Craig Waterman brought a great deal of expertise to Monday’s Office Hours as well as a healthy dose of humor and flexibility. Here are some impressions of the event contributed by Louise Law (Frontier Regional Schools), Gwynne Morrissey (CES), and Diana Roy (Ludlow Public Schools):
- DDMs are still a work in progress across the state and DESE wants to see what districts have by June. Districts will have flexibility to revise those DDMs as they see fit.
- Teachers shouldn’t be afraid of a few students having a “low” rating on a DDM. However, a teacher getting a low impact rating means that many students were making low growth across multiple measures across multiple years, which is, in fact, worth having a conversation about.
- There are creative ways to measure student growth – like using holistic growth rubrics.
- DDMs have to allow all students an equal chance for growth, which has particular impact on special education students and English Language Learners.