Taconic Becoming a Fully Vocational School: How did we get here? (Part 2)

View part 1 of this series of blog posts here!

The July 20th, 2022 School Committee Meeting

On the agenda for the July 20th, 2022 School Committee meeting was a “Presentation and Discussion on Steps Needed to Make Taconic High School a Full Vocational School for the 2023-2024 School Year” (timestamp 1:30:00 – 2:42:56).

This presentation by Taconic Principal Matthew Bishop, Assistant Superintendent for College and Career Readiness Tammy Gage, and then Pittsfield High Principal Henry Duval covered the following points (note that this information was accurate as of July of 2022):

Continue reading “Taconic Becoming a Fully Vocational School: How did we get here? (Part 2)”

Taconic Becoming a Fully Vocational School: How did we get here? (Part 1)

This is the first big blog post I have done on this site, so lets see how this goes!

I have been somewhat out of the loop for the past few months on where things stand regarding Taconic’s transition to a fully vocational school. This was an issue that popped up during my tenure as a student representative, but because it came close to the end of my tenure I didn’t get to discuss it that much (even though I tried to get a discussion on having the transition start in the fall of 2022 on the agenda before I left for various reasons). And because of my busy schedule this past fall I wasn’t really able to keep up with the Pittsfield School Committee that much. But as this is an important topic and that I received word from the district that the School Committee will be voting on turning Taconic into a fully CTE school at their January 25th meeting, I think it is a really good time to delve right back in and see where we are at.

But first, lets review how we actually got to this point. I’m going to start from the March 23rd School Committee meeting as that is when the School Committee seriously started to consider transitioning Taconic to a fully vocational school (and we need somewhere to start). Though I should point out there was a presentation given on this matter at the July 14th, 2021 School Committee meeting (timestamp 39:45 – 1:38:47) which does have a little bit of background information though that information is repeated throughout future presentations.

Continue reading “Taconic Becoming a Fully Vocational School: How did we get here? (Part 1)”

21-22 Pittsfield Public Schools AP Exam Data

With Twitter looking like it is going to fall flat on its face any minute now, I think it is a good time to be more active on this blog. And what a great way to start than with sharing some data!

Most of you may or may not know this, but the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education collects and provides access to a lot of data about each school district and school in the state. All of this can be accessed through DESE’s School Profile’s website.

One of the types of data they collect and share is the breakdown of Advanced Placement (AP) exam scores per high school per exam (if the number of students who took the exam is not less than 10). Recently they came out with the exam score data for the 21 – 22 school year, so I decided to look at how students faired on the AP Exam for Taconic and Pittsfield High.

Taconic

SubjectTests Taken% Score 1-2# Score 1-2% Score 3-5# Score 3-5
All Subjects21565.1%14034.9%75
Arts1250.0%650.0%6
      Studio Art: 2-D Design9    
      Studio Art: 3-D Design3    
English Language Arts5761.4%3538.6%22
      English Lang/Comp3577.1%2722.9%8
      English Lit/Comp2236.4%863.6%14
Foreign Languages4    
      Spanish Lang4    
History and Social Science8570.6%6029.4%25
      History: European2576.0%1924.0%6
      History: U.S.1675.0%1225.0%4
      Human Geography2166.7%1433.3%7
      Psychology2365.2%1534.8%8
Math and Computer Science3675.0%2725.0%9
      Calculus AB1291.7%118.3%1
      Computer Sci Principles1145.5%554.5%6
      Statistics1384.6%1115.4%2
Science and Technology1747.1%852.9%9
      Biology1020.0%280.0%8
      Chemistry7    
Capstone4    
      Capstone Seminar4    
Note – The number of students who passed or failed may be a bit off as I calculated those numbers from the percentages and then rounded.

I should point out that for AP Calculus the one person who passed that exam was actually me (still don’t know how though).

Pittsfield High

SubjectTests Taken% Score 1-2# Score 1-2% Score 3-5# Score 3-5
All Subjects33350.8%16949.2%164
Arts1030.0%370.0%7
      Studio Art: 2-D Design2    
      Studio Art: Drawing3    
      Music Theory5    
English Language Arts6740.3%2759.7%40
      English Lang/Comp5046.0%2354.0%27
      English Lit/Comp1723.5%476.5%13
Foreign Languages1450.0%750.0%7
      Italian Lang1    
      Spanish Lang1346.2%653.8%7
History and Social Science10658.5%6241.5%44
      Govt & Pol: U.S.4    
      History: U.S.2975.9%2224.1%7
      History: World2748.1%1351.9%14
      Human Geography1942.1%857.9%11
      Psychology2759.3%1640.7%11
Math and Computer Science3565.7%2334.3%12
      Calculus AB2185.7%1814.3%3
      Computer Sci A4    
      Statistics1040.0%460.0%6
Science and Technology5955.9%3344.1%26
      Biology2433.3%866.7%16
      Chemistry3    
      Environmental Sci9    
      Physics C: Mech1275.0%925.0%3
      Physics 11163.6%736.4%4
Capstone4233.3%1466.7%28
      Capstone Seminar2020.0%480.0%16
      Capstone Research2245.5%1054.5%12
Note – The number of students who passed or failed may be a bit off as I calculated those numbers from the percentages and then rounded.

