flag that we need to change law XYZ do you all noticed those kind of patterns or that more department question. We we and I'm mentions going through here some of the more common way right at it some of that can be a little deceiving and that when like the specially around teacher licensure or there are a lot of laws and rules regarding that CA to get a waiver from quite a few laws right with that and but the start date waiver was probably another example where there were a lot of freight for request from a very specific right off that eventually resolved it's on and I heard you to and so there's a lot of waivers from like classroom sizes I mean is that a law that maybe we need to explore further or maybe expound on and that's kinda what I'm asking everyone saying we need a waiver from this that's of yeah I I can provide the data but that's really a decision that is up to o'clock right right right right I just wonder if you saw that you know eighty percent are here then obviously we need to we need to address that not not use specific are thank you. Senate about. Thank you chair the. On Page ten twelve the I have a bingo slide twenty six was talking about the Principal per pupil per pupil expenditure waivers are you seeing that a lot of these charter schools are utilizing principles in place superintendents. I would have to look more closely at that. I'm not I have not looked at that. Okay because you also have a lot of these charter schools using the Waivers for superintendents as well correct. The an. Yes I think that was the open enrollment the Federal Intersil's. And I do it they are bearing structures among charter schools so that may be why they apply for the waiver because they don't and then some of the superintendent rules that are for waivers or From the. And reporting to the school board and I mean they're at that it's not simply just from having a superintendent as other law rules and laws around being a superintendent what I was. Hello what I was curious is is if that. Waiver verses no waiver you you show that the principal per pupil expenditure with no waivers is roughly two hundred ninety four dollars with laypersons three twelve and you expected it to be lower with waivers what I was curious is is of those waivers allowed that principle to do more than what we typically consider. Or what a principle that would be allowed to do with no way for. So if if their job description change dramatically and it took more of a superintendent role than. You could expect higher pay is that we do that can be okay because I'll be interested to see that if the if they. That was the case thank you. Can I have the selected apartment I think of represent makes as a question and in the anybody special you will. Or anybody so anybody up here. Okay I'm a go of. look for both coming. Two. President makes you're recognized when they're ready thank thank you Mr chairman thank god it would just fall to my question earlier about the school districts that either they didn't have AP classes are no students and just wondered if it was that you know if if it was the students before taking it and if why you know why not students were white students were not taking them or were they just not offering AP classes in those districts. I guess I have a favor at Division of elementary and secondary education a representative makes I would want to go back and try to look at some specific examples but and what I do know about our seniors for Accreditation system is it reads our course codes and and we have a set of business rule so it's going to look for four different AP courses being offered in a school and so if those courses are being offered then it's going to show that the districts are meeting that requirement of having a P. we don't know of any districts that had any kind of a waiver from offering now now it could be that some of those course codes or course labels could have been like label as an honors course or a and International Baccalaureate or and something else and so we would want to get the list and from BLR and see which districts those are they going to look a little bit more deeply at that just follow up on our all right thank you appreciate thank you Mr. Johnny keep part of education just to follow up. Even in those districts that may not be showing for a P. they there the students may still be getting access to that higher level of work through concurrent credit that something that you know it doesn't replace Advanced Placement that that's been some push pull through the years that some districts have asked can't we just forgo A. P. with concurrent credit we've always taken the position no you can't because the statutes very clear but that that is something that we would want to follow that would be something that is part of the follow up that we would check and make sure of that to the students to have access somehow to advance coursework. Manager your question why is. It's not it's not it's for. Okay you're free. Okay all women women women he checked in late over here. Resent eleven thank you Mr I just a observation so I'm over the last five six seven years we as a state have put a tremendous amount of effort. Resources and I do believe we can cheer on the successes that we have shown in career and tech education I know that's a huge platform issue percent English spent some model amount of time working a workforce development and we're seeing the successes of that. Coincidentally by data that was shown on one of the one of the slides over that same time period. According to A. C. T. our senior reading readiness for college has dropped it almost the same one percent per year as we have increased our workforce development through career tech readiness so would you say that by ACT standards were being counterproductive. No I'm not sure that that that there's a causation issue there I'm I'm I