Holiday Heads Up – Our PTO board asked me to share with you that a holiday gift will be arriving for you on Friday, December 18th in the morning.
Staff Meeting for tomorrow is postponed until Tuesday next week. I know there are a lot questions regarding Expanded LIPI so I want to make sure I have the most updated information prior to this meeting. New date and time: Tuesday 12/15 at 2:45. My WebEx room.
Quick Clarification: Current LIPI vs. Expanded LIPI – Expanded LIPI is a completely different conversation and this is our district’s newest attempt to get all students into our buildings for some instruction within the rules of the metrics. For our current purposes, we will table this conversation for later and just focus on “Current LIPI” from this point on;
What does LIPI look like? This is a great question. Current LIPI includes a wide variety of models even just within our district. Some schools have one group for 2 hours a week and some schools have more groups more frequently throughout the week. In the most ideal situations, there is specific instruction tailored to the student’s need occurring, but some appear to simply be supporting CDL on site. So the only real consistency is that there is some form of an offering of LIPI.
Who provides LIPI? There are some schools where connectivity is a large issue for the population where the classroom teachers have taken on the responsibility for providing LIPI in addition to CDL. We need to keep in mind some of these populations have zero internet access, so the time spent on CDL is difficult when it’s not reaching home. Most schools have LIPI staffed with different (non-classroom teacher) staff.
As of the week before Thanksgiving, most all the elementary schools are offering some form of LIPI. Middle schools are just starting to go down this path as of this week and I believe all three large high schools are offering it.
LIPI should be considered the highest-tiered intervention (last resort) for supporting a student in one of the following areas (ABCs);
- Attendance (and Access)
- Connectivity issues (limited or no internet access) – this is not about glitchiness during live sessions and it’s not limited to WebEx. If the student accessing and completing the assignments, then they have access.
- Difficulty utilizing technology to engage in instruction – identify the cause of the difficulty and be sure other interventions have been attempted.
- Lack of participation in online instruction/ platforms – Assuming the students would participate if they could, what is getting in the way and what has been tried to mitigate the issue so far?
- Behavior
- Social, emotional, or mental health needs – We have a large percentage of students who are already well-supported by PODs, siblings, neighborhoods, TEAM-up and parents at home. LIPI should be focussed on students without any of that support in place. LIPI should be used as a solution if contact with peers or staff will help address these needs, but we need to remember the contact will be within our social distancing guidelines. There are cases where this “solution” caused more frustration rather than helped.
- Not meeting behavioral expectations of an online learning environment – This is a tricky one because we already have an incredibly high standard set for our population for behavioral expectations. We need to keep in mind that there is a large range of typical and acceptable behaviors for each level of elementary grades. Modifying the expected workload, production, participation should be attempted first before LIPI.
- Course Performance/Subject Proficiency – the language of this is geared more toward the secondary setting. We have to be careful with this since we are so limited on accurately assign proficiency levels or progress.
- Not passing classes/need academic support
- Unable to complete requirements of a course in a distance learning format
- Need to complete assessments in person
Based on our current participation and engagement levels at each of our grade levels, when a robust and well-organized CDL is provided along with flexibility for individual needs as they arise, most concerns can be addressed which needs to be acknowledged (you are doing great work!). Prior to recommending LIPI as the intervention for any student due to concerns in the areas of above, there should be well-documented attempts at other interventions, (one-on-one meetings/calls, parent contacts, modification to requirements, etc.)
After meeting with Jay, Heidi E, and Heidi T we are looking to provide a LIPI group on Wednesdays (exact time yet to be determined). The next step will be for each of you to think about 1 or 2 students in your class who may fit the profile for LIPI. Next, you will meet as a grade-level team to meet and develop a shortlist of students to be considered for LIPI based on the three areas above. We [Heidi, Heidi, Jay, & me] will need to examine the list for each grade level and the prioritized needs against what we feel we can provide during the two-hour time frame to determine the final list of students. Ideally, we will examine these lists over the course of next week and look to start this group after the break (most likely January 13th as a target start date).
Should you be offering LIPI to anyone right now? Absolutely not. We don’t know what the program will provide and we don’t know if what we can provide will address the needs yet. That will evolve as we see your lists of potential students and needs.
When will we know the final list? That depends on how many different situations we need to consider. It would be great to have a “working” list by the end of next week.
Can we have more than 20? No. The group size cannot exceed 20 and we do not have available spaces to accommodate multiple groups unless we take over your classrooms.
Do students have to come? No, LIPI is entirely optional.
Where will we provide LIPI? The library will be our location.