Here is the data in Excel format if you find that easier to look at!

Closing Remarks at My Last School Committee Meeting

Here are the final remarks I gave at my last meeting on the Pittsfield School Committee as a student representative (May 25th, 2022). Not exactly what I said as I made some changes on the fly, but the message is the same.

And I am sad to say that this is my final meeting as a student representative (barring any special circumstance requiring a meeting between now and my graduation date). I have really enjoyed being in this important position, and I just wish I had more time here to continue this great work I have achieved. I have revitalized the role of the student representative, and I have even brought the district back into compliance with Mass General Law by having elected student representatives rather than appointed. I am so proud of the work that I have done, and I am excited to see the great work of the successor student representatives!

Now on to some thanks you:
I would like to thank former chair Ms. Yon for supporting my work on the school committee, including answering my various questions before and during my student representative tenure, as well as during my time on the superintendent search committee.

I would like to thank Dr. Cameron for also supporting my work on the school committee, also answering my various questions, and being willing to reach out to the student body at Taconic with his student meeting at Taconic.

I would like to thank the rest of the school committee members for supporting the work I do as well, and listening to my remarks during meetings and taking them into consideration during your deliberations.

I would like to thank Mr. Curtis for supporting the work I do on this committee, for being willing to work with me on matters pertaining to students (including holding elections for new student representatives), and for answering my various questions and emails over the past year or two.

I would like to thank Dr. Bishop for supporting my work that I do on this committee as well as all of the wonderful work I do at Taconic, and for also answering my various questions and emails from the past 4 years at Taconic.

I would like to thank my aunt, Lee School Committee member, and president of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees Andrea Wadsworth for helping me through the difficult times that I have faced on this committee and in my other involvements, as well as giving me good advice on how to handle myself at school committee meetings.

I would like to thank Sean Furbush, student representative to the Billerica school committee, on the various pieces of advice he has given me over the past year in my role as a student representative, as well as helping to create the game changer organization that will be the Massachusetts Association of Student Representatives.

I would like to thank my two fellow student representatives from PHS, Heather and Alma. Heather, I am very thankful for the work you have put into this committee and how dedicated you are to this role, and I am very thankful to have the opportunity to work with you this year. As I know you are not going to be in the district next year, I wish you the best of luck on your future endeavors. Alma, though we haven’t talked much you still showed up to these meetings, which shows that you are dedicated to this position and I think if you serve again you could make great impacts on you and your fellow peers.

And last but not least, I would like to thank the most important person in this room, Ms. Blake. You are the person that keeps the ship afloat by managing school committee minutes, documents, and being a general historian to the school committee. I would like to thank you for handling my various requests over the years, even before I became a student representative, whether that be requesting minutes or asking for more information about a certain policy. You make this ship run and I would like to thank you for that.

I am going to be attending Berkshire Community College this fall, majoring in Computer Networking and Cybersecurity. But even with this different pathway I will be going down I will still be involved in my local community, and this meeting will not be the last you will hear from me.

That is all I have for tonight and thank you all for everything you do!

BCC ENG-104 Research Paper: Computer Science Education Still Needed at Taconic: The Case for Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles and Advanced Placement Computer Science A

Author’s note: During the spring of 2022, I took ENG-104 Honors Composition II at Berkshire Community College with professor Nell McCabe. The course was a semester long research project on any topic of our choosing. I choose to discuss the state of computer science education at Taconic High School, which I am a student at. This is the final product at the end of the course.

Here is the PDF version of the research paper in APA 7th edition student formatting.

Abstract

Taconic High School, an academic and vocational high school in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, will be transitioning to a fully vocational school within the next two school years, and their information technology (IT) and computer science teacher will be retiring after this school year. This has caused the number of computer science elective course offerings to be limited to one, Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles (AP CSP). Even with the retirement of Taconic’s IT teacher, Taconic should offer AP CSP and Advanced Placement Computer Science A (AP CSA) to students interested in computer science, a demographic increasing due to the popularity of video games. Offering AP CSP would get these interested students comfortable with computer science, while offering AP CSA would allow these students to build upon the skills learned in AP CSP in this more advanced course. Implications are discussed on how these two courses should be offered at Taconic, including how the courses should be aligned to allow for all students to succeed in both courses. 

Continue reading “BCC ENG-104 Research Paper: Computer Science Education Still Needed at Taconic: The Case for Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles and Advanced Placement Computer Science A”

Pittsfield School Committee Meets Wednesday, April 27th 2022

Here is the link to the agenda for this meeting. And here is a link to the packet for this meeting.

Key things to note about this meeting (which there isn’t a lot of):

  • Approval of school choice participation – we get to see the number of students who will be able to school choice into Pittsfield
  • Adoption of the FY23 school year budget – so far it doesn’t seem like there are any updates on the budget from last meeting (thought that could change)
  • “Determination of the Format for the Superintendent’s Summative Evaluation in July 2022”
  • Executive session to discuss contract negotiations with the Pittsfield Federation of School Employees

So yeah, not a big meeting but there are still some important matters at hand.