recruit and retain highly qualified teachers in our school districts. we recognize that teachers are critical to the work that we're doing so that we can have those student outcomes and teachers are currently using student data to improve learning. they do have knowledge of the state standards and more so when we have the common core curriculum in a k-12 for next year that they do have strong subject knowledge and they really enjoy teaching at middle schools. that is really important. to understand the whole adolescent development issue. that concludes our strategic plan. i just have to preface by saying that the working draft, whether you pass the feeder patterns or not, we have work to do and we

will continue the do that work to close the achievement gap in the middle schools. thank you. >> i want to ask whether you would like to have discussion -- i know it might be difficult for the public. be happy to welcome public testimony if people actually want to comment on the presentation that was just made and not on the feeder patterns. if you want to talk about the feeder patterns, you might wait until we talk about that. this was a lot of very dense stuff. the board wants to ask questions or have discussions about this, i think we should do it now. unless anybody objects. we'll do it now. i prefer that we just do this, just what was presented by the staff basically, middle school plans, but if you -- then we'll talk about the staff

recommendations for the feeder, for the student assignment and then we can have testimony what everybody came to talk about. commissioner norton? >> i think my question mainly is the -- where are we with implementing these specific steps that you have outlined. you know, i have to say it is sort of strains credibility to me that we have all of these things in emplementation at every single middle school. i know you don't want to call out specific schools to go to that level of detail but really where are we with these steps in general? system-wise? >> i think they are at varying levels throughout the 11 middle school sites currently

supervised but the gaining grounds in middle grades, we have been using that as i work this entire school year. it really is happening in our middle schools. every middle school has to document. we reference that at all of our principal meetings and eplc's. there is not one principal who should not be familiar with the work that we're doing here. i am actually going to be convening their leadership conferences starting this week and that is going to be part of their evaluation. >> if it is possible to share with the board in a confidential way where there are specific concerns, i think that would be helpful because, you know, i mean -- i think sometimes people say they are doing certain

things and say they are doing certain things but they are not being fully implemented. that is my concern. >> thank you. i think my concern is pretty much along the lines of commercial norton, particularly in step four. the emphasis on early identification. intervention. the first one, review the record. i'm pretty much -- yes. that would be great. but the idea that that can happen considering, you know the transitions that we're going through economically and further broadening school sites and leadership but also, i mean i'm really looking for practicality. i want these things to be done and we need to do these things. everything that is listed here.

go to number four. i'm trying figure out in my mind the perspective, how that can occur on a regular basis and become embedded in the school site. i'm really trying to think pragmatically what we are capable of doing without having people run away from us. i want to be really clear -- incredibly ambitious, considering this particularly considering what we are up against and so with that context, i mean, can you give me -- very much along the lines of trying to figure out how that can possibly be that we were going to be doing these things. >> so commissioner moff at, one of the things that we do have in

place in collaboration with student support services is there is a list that students have been identified by their classroom teachers or the student advisor are students that we need to be aware of as they transition into the next grade. like fifth grade students transitioning into sixth grade. those lists are sent to student support services and then -- so already, we have a working list of students who we feel need to really focus support as they transition to the sixth grade. one of the things -- that has really been really helpful to help us identify students or groups of students who may need that support as they transition from sixth grade to the -- data sheet that we gave to you on the

c.s.t., that was to generate just from data -- we did it manually but it is definitely very doable. i think also as students transition into the sixth grade, so we depend on those two mechanisms to identify students who need support and sometimes parents will come up and let staff know at the school site that their child may need support too. as students go into that first quarter of the school year, teachers will start identifying students who may need support. so there is a number of ways that -- where we can do all of that work and the individualized -- learning plan, that is a template that we developed and that was disseminated to all of the principals and assistant principals to do more deep work

for students who have needs. it is ongoing. it is ongoing work. >> i appreciate that and then maybe at a later time i would like to see a couple of models for that that would look like for students because i fear -- and this is just possibly me projecting but as we -- as school sites sometimes layer a bunch of things on themselves, not really having the time to decide this particular program which is going to help save and turn us around. i almost see that happening to students. without us finding out or spending that time to see -- that it has been identified, to see if the incorporated support works and if they are helpful. i want to give -- to see if this is working for the students so

they are not feeling like they are guinea pigs in our laboratory. >> thank you very much for the presentation. i think this is a really very important piece of our work. i received criticism from parents who say not much of the school board's business is focused on quality instruction so i'm really glad to have this discussion tonight. i was part of the communications community for quality schools and i think the feedback from principals would resonate very well from feed back from that record report even though it was a couple of years from all the schools. i really support this direction. i think in terms of the five core classes, when i was shopping around for the middle

