Leadership, Professional Development, and School Transformation Action Item

DATE:	Tuesday, October 15, 2019
TO:	School Board Members
FROM:	Jeff Eakins, Superintendent
SUBJECT / RECOMMENDATIONS
Approve the Agreement for Technical Services #19190-ATS-IV with Learning Sciences International (LSI) (Leadership, Professional Development, and School Transformation)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
LSI will work with Broward Elementary, Miles Elementary, and Tampa Heights Elementary to build each school’s capacity to plan and deliver rigorous, standards-based lessons, implement powerful classroom strategies to increase rigor, empower students to engage in cognitively complex learning, and use real-time formative assessment data to strengthen instruction. The LSI team will provide weekly executive coaching for principals to establish strong systemic conditions supportive of rigorous teaching and learning. LSI will provide on-site targeted professional development and weekly coaching for teachers in the following areas:  core actions to achieve the standards, standards based alignment of learning targets and tasks, teacher verification and feedback to students on attainment of learning targets, effective functioning of Professional Learning Communities (PLC) focused on student evidence of learning, student ownership of the learning process, cognitive engagement in rigorous tasks, and teamwork development of new economy skills for the 21st century. Coaching provided will strengthen PLCs that are focused on student centered learning and provide tools to measure growth throughout the school year using LSI's Trend Tracker, Growth Tracker, and Standards Tracker. The LSI team will support development of principal supervisors and area teams to sustain school improvement efforts and take learning to scale across many schools.
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
• Improve the high school graduation rate • Provide a student-centered learning environment that engages every child
FINANCIAL IMPACT (Budgeted:  Yes)
Funds in the amount of $675,000 will be available in the Title IV grant. For tracking purposes, the project number specific to this agenda item is 3743.
EVALUATION
William D. Moseley Elementary School in Putnam County, Florida, serves a transient and diverse student population, with 100 percent of students receiving free and reduced meals. Most students come in with skill deficiencies, and 25 percent receive special education services. Moseley was a historically low-performing school, that wavered between “D” and “F” school grades for nine years. In the 2016/2017 school year, Moseley was the fifth lowest performing traditional public school in Florida. After one year of hard work and partnership with LSI, Moseley was able to rise from a low “F” letter grade to a “D” and lay the foundations to push toward a “C” grade in the next year. Last year alone, Moseley had 33 percent increase in the percentage of students who made learning gains, from 32 percent to 65 percent by the end of the 2018/19 school year. ELA learning gains of the lowest 25 percentage increased by 39 percent. Moseley is one example of many that have been positively impacted by the support of LSI.
SUBMITTED BY:

Tricia McManus		Gretchen Saunders
Assistant Superintendent, Leadership, Professional Development, and School Transformation (813) 272-4876		Chief Business Officer (813) 272-4270
		B 6.21
Hillsborough County Public Schools (Florida) * Mtg.#20191015_932 (Board Meeting) * Section B Item# 6.21