Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge Archives

Missouri gaining ground along broadband superhighway, but many more miles to go

April 14, 2021 By Alisa Nelson

A new report says Missouri ranks 32nd in the nation in broadband internet access – a positive step from 41st just a couple years ago. Federal and state aid have helped to boost access around Missouri.

The report says 23% of Missouri students still do not have access to high-speed internet. Plus, it says the state ranks in the bottom five for access to low-cost internet.

Missouri gaining ground along broadband superhighway, but many more miles to go (Photo courtesy of Alisa Nelson)

During a state Board of Education meeting Tuesday, Tim Arbeiter, state Director of Missouri’s Broadband Development Office, said there is still a lot of work to do.

“Within the next three years, I think we could probably cut our divide in half. But I still think we are going to have challenges ahead of us in the affordability space. As I listen to my colleagues across the state, when affordability programs are active and live, there is still some hesitancy from populations to hook on. We don’t know the aspects and the why to that. So, we need to understand that little piece a little bit better,” said Arbeiter.

Arbeiter said Missouri has 255 broadband internet providers, including cable, wireless, electric, and telecommunication companies.

Rob Dixon, the director of the state Department of Economic Development, said Missouri’s economy will not grow without continuing to boost broadband access.

“It’s a key plank in our overall economic development strategy,” says Dixon. “The big question of is it an affordability issue or is it an access issue or is it a device issue. The answer is yes on all of those things. And so, it is a pretty challenging issue all around.”

He said data shows Missouri is a mixed bag in its state of broadband.

“The bottom line message I think that we have is there is still very much a gap that we are trying to close, but we are moving in that right direction. We’re still on the wrong side of that list but we are moving forward. It’s a difficult issue to talk about kind of in a positive way because there is still such a big gap that we are trying to close. I think that’s why there’s so much urgency around this issue,” says Dixon.

Board member Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge of Pasadena Hills said some individuals in the corporate community want to help.

“Maybe where they plug in and play is with these short-term actions,” she said.

Members talked about broadband coverage being spotty from house to house. During the pandemic, some communities have set up portable wifi connections for students to access internet from a building or a parked bus, for instance.

“A lot of homework being done at the McDonalds,” said Board President Charlie Shields of St. Joseph.

To view the report, click here.

Missouri discusses plan to meet social and emotional needs of K-12 students

February 10, 2021 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Board of Education is working to craft a statewide plan to help deal with the intensifying social and emotional needs of K-12 public school students. During a board meeting Tuesday, member Kim Bailey says the COVID-19 era has aggravated these problems.

Shutterstock image

Bailey, from western Missouri’s Raymore, is a licensed mental health and trauma specialist. She says the state needs to identify the gaps that exist among kids.

“We know that by virtue of the way everything is set up right now, that there are students falling through holes, educationally as well as social-emotional,” says Bailey. “If we don’t do this and fill in this social-emotional gap that has been created because of COVID-19, I feel like we will never win the battle on the educational gap.”

She recommends the effort be based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuals of Mental Health, which has definitions about what “healthy” is.

“I’m wanting us to have a system that is moving our state forward, that stays out of, what I’m going to say is paradigms and politics, and focuses on what is tried and true that the mental health profession has researched for 70 years and says ‘This is what is healthy.’ It gives our students a foundation, moving forward, on how to be healthy and how to live well,” says Bailey.

In 2015, Missouri put in place social-emotional learning standards. Bailey says Missouri has “set the curve” for the rest of the nation.

She says the latest effort would not be a new program. Instead, it builds upon what is already in place and makes it more cohesive.

“The problem is, is that we’ve had COVID-19 since then. So, we need to re-evaluate our approach and make sure we are adjusting to fit the new need that came from COVID. We are the only state that is even having this conversation,” she says.

Member Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge, of Pasadena Hills in St. Louis County, says generations of children have had their learning impacted.

“I want to call out what may not be obvious but COVID-19 and the impact to social-emotional learning is essentially the outcome of undergoing trauma and a traumatic experience. Children in impoverished, marginalized situations have been impacted by trauma, have had their social-emotional learning compromised. So, this is not new. This is not new,” she says. “A part of me is cringing because we’re talking about it like it’s new but in fact, we’ve had a new trauma that has just exacerbated a problem that has existed for a long time. I can’t underscore how important it is for these kinds of interventions because a prolonged, if you study the science and you look at how brain chemistry changes when you undergo trauma for prolonged periods, we’re potentially facing a very dire set of circumstances if a good contingency of our children are having those experiences.”

“I absolutely agree there are individual impacts of this but there are also systemic impacts of this that we need to make sure we are addressing through an evidence-based psychologically sound approach,” says Bailey. “There’s been such a deconstruction of understanding of what it means to be human, or dare I say a healthy human. There’s been all these definitions of what it means to be human, but many of them step outside of the concepts of what we would consider psychologically sound. What this does is it gives our students a psychological footing based off of the mental health profession of what it means to be a healthy human.”

