Renaissance Learning’s regional director Kate Moss, addressed the Española School Board on July 2 to explain the contract her company developed for the District.
The purpose of the professional development contract is to provide training for teachers and principals on the new Star software system, which will be implemented in the fall.
Star is a package that will provide information about students’ learning outcomes — whether they are proficient in reading and math for their grade levels.
“I am here to help you understand the plan that we built for you and how it is going to help you achieve your mission,” Moss said.
She said it takes time to learn a new system and the best way to train new users on Star is to teach them over time, as customers are implementing the new software as part of their everyday duties.
Moss provided details about the program, explained the different aspects of the training and clarified the purpose.
“The start of the training will be on, ‘What is our Star assessment?’” she said. “Because that is the backbone solution that you are going to be using K through 12, to really understand where students are at. What steps need to be taken so I can accelerate their learning?”
She went on to explain the additional resources that are available with the contract.
“Not only do we build in the additional training, we also build in ongoing auditing and job embedded consulting,” Moss said. “Those days include a sample day coming in to the school and spending the first 30 minutes with the administrator, helping the administrator look at their dashboard and helping the administrator build their understanding of what numbers should they be looking at? What do those numbers mean? What action does the administrator need to take?”
The contract requires Renaissance employees to assist principals and teachers on site as well.
Moss said Renaissance will assist school principals, based on the outcomes of students’ assessments, to optimize their processes and procedures to produce an optimal learning environment. She also added that consultants will do the same for individual teachers within the classroom.
“If there’s a component of the program they (teachers) are struggling with, we will demonstrate that with students to help them understand,” Moss said. “We have a group of teachers that are serving that model so that they can go back and do it themselves.”
She then provided a demonstration of the program, showing a hypothetical result of student assessments and the types of information the software provides.
Even with the demonstration, there were a couple of questions from Board members. School Board Vice President Ralph Medina was concerned about implementation and wanted to see the training schedule and what would be covered in the sessions.
He was also concerned about integrating the program and getting buy-in from District employees.
“Another question that I have is if there was an evaluation of the staff’s ability. I know that it is going to take time,” Medina said. “First there has to be buy-in from the staff District-wide to work with it and secondly, a continuous program of training so that we don’t go back to the old habits for teaching this subject matter.”
Trujillo responded by defending how well the program fit the needs of the District.
“The reason we picked this one is because of the vertical integration between kindergarten and 12th grade,” Trujillo said.
In the end, Board members approved the expenditure. Most members were satisfied with Moss’ description of the training program and its costs.
Board members delayed making a decision regarding the contract at their June 18 Board meeting because they had concerns with the cost. They also wanted more specifics about the training, such as a schedule and curriculum.
Board members Pablo Lujan and Andrew Chavez expressed concerns about the cost of the training. Lujan asked why the training could not have been negotiated along with the price of the software package. Given the District already spent approximately $200,000 for the software package and it had to approve another $67,000 just for the training.
Chavez asked why further training is needed if the school has already implemented the system. In fact, some personnel are familiar with the system and Chavez asked why they couldn’t be the ones to train District employees, thereby saving money for the District.
Superintendent Trujillo said he felt District employees would not feel comfortable training other staff members.
He said even though they knew the system, they were not as familiar with it as the Renaissance trainers are.
The professional development contract was for $67,000. The training cost will come from the school’s operating budget for the coming fiscal year.
It requires Renaissance employees to come to the District and provide training on different aspects of the system throughout the fall.