would say that there's not I think we have a reading issue I think a reading issues is has been addressed by this body and certainly been addressed by the Department and being addressed at the district level that the those results or something you're seeing in a pattern of that that is really not connected in any way that I think to the of refocusing on CT actually if you look at our career coaching program which is definitely something we think is an important part of the C. T. E. overall you see the opposite UC students that are scoring higher with ACT they're they're having higher levels of graduation rate number of the indicators that we've seen there in students up to stay in the group coaching program which is why we asked you all to help us expand that in the last session but if we're putting more emphasis on career and tech which I'd agree that we should. Are we steering students more away and into the mindset that maybe the ACT is not as important to them because they're not going to go to higher ed they're gonna going to workforce and so the efforts on that holy day of the ACT test is maybe really not. They're not putting forth as may be the same amount of effort there for those read those scores on ACT of dropped but yet our students really are more prepared for what we needed to be prepared for. He said so one thing I think we would also want to look at is that and I can't remember the year but since about twenty fifteen we've increased access to the number of students taking the ACT Arkansas was when the very first since the states for all students to start taking the ACT and so we did see a change in scores when we started having all of our students take that and I think the the really exciting part though is that we now have the work he's assessment as a complement to the ACT and we know that the work he's assessment is also and measuring those workplace skills that the type of reading the top of technical math the type of riding that are going to be more and more and practiced in directly in the workplace and we I got to be a young lady AT and Little Rock and southwest high school who has already scored two platinum Senate gold which is very very high scores on that work he's assessment is going to be the assessment that employers are going to look at even before an ACT she also has done well on her ACT aspire is getting ready to take the ACT so I would I would say that these things don't need to be mutually exclusive that we want students to be prepared no matter what their next step is so I think we will look at all of that but I would I would want to look closely at the decline in scores to see kind of it if it also as a result of just when she had more students taking that and and the more prepared we can make them by offering rigorous course works to all students at the better they're going to be. All represented Godfrey I will go to her. Thank you Mr thank you all so much I just wanna and can I speak about and score draw circle back to rice and and just those scores that we saw in twenty twenty one and when it a drop we saw I think we all understand why under are disappointed to see that but also certainly empathetic to wipe we had students to an you know just had so many challenges and during the pandemic as to teachers and schools I'm wondering if you anticipate now that and we would address some of those challenges if you anticipate that growth being study or dramatic or maybe still taking awhile because of other challenges that have kind of compounded because of Covin or what we can expect to see because I think you know maybe the silver lining and having such a drop is that we should be able to see it grow pretty dramatically if if it you know is in that's what is gonna happen because of rise and so I just wonder if you have any insights a based on what you're hearing from schools and based on what we're seeing initially and maybe in that state I know that if they see to that we use for that back and just what we can maybe expect moving forward from kind of that drop into the next couple years. Thank you I think we will see an increase now the question of whether it will be dramatic I think will. That will vary from district to district I think you have the potential for some districts some buildings to see very dramatic increases I think even within buildings and a district you're going to see variations really it's about you know what has that what what is that. Engine instructional team whatever they created as far as the our resources in the supports for students based on what those students need coming out of the pandemic so at I would love to save it we will see huge increases across the board across all state I don't think that that's realistic of an expectation for us. And I think two things that and that at that I think are going to be a critical so we know we have been able to re engage the training aspect for teachers because during co that there were trainings that are face to face that but just couldn't happen so we were behind on the training and that has been able to be re implemented in and so I would expect from that teacher training that's going to that's going to increase the likelihood of and student performance increases also our team has been doing training for superintendents around rise what should it what should you be looking for how do you know that and teachers are and implementing these practices and implementing them to the level they need what support is your to your principles need to be able to be in classrooms and to be able to help support teachers that combined with the preparation and you know one of our great challenges is that right now we have a lot of teachers in classrooms who have not been able to have their full preparation prior to being in the classroom so they're learning as they go and so they're having to get that