Opinions differ over the pace of change, but broad agreement that prior systems were deficient.
The School Committee and Newton Public Schools (NPS) administration met for over five hours on Monday, November 18, first at 5:30 in an executive session and leadership caucus, and then at 6:30 for the regular meeting. Further, a special work session on Monday November 25 lasted almost three hours (see Fig City News summary). Both meetings addressed academic instruction and supports, student assessment, and curriculum format.
November 18 Leadership Caucus – No changes to Chair, Vice-Chair
As is customary at the end of each calendar year, the School Committee convened in a special session to elect the following year’s Chair and Vice-Chair. The Chair position contains significant influence to set meeting agendas, recognize speakers, and form subcommittees. The existing Chair Chris Brezski (Ward 2) and Vice-Chair Emily Prenner (Ward 5) were unopposed to reprise their current roles, and each was re-elected unanimously. Tamika Olzsewski (Ward 4) provided her feedback on how they each can improve in the coming year.
November 18 School Committee – “Multilevel” classrooms again a flashpoint
The regular meeting began with Superintendent Anna Nolin introducing former Superintendent Dr. Irwin Blumer to give annual academic excellence awards to five students. Following the awards, Dr. Nolin continued with her regular update, which included annual elementary school improvement plans aligned with district-wide goals, the presence of a small number of service dogs in certain NPS buildings, three upcoming principal vacancies at Zervas, Memorial-Spaulding, and Burr elementary schools, and the reductions in class sizes in high school math and science relative to last year.
After approving a consent agenda, the two major items discussed were i) the academic topics of instruction and assessment and ii) the financial distress surrounding Newton Community Education (NCE) disclosed during the previous School Committee meeting on November 4. Following substantial discussion, the School Committee voted 8-0 to allocate $500,000 — that had been previously held in reserve as rollover funds to next year’s school budget — to instead provide near-term relief to NCE pursuant to a plan recommended by a combination of NCE and NPS administrators. A detailed article focused on NCE will be forthcoming from Fig City News.
The academic discussion centered on a Teaching and Learning presentation, titled Entry Plan Goals, from Assistant Superintendent Dr. Gina Flanagan, accompanied by Assistant Superintendent Dr. Gene Rountree. This presentation was preceded by, and built upon, discussion of a related 69-page MCAS analysis memorandum by Dr. Flanagan and NPS Chief of Data and Research Dr. Katy Hogue. The MCAS memo deconstructed NPS students’ spring 2024 MCAS scores across multiple subjects, demographic factors, and in comparison with six nearby school districts: Brookline, Cambridge, Lexington, Natick, Needham, and Wellesley. Like many statistical breakouts of NPS student performance, this one showed that Newton students scored above statewide averages, with significant variations by race and disability status. Across the seven districts (inclusive of Newton) in the comparative data, Lexington Asians are the highest achievers.
The Entry Plan presentation was composed of four “critical needs”:
- Common assessments and data-driven actions,
- High quality curriculum,
- Professional development for personalized instruction, and
- Writing development based on MCAS results.
Consistent with prior meetings and public statements, Superintendent Anna Nolin emphasized the needs for both (i) common student skill assessments across the district and (ii) curriculum content reviews, to inform the delivery of personalized academic instruction.
Although not explicitly on the meeting agenda nor highlighted in the Entry Plan presentation, the topic of multilevel classrooms was raised by several School Committee members, continuing debate from the November 4 School Committee meeting. Evaluation of multilevel classrooms, wherein students of varying abilities — including those studying regular, advanced, and honors coursework — are in a single class with the same teacher, is embedded in the overall academic work highlighted in the Entry Plan. Many of the School Committee members, as well as the Superintendent, referenced earlier public commenters in their remarks.
During that public comment period, Ryan Normandin, Newton South High School math/science teacher and Chair of the NSHS Faculty Council, followed up his November 4th comment criticizing multilevel classrooms by expressing concern that the stated NPS timeline for reviewing the current curriculum and making recommendations extended to May 2025, which would be beyond when current students would need to register for next year’s classes. Therefore this timeline implies that any significant changes to multilevel classes would be postponed until academic year 2026-2027.
