Office of Digital Learning
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
75 Pleasant Street
Malden, MA 02148-5023
odl@doe.mass.edu
www.doe.mass.edu/odl
@MASchoolsK12
Digital Learning Advisory Council
Meeting Minutes
Date:
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Time:
10:00 AM – Noon
Location:
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Room 137A
75 Pleasant Street
Malden, MA 02148-5023
Attendees:
Amy Michalowski, Annamaria Schrimpf, Barbara Treacy, Julia Freeland, Evelyn Thoren,
Michael Horn, Peter Sanchioni, Sarah Kyriazis, Kyle Shachmut, Justin Reich, Sam Johnston,
Ken Klau, AJ Kupps, Jennifer Gwatkin, Bobby O’Brien, Adam Goldberg, Mona Anchan, JC
Considine, Chip Canty, Serlin Haley, Paula Gaines, Curtis Valentine
Agenda:
1.
2.
Review and approval of November 18, 2015 minutes
a. Motion made, seconded and approved to approve minutes.
Updates from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
a. MAPLE (Massachusetts Personalized Learning EdTech) Consortium is a public /
private partnership emerging between ESE and LearnLaunch as an effort to
catalyze personalized and blended learning supported by technology in
districts and schools across the Commonwealth. MAPLE is having discussions
with some philanthropic organizations to support this effort.
b. There will be a convening of the DCPS (Digital Connections Partnership
Schools) Grantees at LearnLaunch Symposium and a second convening of the
DCPS later in the spring.
c. The Commissioner set goal of 100% online testing in Commonwealth by 2019.
ODL/DLAC will be involved in advising for this effort.
d. MassIT has a contract to pilot Metiri’s TRAx tool for reporting on tech
use/readiness with the 14 DCPS districts. The goal is to evaluate the tool,
decide if a tool is needed, identify if training is needed and help calculate what
the costs are to bring schools up to a standard to deliver online testing and
digital learning.
e. MassIT is working with Education SuperHighway to assist Berkshire districts in
assessing their technology infrastructure.
f. There will be a Digital Equity Summit on March 18 organized by EDC and
Comcast, with ESE as a cohost. The Summit will convene teams from several
key communities to help raise awareness of available digital equity resources
and to create a broader vision of digital equity.
Office of Digital Learning
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
75 Pleasant Street
Malden, MA 02148-5023
odl@doe.mass.edu
www.doe.mass.edu/odl
@MASchoolsK12
3.
4.
5.
6.
Committee Reports
a. Digital/Blended Learning - Tech Planning Committee
The subcommittee’s focus is to improve the district tech planning process
to help them make stronger connections between tech planning and
overall planning. The immediate plan is to identify some best practices for
tech planning and in the fall focus more directly on a process for providing
supports for tech plan development in conjunction with district teaching
and learning plans.
b. District Technology Budgets
The subcommittee’s work is based on the recognition that funding for
technology comes from diverse sources and it’s important to develop a
cohesive process for technology budgeting and to figure out the funding
sources for technology that may not be captured in Chart of Accounts.
c. UDL/Accessibility
The subcommittee will plan a meeting on accessibility and will review the
2012 DESE accessibility document “Access to Learning: Assistive
Technology and Accessible Instructional Materials” with a focus on
proposing updates to the document as part of the committee’s work.
CMVS Updates
a. TECCA - Adam Goldberg, principal, provided a presentation on pupil
expenditures on behalf of both CMVS - Greenfield and TECCA - to help DLAC
understand what the needs are to do the job of educating the students that
come to these schools. Included in the presentation was a request that the
regular ed per pupil expenditure be increased from $6,700 to $9,000 and the
SPED per pupil expenditure be increased from $8,700 to $12,500, phased in
over two years, recognizing that one of DLAC’s roles is to advise the
commissioner on per pupil CMVS expenditure. Adam Goldberg will return to
the next DLAC meeting to provide an update about how a potential increase in
per pupil funds will be allocated, and to provide more information about the
“sponsor/authorizer” fees, expected outputs from a potential increase in
funding, where the EMP is absorbing and receiving expenses, and how much
of the budget overall Connections receives.
Next meeting
February 5, 2016, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM @ ESE.
Adjourn
a. A motion was made, seconded and approved to adjourn.