Member Peter Herschend, of Branson, applauds the plan.

“The trick will be to put it into actionable form that the average classroom teacher out there can grasp,” says Herschend. “I think Kim is on sound ground here talking about the COVID-19 impact on social-emotional learning. It’s an area we never even talked about two years ago.”

The endeavor is in the early stages. Board Vice President Victor Lenz questions how much extra work the approach would be for teachers.

Bailey says many elements are already in place.

“Just like we teach physical health, it would be teaching what it means to be mentally healthy. A health teacher could teach these concepts,” says Bailey. “You don’t need a licensed mental health professional. It wouldn’t be a big lift. The sooner we get this into the hands of our teachers and students, the better equipped our students will be. This is again teaching them how to think – not what to think.”

Lenz says community support on the rollout is key.

“People have to see the positive results and how it’s going to affect positively the overall education that we’re doing in order to get the support to implement this kind of thing, rather than resistance. I 100% think we need to do this, I totally agree. But we’ve got to be very, very careful how we do it in order to get the support that we need from everybody involved,” says Lenz.

Bailey suggests reconvening a work group on learning attainment. It could come up with recommendations to get the ball rolling on an overall plan.

Missouri K-12 statewide testing to move forward, but results won’t be used for accountability purposes

December 9, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Board of Education voted Tuesday to avoid using 2021 standardized test results for state and federal accountability. Members still want the state’s K-12 public school students to take statewide tests next year, but they do not want the results to count against schools for funding and accreditation purposes.

Missouri Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven

The move might lower the blood pressure of some teachers and administrators who are overwhelmed enough as it is this school year from COVID-19’s wrath on education and life in general. During Tuesday’s board meeting, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven said she wants teachers to be able to focus on the fundamentals.

“We want them to be educating our kids and we believe that if they continue to educate the kids to the best of their ability, the scores generally take care of themselves. But we expect to see some differentiation. Who wouldn’t expect to see that,” she asked.

Dr. Vandeven went on to say the state must still continue to maintain high expectations of learning during the pandemic.

“It’s also not very healthy for young adults to give them a diploma or a credential and then have them go into the next phase of life and not really be prepared,” she said. “We have to know that they have acquired certain skills.”

Assistant Commissioner Chris Neale said accountability systems are built around standard metrics and this academic year is anything but standard.

Victor Lenz

“At this point, we know quite a bit about how instruction is being provided but we do not yet have hard data on how students are doing. The anecdotal information that we hear ranges from students doing fairly well to students who are struggling terribly,” said Dr. Neale. “We believe all of this may be true and that student success is very dependent on both the students and local conditions. At this point though, we do not have consistent, comparable, objective, independent data that will provide an accurate picture. Once we do, both state and local leaders can consider how best to respond applying resources to address unfinished learning.”

Board Vice President Victor Lenz of St. Louis said statewide testing will help to take the temperature of academic performance in the midst of COVID-19. Board President Charlie Shields of St. Joseph agreed.

State Board of Education President Charlie Shields

“In my world of health care, if somebody came into our Emergency Department expressing all the symptoms of extreme hypertension and we didn’t put a blood pressure cuff on them, we’d be charged with malpractice. I think we have to understand what’s going on there,” he said. “To say that we’re not going to do assessments – I use that analogy in the medical world but I think this would be educational malpractice if we refused to do this.”

According to the Department, 10 Missouri school districts and 26 charter schools have not yet had students onsite this school year – totaling more than 82,000 kids. Those students are learning remotely.

The schooling method is not everyone’s cup of tea. Online learning can be difficult for some students to pay attention in class – sometimes leading to an increase in lower grades and a decline in attendance. Vandeven said students with special needs, English Language Learners and others are struggling to learn in a virtual environment.

Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge

Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge of Pasadena Hills questioned if the test results will be used against schools in a punitive manner.

“I think that’s especially concerning in cases where public school data is being used to make the case for different types of schools and alternative choices,” she said.

Dr. Tracy Hinds, deputy commissioner of the Division of Learning Services, said using the data as a punitive measure is not the direction the Department is going.

“We are really seeking information. We want to be informed. We need to know the next steps that we need to take,” she said.

Carol Hallquist of Kansas City questioned how the state can ensure accurate testing data is collected.

Carol Hallquist

“Data are only useful if they are accurate. Dr. Mark Bedell, superintendent of Kansas City, told me that the testing he’s done are showing positive results because they don’t have special needs and English Language Learners as part of his base. Going back to Charlie’s example, it seems like you would blood pressure machine on and it’s faulty and the reading would do you no good. So, help me understand how the data will be accurate and useful,” she asked.

