Accountability and Assistance Advisory Council (AAAC)
October 22, 2015 (9:00am-12:00pm)
Worcester Technical High School (1 Skyline Drive, Worcester)
Meeting Notes
In attendance/members: Valerie Annear, Kirk Downing, Elizabeth Freedman, Meg Mayo-Brown
(Council Chair), Kathryn McDermott, Alexandra Oliver-Davila, Paul Schlichtman, Tari Thomas,
Elizabeth Shevlin Tripathi, Jason Williams
In attendance/ESE: Helene Bettencourt, Associate Commissioner Carrie Conaway, Rob Curtin,
Senior Associate Commissioner Russell Johnston, Rebecca Shor; Joan Tuttle, Lauren Woo,
Associate Commissioner Lise Zeig
Council Chair Meg Mayo-Brown convened the meeting and welcomed Council members. She
introduced new Council member, Paul Schlichtman. Russell Johnston provided updates
regarding the PARCC assessment and the SY 2015-2016 accountability timeline as well as the
Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s pending vote on whether to adopt the
assessment statewide. He also provided updates regarding the release of the Holyoke Public
Schools turnaround plan. A copy of the slide presentation is provided with these notes.
Following the update, Dr. Johnston fielded questions from the Council on the PARCC decision.
 One Council member commented that the biggest frustration with the PARCC decision is
planning for the next school year due to the delayed timeline.
 Another member asked about MCAS 2.0 and what districts should be preparing, if
anything.
 A Council member commented that teachers prefer PARCC over MCAS because they
feel it’s a better match for what a “teacher should teach and what a student should
know”.
 One Council member urged the Department to convey to the Board that
overwhelmingly this vote isn’t a close call. PARCC is the direction that the state should
go in. This Council member also asked the Department to consider the type of
information the Board needs in order to make their decision about the policy, leaving
behind the politics.
 A Council member questioned how one should make an informed decision about this
choice especially with a lack of current data.
Following Dr. Johnston’s presentation, Rob Curtin, Director of Education Data Services, and
Carrie Conaway, Associate Commissioner for Planning, Research and Delivery Systems,
presented the Department’s updated District Accountability Review process. The presentation
included how feedback from the AAAC was incorporated into the revised system, as well as
sought more input from the Council on a set of key questions.
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One Council member whose district experienced a district review commented
that she found the process far more positive than in years past. She described
the review team members coming to the district as partners with a real
emphasis on highlighting growth.
In response to the question about how to recruit review team members, one
Council member suggested reaching out to teachers or principals to be
reviewers, not just administrators.
Another Council member suggested shortening the onsite time commitment by
using technology, including video chats and online chat rooms.
Another Council member questioned how community members were being
chosen for the community pieces and whether the data the reviewers were
looking at include Educator Evaluation data.
After a short break, Helene Bettencourt, Chief of Staff for Commissioner Chester, and Lise Zeig,
Associate Commissioner for Accountability, Partnerships and Technical Assistance, led the
Council through an exercise around to Executive Order 562 – Reducing Unnecessary
Regulations. After answering many clarifying questions, the Department liaisons decided that
the Council should spend more time on this topic during the next meeting in January. Some
members of the Council volunteered to help plan the next meeting agenda with this topic in
mind.
ESE staff were appreciative for the many thoughtful ideas contributed by Council members and
they look forward to the next meeting.