schools, i found that consistently, i think that is very positive for the district. i just want to point out two areas of concern. i think your inventory of current conditions in middle schools really points to a need to strategicically think about our language pathways and i know we're going to talk about middle school feeder patterns but the inventory really demonstrates that it is kind of haphazard, that it doesn't really recognize that people are -- in emergent programs, bilingual programs. so i really appreciate that and i think it really is telling about the area that we need to focus on. secondly, i did want to ask about gifted and talented gate because i know that we have not had the resources to invest very much in that in the elementary

level and there is differentiation in the middle school level and i received a lot of concern about what is going on with gate in the middle schools. some have it. some don't. so i kind of challenge the statement that all students are served in the middle schools because that is not the impression that i'm getting. >> can i make a comment about that? i am -- i actually bringing the beginning of the discussion about gate and honors differentiation, homogenius and hetero genius. i'm not sure what day that is going to be yet but i think it is time to start having that discussion a little bit as to what are we saying about which is better? what guidens are we giving schools? what approach is better? how to implement this approach? we're going to start that discussion there and you're very welcome to come.

>> all right. thank you. i actually have a couple of questions with regards to teaching and leadership. there was an effort to recruit leadership to the middle schools and i just wondered what that looks like. i know that we have had several principals that have been in several of our middle schools for a while and i'm wondering if you're looking at principals from other schools that are kind of similar to what we're doing. for looking at recruiting principals that have done a really great job at some of our other schools that are ready to take on a middle school and how you're pulling for -- i know that we're really limited also on the number of candidates for principalships. if you can speak to that a little bit? >> just for clarification, terms

of leadership recruitment, we have a couple of principals who have long tenures at their current school site. so maybe reassigning them or reappointing them? >> not necessarily. they continue to stay strong. there have also been sites that have had some turnover and are not doing nearly as well so i'm just wondering what the focus is going to be to recruit the strong principals to do some more shared leadership or mentoring. anything we can do to help the other sites. first of all, when you say middle school some people have a lot of different reactions. some would say yes, i'm there for middle schools. some will kind of run away from me. so you get a lot of different

reactions, but one thing that has been really effective the last year and a half is that our middle school principals are part of an equity center of professional learning community. the work of this p.l.c. or ecplc has been really, really powerful. in fact, i invited deputy superintendent to meet with the middle school principals not too long ago to ask them questions about what they were gleaning or what they were learning from, being part of the p.l.c. and they have shown so much growth because they have this wonderful opportunity to learn from each other, to share best practices or best leadership practices that have been very effective for them at their school sites. the principals have also

challenged each other about having those courageous conversations or hard conversations about the work that they are doing. and so they have definitely become really a very effective professional learning community and they talk about these practices. they challenge each other and they follow up with each other at the next meeting. did you follow up on what you said you were going to follow up on? and so they support each other. they challenge each other. they are a very collegial group. i don't know if he wants to say anything about the e.p.a. that he observed. i'll put him on the spot here. can i frame this differently? i appreciate all of that. i think that is great but we still have a lag in our middle schools and it feels like we have -- we have done this and it is great that they are getting the support but i wonder if

there are any incentives that we're considering to draw lead sbeers the middle school arena. it is the same school that we have really had some challenges with. in elementary and high school we are seeing some really great leaps and bounds. the ways in which our leadership has changed, middle school, it feels like, it is very different. it hasn't had the same kind of momentum that our elementary and high schools have had. i was surprised even with our high schools the momentum that has kind of picked up on that. i don't know what it is or why it is that that -- middle schools have kind of stayed the same or maybe they haven't and i'm just -- this is my own perception. but i'm wondering how in terms of leadership we're able to recruit and retain folks stay in

middle school and if there are any incentives that we are considering. >> we disagree with your perception in the sense that all the middle schools met their a.p.i. targets and we are building momentum. we are continuing to always look at leadership in terms of the best leadership, to lead our middle schools and that is a challenge that i have thrown down to all the principals. we want to see the double digit growth for this upcoming year. as a teacher, we have high expectations for our students. as their immediate supervisor, i have high expectations of our principals. that is communicated to them on a regular basis and also provide the support and guidance to do

this hard work. no disrespect for my colleagues in elementary and high. for the middle delee years, it is very -- three years, it is very intense and it is also exciting work. i'll just say that. >> if i could just ask a couple of comments. i think your perceptions in terms of middle schools, we are actually in very good company because across the nation and especially in california, middle schools absolutely have been kind of beyond the eight-ball. with that said, i think you absolutely right that the recruitment and the support and development of leadership not knowledge middle schools but in all levels is critically important to us. it pains me to say that folks are knocking down the doors to be a principal at any level. it is one of the most difficult and complex jobs and getting more difficult and complex by