Vandeven said it would be unfair to call the information inaccurate.

“I don’t know that the data are faulty. I think they’ll give you an accurate blood pressure reading,” said Vandeven. The thing is, they might be a little bit lower because his diet has been terrible.”

She said the key will be test participation among Missouri’s 900,000 K-12 public school students. If parents do not want their kids to take the test in person, then participation could suffer.

“Right now, the law is 95% participation rates and it’s for that very reason – so that you are comparing sort of apples to apples. If we get 70% in this district and 30% in another, that has to be part of the story and part of the data reporting and understanding what we are seeing,” says Dr. Vandeven.

Lisa Sireno, Standards and Assessment Administrator in the Department’s Office of College and Career Readiness, said the state is coming up with a game plan to test students next year, including possibly moving the test taking to later on in the spring.

“Without systemwide assessment, we cannot build a complete reflection of the impact of the pandemic on student learning. We know that the more students who participate in the assessment, the more useful the resulting data. We are encouraging assessment of as many students as possible and we will report assessment participation rates,” she said.

Another consideration is reducing the length of the test.

Missouri temporarily allows reduced training option to become substitute teacher

August 18, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Board of Education has voted 6-2 today in favor of temporarily giving substitute teacher candidates an alternative to get certified. The proposal was offered to help reduce an expected shortage of substitutes during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Missouri temporarily allows reduced training option to become substitute teacher

Under the plan, candidates can go through 20 hours of state-approved online training or complete the traditional 60 hours of college credit hours. The cost is expected to be about $100 to $200 per candidate, plus another $50 for certification.

During today’s board meeting, Paul Katnik, Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Educator Quality, said the training includes topics about:

1. Professionalism: Appropriate conduct, confidentiality, legal responsibilities
2. Honoring diversity: Basic terminology and appropriate actions
3. Student engagement: Basic definitions and appropriate strategies
4. Foundational classroom management techniques: Ways to control a classroom and diffusing conflict
5. Basic instructional strategies: Effective questioning, assessment methods, lesson plans
6. Supporting students with special needs: Basic terminology of disorders and characteristics and appropriate strategies
7. Working with at-risk youth: Learning traits, characteristics, and appropriate strategies

Katnik told the board the training must be aligned to Missouri teacher standards and include embedded assessments.

“So you can’t progress through the training unless you pass quizzes along the way that says ‘I learned what you just taught me,’” he said.

Katnik said data will also be produced about the effectiveness of each substitute’s training.

“Not only how did the individual do as they were trained and how well did they do when they started serving as a substitute teacher, but you have to offer up data that says school districts and teachers where this person worked can tell us how well they did at substitute teaching. I would just note, we don’t have that with 60 semester hours right now,” he said.

Member Mary Schrag of West Plains thanked Katnik for creating an accountability measure.

“I think for the rural areas in particular, it’s very helpful because finding subs is extremely difficult and even actually finding enough educators right now is a challenge,” she said.

Member Carol Hallquist of Kansas City, who backed the plan, said about 200,000 retired teachers or those who have left the profession could help. She questioned if the proposal is necessary.

“One of the substitute teacher providers checked in with their retired people and said ‘How willing are you to substitute teach?’ They said a great percentage of them said ‘not now.’ They’re going to be in a higher risk group. Those are going to be folks that are a little older and so the risks are going to be a little bit higher,” said Katnik.

Board President Charlie Shields of St. Joseph adamantly opposed the measure and said he is troubled by the message it sends.

“We have said as a board for as long as I’ve been on this board, that a post-secondary educational experience is important – that we believe nobody should stop at high school. So, I think this sends the message that it’s okay to stop at high school,” said Shields.

He also foresees the proposal becoming permanent.

“This idea that somehow we’ll go back after February, I’ve just watched it. There will be big time pressure put on us to continue to lower down the expectations of substitutes so we won’t go back,” he said. “So if you vote for this today, you’ll vote for something very similar for this in February. That’s just my experience of watching this on the board.”

Shields said the substitute shortage is about money.

“You have trouble getting substitutes for what you’re willing to pay substitutes,” he said. “They’re out there. You just have to find the right dollar amount to get them.”

Board Vice President Victor Lenz opposed the plan and shared a similar tone.

“How many people want to do it for what they’re getting for it? We need to elevate the teaching profession as is. Our teachers are not valued for what they are,” said Lenz. “A strong sub pool is deep with knowledge and ability and all that kind of stuff. What we’re talking about doing is making a big pool – a lot of people – but very shallow. I’m in a quandary with this whole thing because it is an emergency, but it’s not a total solution.”

Member Kim Bailey of Raymore said the proposal is probably economically-driven and fear-driven by the pandemic.

