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Speaker 1: Welcome to Mondays with Maria, brought to you by the Foundation for Orange County Public Schools. Here's OCPS Superintendent, Dr.
Maria Vazquez.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: Hi everyone. Chief Communications Officer Scott Howat is with me today. So Scott, the Communications department, has worked very closely with me on garnering input from various stakeholders, and Thought Exchange was a platform that we used for that. So tell us a little bit about
Scott Howat: Well yeah, Dr. Vazquez. Absolutely. We've used the Thought Exchange platform for a number of different purposes, and specifically we used it with teachers to get feedback on things that could be removed from their tasks that take up additional time away from their students and away from their academic success.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: And there's a lot on their plate, and we want to make sure that we're listening to them and Thought Exchange is able to give us that opportunity. Before you share the results of that Thought Exchange, I do want to let our teachers know how much I appreciate them. To all of our teachers, I want to say thank you for the work that you do each and every day. I'm committed to supporting you as you provide your students with meaningful learning experiences that lead them to academic success. And I understand the level of trust that families put in all of us to educate their children. I value your insights and your perspectives. So, Scott, share the results, the top results of the Thought Exchange.
Scott Howat: The Thought Exchange opened on Monday, October 16th and remained open seven days. We had 1,858 teachers participate, and they shared 1,877 thoughts, and they provided more than 58,000 ratings. Elementary teachers made up 54%, and secondary teachers made up 46% of the responses. When we looked at all the teacher responses to the question, they identified a variety of tasks that impact their time and energy, and often are redundant. Some of these include deliberate practice and formal observations, which is part of their evaluation process, the amount of time it takes for them to fill out data collection reports and individual education plan documentation and forms, district administrator walkthroughs, size of classes, professional learning community meetings, and additional duty time due to bus and car drop off and pickup. Dr. Vazquez, I thought for today it would be good to start by discussing some of the top rated responses. We found that deliberate practice was mentioned overwhelmingly more than any other topic, almost 10% of the responses were on deliberate practice.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: So I'm grateful that we have this feedback and the numbers are just phenomenal. One good thing that I can say is that's an area that we absolutely can take a look at. A few years ago, the deliberate practice was required. My understanding is that the law has changed. So that is something that we can bring the team together look at what we can change, and then be able to provide feedback to our teachers about that.
Scott Howat: And that would be fantastic.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: Yes, it would. Yes. That'd be great.
Scott Howat: Another one of the highest rated responses was data collection and entry.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: Yeah. You know data collection is so important as part of our planning process to make sure that first, we understand if the students have learned the content that we've taught, and it also helps us plan for interventions and the differentiation of instruction. What I can say is that we've minimized some of the assessments. We're using the state assessment to be able to drive a lot of the district level views of what supports are needed, and if schools are moving. The teachers are inputting also their data into performance matters. That's a practice that we've established and that was done so that anyone on campus who needs to see the data is able to see it on that platform. And so for teachers to have to be able to, you know, fill out charts or tables that would be a task that would, is redundant. And so I think that's also something that we can go back, look at our communication to our cadres, our principal leaders and our principals, and see why we're not using the Performance Matters platform so that teachers are only inputting data once.
Scott Howat: Well, that would be great. It would cut down a lot of redundancies if we could do that. So
Dr. Maria Vazquez: Yes.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: I agree.
Scott Howat: Dr. Vazquez, many thoughts were submitted about additional duty time, excessive data collection, professional learning, community meetings. Can you talk a little bit about those things and maybe how we could address those in the future with our teachers?
Dr. Maria Vazquez: Absolutely. So I'll start with professional learning communities and that data planning. We know the value of planning. It allows us to share best practices. It allows us to look at our data to make sure we're differentiating instruction and planning. Professional learning community meetings are differentiated depending on the level of support a school needs. So our, our most fragile schools have three days, and then there are some that have two. And I believe the vast majority only have one professional learning meeting required. I do recognize that teacher planning is valuable. There's so much on their plate that sometimes just returning a phone call or trying to connect with one parent takes up their entire planning time. And so I do want to be able to take a look that a, we're honoring the PLC times and the number of times that they're having, and that when they leave those meetings, they find them valuable. And what are those extra duties that teachers are having to perform that are taking away from their time to plan and their time to deliver instruction?
Scott Howat: Well, that's great. I think continuing to look at those things and seeing how we can help to eliminate or scale down those things is what your team will be doing. Right.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: And as promised, we will push out to our teachers and our administrators the results and what we are going to do within those top responses. Those are the ones that we're going to address first and foremost.
Scott Howat: Well, they're all great points. Thank you.
Dr. Maria Vazquez: They are, they are.
Scott Howat: Yeah. You're going to have more town hall meetings coming up, right?
Dr. Maria Vazquez: I do. And I hope that anyone, whether they're a teacher, they're a parent, an employee who has additional questions or has input that they would want to provide, that they join me at one of our town hall meets.
Scott Howat: Great. You'll be notified with a Connect Orange phone call, email, and text when a town hall is being held close to your high school zone. Or you can see a list on our
[email protected].
Dr. Maria Vazquez: Thank you for your thoughtful input. I take into consideration all the thoughts that have been submitted. Please understand that some of the tasks may be required by contract or by the state, and may need additional actions or agreements to reduce or eliminate. I hope to work together with our teachers, our administrators, and CTA to take immediate action on some of the items identified that are within my direct control. I appreciate all you do each and every day for our students. Before we go, just a reminder that you can also ask me any questions you like in our new Ask Maria segment. Just write to the email address on your screen to get more information on how you can record yourself on video with your cell phone, asking me a question that we might include in a future show. Thanks again to Scott Howat for joining me today, and for all of you for watching. I'll see you next week on Mondays with Maria
Speaker 1: Mondays with Maria has been brought to you by the Foundation for Orange County Public Schools, investing in our children today to strengthen our community tomorrow. For more OCPS news and information, visit theslice.ocps.net.