training and all of these other things at the same time so and the more quickly we can have well prepared educators and classrooms which is why I was like Senator Chesterfield asked about that and CTE pathway those courses are the early career preparation for students even in high school or current para pros to get those nine hours at the intro to add coursework which will greatly accelerate that time when we once again have well prepared teachers in front of every kid in every classroom and that's that's where we're going to see the difference perfect thank you for sharing that spring to actually just had several and pear procumbent I saw that on there and social media thank you for your work there and and I would just say in a thank you for your candor and letting us know what we can expect and I think regardless we don't see the dramatic growth that were had. Thanks for I agree with the Secretary key that will be able to see success stories if isolated and can learn from from those practices and replicate them so thank you. Senator Hammer. Thank you Mr would you just drill down a little bit when you use the term well prepared teachers. As opposed to how teachers are prepared now is that that well prepared teacher comment directly related to the COVID time that we've gone through or could you expand what you mean by that please and what I'm referring to are teachers who have actually been in some type of preparation program before they enter the classroom which is why our teacher residency model is so crucial we're creating a pathway for and people who have not yet and earned a bachelor's degree to actually get on the job training while there earning before they're in the classroom on their own we have more and more teachers now who can three a and not even a nontraditional pathway who are just coming to the profession on a wafer and I don't have any type of formal training so that that has been a concern to us and that also exacerbates when there are issues in schools so that's something we're looking to mitigate as quickly as possible okay thank you. Thank you commissioner key and a. Okay you come back to we we have one more question. I'm turned off three times so we got it back okay. But if nothing else I'm persistent. And believe me it's taken that today As the you are given the report is on the this this last report on waivers and it seems to be the case with some of the other reports. What what I some miles from it is I understatement was right now is that. We have waivers we don't have waivers and pretty much everything is turning out pretty close to the same kind of results and I was trying to think back through the other reports and I know the same things seem to be true through some of the other reports but some of them were they did have big differences. And so my my question kind of comes from the beginning of of representative makes about whether we have this I have that will get in the same. Counter results when would you. I have time to take a look back at some of the other reports and see if that kind of scene is true what which ones that kind of the same is true throughout the reports we've been having would that be too onerous to do well actually when we M. president the achievement report inching we are doing a lot of the slicing and dicing and and of us patterns. Okay you'll be able to see some of those all right thank my classes I think that I think of that does not answer questions will be glad to look at it in anywhere you want to but we're taking some. Different looks of and comparing scores among the greats and largely through our does categories of schools that we use to compare with so so I think that make it to some of what you're wanting to see okay and and that would be helpful and rather than as a department education as questions it's just something I think we ought to be thinking about over these last you know twenty twenty five years we've been grappling with adequacy and not in many cases even achieve adequacy so I think it's time for us to ask ourselves the question and we're not getting what we want what we are trying to get do we need to be looking at what we are doing and at some point how do we do it in a way that we have teachers with the department of education we have everybody I believe doing everything they can do to commemorate give us good reports but to me the big question I want us to think about is as I ask you a speed for if these folks would do when in the educational arena and stiff because nobody wants to be a failure nobody wants kids to fail they weren't all that they are doing and I know we're supposed to read we express advocacy what are the outside factors of having some effect and I know you're gonna be talking we that's one of the things that the that was recommended to us for us to take a look at that I think that is the most serious thing we can do because there is no such thing as follows continue to come up here I have to tell us we're working hard we're working hard working hard when it comes to all of the policies that we make outside of education we don't connect them to education when we make when we pass laws we just passed in isolation so I'm hoping that will make a difference at some point thank you so much thank you Mr chair. All right thank you ladies for your reports today anything else anything else. All right so come back tomorrow for a action packed day at nine o'clock in the morning and we have It will be more more to do to we will longer day if we have the full reports and I was nodding because I was agreeing that tomorrow we will talk about that recommendation for the task force and that were as you can see we're trying to get through this quickly so we're doing good the district thank you thank you of thanks for body stay in today the state involved and I just missed out so we'll see all more we are adjourned.