“I don’t know that we can fix either of those on an emergency basis,” she said. “I share your concern, Charlie, it’s a slippery slope and that we don’t want to slide down too quick and too fast on quality. And keeping in mind that we are in an emergency situation, I like the idea of cautiously moving forward and that there’s going to be measures on it.”

Member Don Claycomb of Linn supported the plan.

“The key word, I think, is emergency,” said Claycomb. “We’re in an emergency situation and when we’re in an emergency situation, I think we have to look at what is the lesser of the evils – granted that none of the options are perfect.”

Hallquist asked what would happen if a school runs short on subs and teachers. Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven said the school could move to online learning. Claycomb said additional kids could also be combined into other classrooms.

“What’s best for Missouri’s children,” asked Hallquist. “Is it to cram 45 into a class or is it to have someone who’s had some training handle that class?”

If the board is asked to make the alternative a permanent option like Shields predicts, member Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge of Pasadena Hills said members will need more information first.

“I don’t know about making this super permanent. I think this is something that could be perceived by some as watering down our quality pool,” she said. “So I would be happy with a balanced solution where we took this action but we monitored it very closely to make sure that we were getting the outcomes we wanted before we decided to make it more permanent. For me, it’s moving forward but moving forward cautiously to resolve the capacity constraints. If the data tells you this wasn’t a good move, we won’t over-commit and we can always correct.”

She said the longer-term measure would have to inject more quality in order for her to be comfortable with it.

“I think what we’re all struggling with right now is the short-term stopgap measure presented to us by Paul is meant to create a larger sub pool but we don’t feel good about the quality,” said Westbrooks-Hodge. “So, it’s quantitative and it’s not necessarily qualitative, which makes the monitoring and the short-term nature of this stopgap measure very real. For me, the monitoring of this short-term measure has to be there, but I don’t think long-term we can compromise the quality of the education that our students receive because we’re currently in crisis mode. I definitely understand the need to make an emergency short-term decision, but don’t think that we can compromise our children’s future long-term by making this permanent without a quality plan as well.”

The emergency rule is set to take effect on September 2 and expire at the end of February 2021.

Missouri has 555 public school districts and charter schools.

Earlier story:

Missouri Board of Education to consider proposal intended to boost substitute teacher population: https://wp.me/p16gMv-wQT

Missouri Board of Education discusses classes next fall, students dodging school work

April 28, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

A new state statute requires Missouri’s K-12 districts to start the school year no earlier than 14 calendar days prior to the first Monday in September, unless the State Board of Education waives the requirement. Board members are discussing whether to waive the requirement and give districts the option of starting the school earlier this fall.

Missouri Board of Education discusses classes next fall, students dodging school work

An uptick in coronavirus cases is projected in the fall – possibly affecting how much learning kids will have at school. During Monday’s board meeting, Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven says the coronavirus is an extenuating circumstance and the department is not trying to take advantage of the situation.

“It’s still very, very early on COVID loss, but summer loss is clear – that when many of our students, particularly our students who tend to struggle the most – when they are away from school for a period of time, significant learning loss can occur, and that is especially true in our youngest learners,” says Vandeven.

Board President Charlie Shields agrees with Vandeven.

“In the healthcare world, there’s widespread belief that you’ll see COVID-19 come back in the fall at some point. The challenge will be that it’ll be combined with flu and influenza at that time, which makes it even more challenging,” says Shields. “So, you could see additional disruption sometime this fall. So if we can get more days in by an earlier start date, seems to me that would be appropriate.”

Shields is the CEO of Truman Medical Center in Kansas City and a former Missouri Senate president.

The board plans to revisit the item during next month’s meeting.

Meanwhile, board member Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge of Pasadena Hill near St. Louis says she’s heard about some teachers reporting difficulties in getting students involved since the coronavirus threat closed schools statewide in mid-March.

“That’s a very real problem that’s been brought to my attention,” she says.

Vandeven says some teachers who had a hard time connecting with families before the coronavirus outbreak are having even more problems now with kids learning from home.

“People are saying ‘Well if you’re not requiring a grade, if you’re not requiring a test, if you’re not requiring this the kids are not participating.’ That’s a deeper question that I think we need to explore,” says Vandeven. “As we move forward, how do we communicate with families? That partnership has always been essential, but how do we effectively communicate with our families in typical times and then we would have a much greater possibility for that to carry over into a situation like this?”

Vandeven says districts must take the lead to keep kids engaged.

How much of a role lack of broadband internet and technology has to do with the students dodging their work is unknown, but the board did discuss a survey detailing the digital divide in Missouri.

The survey of about 450 of the state’s 555 school districts and charter schools shows about 21% of Missouri students – or 150,000 of them – do not have access to broadband internet and cannot afford the technology.

The latest Federal Communications Commission data shows nearly 600,000 rural Missourians lack access to broadband internet.