Mr. Normandin’s public comment was followed by two NPS parents, Patrick Song and Manu Sarna, who reiterated the educator’s desire for an end to multilevel classrooms. Mr. Song cited a petition submitted to the School Committee with over 400 signatories (confirmed independently by Fig City News) identifying as Newton residents supporting this goal. The subsequent School Committee member comments and questions regarding multilevel classrooms included:
- The lack of analysis and evaluation by the NPS administration (when Dr. David Fleishman was the superintendent) which implemented multilevel classrooms in the late 2010s and early 2020s (Paul Levy, Ward 6)
- The need for any replacement system of separated advanced and honors classes have “on-ramps and off-ramps” to avoid fixed, multiyear tracking of students based on earlier performance (Emily Prenner, Ward 5)
- Advising the NPS administration not to necessarily make rapid changes to multilevel classrooms if more time was needed to optimize any new structure (Tamika Olzsewski, Ward 4). Ms Olszewski appeared to distance herself from the original change to multilevel classrooms in response to the petition cited by Mr. Song referencing “a previous school committee chair.” Ms. Olszewski, who was chair from 2022-2023, stated she was not the previous chair that the petition refers to and that she “was not on board when this [change to multilevel] was devised and implemented.”
- Questioning whether moving quickly to re-level classrooms, even if pursuant to a still-evolving curriculum analysis, was still preferable to such a widely-criticized status quo (Chris Brezski, Ward 2)
- The citation of a Newton South High School student survey that indicated some dissatisfaction with multilevel math classes (Joya Tendulkar, Student Representative)
- A reminder of the upcoming expiry of non-recurring cash infusions to NPS that previously had been used for new curriculum purchases, due to exhaustion of ARPA funds and declining interest rates leading to lower cash interest on City balances (Mayor Fuller)
The replies to these comments from Drs. Nolin, Flanagan, and Rountree did not defend the current practice of multilevel classrooms nor explicitly criticize it, but continued to emphasize that for any changes to achieve the desired results, both in terms of academic robustness and equitable access, they must be considered alongside the ongoing assessment and analysis work described in the Entry Plan presentation. Dr. Nolin gave the example of the district adopting an “integrated math curriculum” in the 2010s and stated only 6% of districts nationwide have done this. Due to this curriculum combining several discrete math subjects such as algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, and functions into the same period of instructions, NPS first needs to assess where students’ skills are today in order to return them to a more traditional math curriculum.
Further, all three administrators emphasized the need to define what regular, advanced, and honors curricula are each expected to accomplish prior to re-implementing them as discrete classroom offerings. The need to sharply improve prior NPS curriculum-review practices and student assessment data was shared by both the administration and the Committee. Dr. Nolin stated after the meeting to Fig City News: “It does not appear that the past administrators who implemented the courses as they are designed took any measurements of the impact of the program before and during implementation — which has been happening since before COVID — so I cannot give any concrete data to any parent about what has shifted or not, or changed or not during implementation of multilevel.”
In additional written comments to Fig City News, Dr. Nolin…
- Cited the challenges of COVID disruptions in evaluating the efficacy of multilevel classrooms,
- Acknowledged the strong views expressed by many parents and community members to her about this issue,
- Cited the labor conflict in the prior school year as delaying being able to work with educators fulsomely on the Entry Plan goals, and
- Said the district will be surveying families regarding out-of-school math supplements to understand the degree to which NPS families utilize them.
Dr. Nolin summarized to Fig City News the competing priorities of thoroughness and urgency by stating via email:
We are engaged in a full-scale K-12 math review that includes assessing our curriculum and the concept of multi-level classes. There are differences in programs across all of the middle schools and the two high schools. We are working to make the strongest programs we can possibly create for all grades and levels …we must undertake a comprehensive mapping of how the work has unfolded and what people really experience on all sides of it.
Our team will craft a next step plan which will demand strong written curriculum, clear level delineation and criteria for student placement, training for teachers, common assessments, and mechanisms to ensure that children are challenged at the appropriate levels across our system.
That said, doing this well cannot happen instantly, the school committee and mayor already have delineated funding for this purpose, and we are working with deliberate speed and reflective thoughtfulness to address our challenges.
Supt. Dr. Anna Nolin, to Fig City News
The meeting concluded with a vote to unanimously approve budget planning goals for this spring’s FY 2026 budgeting process. The November 18 meeting replay is available on NewTV.
North Shore Teachers Strikes
Although not directly impacting Newton, as of this writing the teachers strike in Beverly, MA has now exceeded Newton’s January-February 2024 strike as the longest in modern Massachusetts history. Concurrent teacher strikes in Gloucester and Marblehead were recently concluded on November 22 and 26, respectively. Newton Teachers Association President Mike Zilles has voiced support for all three striking unions, and the NTA website offers links for Newton residents to donate toward those unions’ strike funds.