COVID-19 letter from Dr. Tremblay

Dear Framingham Community:

As I look back on all that has transpired over the last two and a half weeks, I am moved by the way our community has come together to support one another. We have worked with the Mayor’s office, the Department of Public Health, and many community partners to first ensure all students had access to food and the technology they need in order to learn. In the span of just a few days, the District distributed more than 2,000 chromebooks to families. We are also in the process of acquiring Wifi hotspots and helping families access affordable solutions for those that do not have access to the internet. These fundamental steps were and continue to be critical to our ability to deliver instruction to our more than 9,000 students across the district.

As I have said before, our district believes in the ability of ALL children to achieve at a high level with proper support. This is always worth repeating. As I have also been clear to express, there are significant factors that challenge our ability to achieve this goal through remote means. Such challenges are not limited to disabilities, language barriers, and access to technology. Each family is dealing with their own personal challenges, particularly during this crisis–whether they are financial, physical, or emotional–which can hinder a child’s ability to fully engage in their learning.

While these challenges continue to exist, we recognize that it is important for our students to have structure and routines, as much as possible, in order to create some sense of consistency during this difficult time. Therefore, with guidance from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and in close collaboration with the Framingham Teachers’ Association, we are pleased to present to you the District’s remote learning plan, expected to begin Monday April 6, as exactly communicated to our staff only a few hours ago (see communication below).

Dear Colleagues:

I hope you had a great weekend (once you reminded yourself that it was a weekend) and that this message finds you well and managing as best you can during this unimaginable time.

We have been working closely with the Framingham Teachers Association and our school administrators to develop a remote learning plan that is equitable and ensures we are doing everything possible to meet the needs of all of our students. If you have not yet done so already, I encourage you to read these guidelines from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) which outline the priority areas each district must consider when developing a remote learning plan. These guidelines specifically state:

Equity needs to be a top consideration in local planning efforts, especially as districts and schools make plans to manage an extended closure;

Making connections between school staff and students is paramount, particularly for the most vulnerable members of our school communities;

Districts and schools must work to adopt a remote learning model;

Remote learning models must launch in early April;

Districts should support students to engage in meaningful and productive learning for approximately half the length of a regular school day (educator directed and self-directed learning);

Strongly recommend that districts and schools focus on reinforcing skills already taught this school year and applying and deepening these skills;

Districts and schools should also consider ways that student learning can continue offline;

Components:

Connect with one or more educators multiple times per week

Access to multiple hours of academic content directed by educators, which focus on reinforcing skills already taught

Time each day for physical activity

Additional daily time for enrichment activities such as the arts;

Teachers should provide feedback on student work completed at home; and

Strongly recommend academic content be graded as credit/no credit

Before moving forward with determinations of “no credit” schools are strongly urged to consider whether the students have had equitable access to learning opportunities (eg: technology, health, disability, and language challenges).

In accordance with these guidelines, we have developed the remote learning plan outlined below. We are confident this is a sustainable and accessible means of providing meaningful and engaging learning opportunities for our students in a way that is equitable and takes into consideration the needs of all of our students.

While the details of the plan are explained in the table below, the key components of the plan include:

A weekly learning calendar for each grade level and department to provide students with approximately 3 hours of engaging and meaningful learning activities each day focused on review of previously taught skills so as to reinforce and deepen students’ understanding of content;

Support from special education staff and language development coaches to ensure all student have resources to make the content accessible to them;

The inclusion of “no tech” learning options;

Teacher-initiated outreach to students at least twice per week;

A minimum of 180 minutes of office hours per week for each educator so students can have direct and immediate access to their teachers;

Feedback from teachers;

Opportunities for teachers to tailor the learning to meet students’ individual needs; and

Grading incentives to keep students engaged while ensuring those students dealing with challenges are treated equitably.

This work is incredibly important as it provides structure and opportunity for our students and I am particularly grateful to our Office of Teaching and Learning, Special Education and Multilingual Education Departments, and to our FTA partners for developing this model to serve our students as best as we are able during this challenging time.

And to all of our teachers, support staff, department heads, coaches, and directors: We could not do this work without all of you. Your contribution is critical to the success of this remote learning plan for all students, but particularly for our most vulnerable population. We ask that you keep the needs of ALL students in mind as you develop plans, communicate with students and families, and schedule your office hours. If there is anything that you need or anything we can do to support you, please do not hesitate to reach out.

We will, of course, continue to check in with all of you as we proceed.