the day. we have absolutely seen that that has been an issue for us. we have been recruiting nationally. it has been the superintendent's directive that wherever we go outside san francisco one of our main jobs is to recruit. we're looking for talent everywhere that we can. i would also just mention one thing that i think is absolutely the gem of our community and that is that we have given our community time as a district immense say in terms of who we choose to be the leader of our school community. we believe in that process. i think it is absolutely one of the things that makes us different for many school districts in the country. i think it is something to be valued. it does make it difficult when we look at a principal that has been very successful for a number of years in a community and have a conversation with that principal about you think it may be time for you to bring your leadership to another school, because it almost feels

that we are betraying that community because we are robbing them of their wonderful principal. it is a very difficult balance for us to keep and one that we're very sensitive to because like i said we do value the involvement of our community in selecting leadership. with that said, we make no apologies for the fact that if you are a principal that exhibits extraordinary leadership, we're going to do everything we can in the school system to make sure you're in a position to exert the greatest influence over the communities that need us the most so we make no apologies about that. i appreciate you identifying that. >> so i'm going to just -- i appreciate this last set of discussions around the middle school arena because one of the things that i've done is be a

classroom teacher at every grade level from preschool to college. it was not my calling to be a middle school teacher. [laughter] it is very difficult. unless you really love that age bracket, it is not the easiest thing in the world. we recognized from early on if we look at our school district, pre-k and five and middle school and high school, i've always felt in the past that the middle school -- was not our strength and so i'm really, really glad that we've come to focus on this because i think we can make a difference if we focus and actually implement all of these strategies that we're talking about. they are very solid strategies. one of my main concerns, though,

is that in new strategies, you're trying to change something and generally, when you want to change something, it requires service, professional development-type activities and i know in middle school, you could build in some of that within your team meetings and so forth but i'm also concerned that because of the state budget, we've had to cut our -- or eliminate so many days of professional development over the last six years that i'm just wondering do we have enough resources? do we have enough time for the teachers and principals to -- be able to learn these new strategies and get them implemented. that is a concern.

>> i think commission year yee's -- commissioner yee's point is well taken. it will be devastating, but above all of that, regardless of how much money we have or don't have in this case, the students are going to be in front of us. so we have very limited resources, but those resources will have to be stretched as much as possible, especially to provide some type of training and even if we make cuts, we have learned very creatively this year, in spite of making a lot of cuts, we're figuring out ways to find foundation and other groups to step up and fund those things that we can't fund. that will become a bigger issue in the future. one of the items there is really to try to noblize this community and start thinking -- mobilize

this community and if we don't take care of ourselves and we rely on the state to do it, we're going to have a really sad school system. i think san franciscoans as they always have done, try to stand together and work on what is going to be happening throughout state. >> another thing i want to point out in the appendix -- as much as i know, i made the statement, in the past. felt like it was a weak link of our district, the fact that so many of our -- are entering middle school, not proficient at

all, it is -- is this really a callout to the elementary school come opponent, they got some better -- it is really hard for us to excel in middle school or anywhere else. as you're moving along -- as we're moving along with our middle school strategies, the elementary school section needs to look at their strategies also. >> thank you. i have a few questions, one, i want to -- start with something. it seems like a clarifying question. on page 17 where you discuss the current conditions, that there is at least one elective course and then the first subsection says elective courses are determined by -- choice patterns and demands.

i do not accept that as a reason to continue being that way. that is one of the main things that we have to address, getting off of the clarifying issue obviously and also that we need to talk about in the context of the next issue, which is feared patterns. because so what i'm asking you in this context, is what are we doing to try to address that? it isn't ok that some middle schools have a rich array of elective options because they have had them and they were left

over from when we had resources and others in my view still mostly don't have that because even with -- in relatively better times, we have invested in those schools but most of those resources have been invested in -- in compensatory -- let's make up what is the mattered with these communities rather than giving them equally rich learning environments. i want to see that in the plan. some reference at least, to how we're thinking about that and are we going to address it? and on page 21, maybe in the same regard in relation to the curriculum community, under number two, you have providing college crick through such programs as avid steps, a.c.t. explorer and word generation.

that is exactly that issue. at the curriculum committee i asked that question. kids in avid, are they having other electives? in high school they have to be able to have certain electives. it is a requirement that they have them. to have an enriched experience. but they are -- even though the programs may may be enormously beneficial to them, they are basically using up their elective time. is that what they are doing in middle school? if they are in avid and middle >> not necessarily so. these are supplementary curriculum and lesson plans. >> similarly, on page 23, the part about professional

communities, and you have a common planning time elicited, and on page 25, i am trying not to have a sort of tragic live here, -- tried it live here, but adequate ability of resources -- tragic laugh here, but adequate ability and resources. it seems there is not time to do anything, and i am personally trying to do everything i can to address the resource issue. this is a very dense presentation. i appreciate the work that is being done. i thought this looked pretty good, and i want to congratulate you,