My best,

Bob

Remote Learning Plan

Framingham Public Schools

Responsibility	Elementary Schools	Middle Schools/High School
Teacher contact with students	Teacher Initiated: Minimum of 2 times per week outreach to each student. Can be via email, phone call, and/or videoconference. All teachers will maintain a log of this communication. If a student has not made contact with the teacher (via response to email, logging in to Canvas, turning in work, etc) for five consecutive school days, then the teacher should notify their school principal. Student Initiated: Teachers should make themselves available for “office hours” for a minimum of three hours per week (each session should be at least 30 minutes in length) through either designated times when they will be available to immediately respond to emails, make phone calls (via sign up) , or conduct virtual hangouts for students to drop in if they have questions. Teachers should be flexible with students in that sometimes a phone call will be the best way to answer a student’s question. All teachers will add their virtual classroom (Canvas, Google Classroom, or an email address) to a spreadsheet that will be published for all families to access.	Minimum of 2 times per week teacher-initiated outreach to each student. Can be via email, phone call, and/or videoconference. All teachers will maintain a log of this communication. If a student has not made contact with the teacher (via response to email, logging in to Canvas, turning in work, etc) for five consecutive school days, then the teacher should notify their school principal. Teachers should make themselves available for “office hours” for a minimum of three hours per week (each session should be at least 30 minutes in length) through designated times when they will be available to immediately respond to emails, make phone calls (via sign up) , or conduct virtual hangouts for students to drop in if they have questions. Teachers should be flexible with students in that sometimes a phone call will be the best way to answer a student’s question. All teachers will add their virtual classroom (Canvas, Moodle, Google Classroom, or an email address) to a spreadsheet that will be published for all families to access.
Review of previously taught content	Weekly calendar of activities for each subject and grade level; includes some student choice for those that are more advanced or struggling. Special educators and ELD coaches will support teachers in ensuring content is accessible to all students. For special educators, this may be done through collaborative Team Time and for ELD coaches it may require review of the weekly calendar upon completion to add resources or provide suggestions to help students. If there are resources (websites, graphic organizers, apps, etc) that are generally helpful for students, those can be added at the bottom of the weekly calendar. For students who do not have access to technology, teachers will provide guidance on what can be accomplished at home–reading books, newspapers, magazines; practicing math facts, etc. Timeline: Submitted to be posted on Website and/or Canvas by Friday at noon for the upcoming week.	Weekly calendar of activities for each subject and grade level; includes some student choice for those that are more advanced or struggling. (Review, Practice, Challenge) (Emerging, Intermediate, Advanced) For sub separate classes this instead can be just a choice of two media–video or interactive games (link omitted.) Department Heads will coordinate this work in collaboration with teachers, but there will be one document shared for all 3 middle schools and 1 document per department at FHS. Content for high school “specialty”courses (like Facing History, Anatomy, etc) in the core departments and AP courses will be emailed directly to kids and not added to this calendar. Special educators and ELD coaches will support teachers in ensuring content is accessible to all students. For special educators, this may be done through collaboration with department heads for ELD coaches it may require review of the weekly calendar upon completion to add resources or provide suggestions to help students. If there are resources (websites, graphic organizers, apps, etc) that are generally helpful for students, those can be added at the bottom of the weekly calendar. For students who do not have access to technology, teachers will provide guidance on what can be accomplished at home–reading books, newspapers, magazines; practicing math facts, utilizing textbooks that are hopefully at home, etc. Timeline: Submitted by noon each Friday for posting to Website and/or Canvas for the upcoming week.
Teachers provide feedback	Teachers will provide feedback as appropriate. Specifically in elementary this will work through monitoring standards based lessons on iReady, Imagine Learning, and Elefante Letrado.	Teachers will provide feedback on turned in work as appropriate. This will not necessarily be expected for every assignment, but teachers should be reviewing student work to identify misconceptions and areas where students are struggling to provide support and/or redirection as needed.
Teacher voice and autonomy	The weekly calendar of activities is provided as a resource for all families to support students in engaging in meaningful learning. For teachers that have data to show their students do not need to practice the skills that are recommended in the calendar, they may provide their own review/enrichment activities to support student understanding of content that has been previously taught. For students in the class that have not mastered the skills, the calendar can serve as the appropriate recommendation for them.	The weekly calendar of activities is provided as a resource for all families to support students in engaging in meaningful learning. For teachers that have data to show their students do not need to practice the skills that are recommended in the calendar, they may provide their own review/enrichment activities to support student understanding of content that has been previously taught. For students in the class that have not mastered the skills, the calendar can serve as the appropriate recommendation for them.
Student learning for half a day	Elementary will allow for 20 minutes per designated subject.	Middle school teachers should plan to provide 30 minutes of work per day per subject to students in ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies, Physical Education, 30 minutes per day of independent reading, and 30 minutes per week of both iReady Math and iReady reading. High school teachers should plan to provide a minimum of 30 minutes of work per day per subject including electives, with additional optional enrichment activities offered by all departments.
Grading	All grading will be credit/no credit.	Middle school grades will remain open for Trimester 2 so students can continue to make up incomplete or missing work. No student will get a F for Trimester 2. High School: Merge terms 3 and 4 to create a single grade for Semester 2. No student’s grade can decline due to work not completed during the school closure. Any work that is submitted can only be graded as credit/no credit with no numerical or letter grades. Students’ grades can improve due to work that is submitted during the school closure, however teachers will need to be mindful of equity of access and make accommodations for students who do not have adequate access to technology. No final exams. For full-year courses, the final end-of-year grade will be the average of term 1 (30%), term 2 (30%), semester 2 (30%) and the midyear exam (10%).
Planning for missed content	Coaches (and those listed above for the weekly calendar work) will work collaboratively with teachers to identify which standards will not be covered this year and will need to be taught next year. This will include identifying which standards teachers will teach upon our return (assuming we return on May 4) and which will not be taught. This information will then be communicated to the appropriate next grade level and planning will begin for embedding and compacting standards next year as deemed possible. Coaches will communicate with OTL on a regular basis.	Department heads will work collaboratively with teachers to identify which standards will not be covered this year and will need to be taught next year. This will include identifying which standards teachers will teach upon our return (assuming we return on May 4) and which will not be taught. This information will then be communicated to the appropriate next grade level/course and planning will begin for embedding and compacting standards next year as deemed possible. Department heads will communicate with the Office of Teaching and Learning on a regular basis.

Sincerely,

Bob Tremblay

Please excuse the formatting of this letter.