Superintendent reports midyear progress on UDL, belonging, MSBA eligibility and equity audit

Superintendent Dr. Chiu told the Westford School Committee on Jan. 21 that the district has completed an initial round of leadership walkthroughs aimed at calibrating how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is observed and discussed across buildings, and that the district will conduct a second, wider round of learning walks in spring 2025.

Dr. Chiu said curriculum coordinators have joined classroom walkthroughs alongside principals and have revised an engagement rubric to emphasize whether "the majority of students" demonstrate engagement rather than listing rare whole-class behaviors. "We're not going through this and using this for an evaluation at all," Dr. Chiu said, describing the walkthroughs as non-evaluative calibration exercises intended to build leadership capacity.

Why it matters: The walkthroughs are intended to prepare building leaders to support a districtwide rollout of UDL practices. Dr. Chiu told the committee the work aims to make UDL part of routine instructional conversations and to produce school-level practices principals can share with teachers.

Supporting details: The district engaged CAST (originally the Center for Applied Special Technologies) to give keynote presentations and leadership follow-up on UDL. The district has also contracted with Think Kids to support collaborative problem solving in elementary grades and with Pathways to Restorative Communities to develop a multiyear plan for community circles in middle school and Westford Academy. Dr. Chiu said elementary schools have formed school-based teams to lead collaborative problem solving and that principals are preparing building-level faculty meeting agendas to continue the work.

Dr. Chiu described a second goal — strengthening student sense of belonging — that will include development of an age-appropriate student survey to measure whether students can identify intentional strategies (UDL, collaborative problem solving, community circles) used to support engagement and belonging. He said the district aims to collect that survey data in spring 2025 so results can be included in the year-end evaluation materials.

MSBA and Robinson School: The superintendent said Westford remains in the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) eligibility process and has formed a Robinson School Building Committee that has met and toured the building. The committee has prepared maps of current space utilization and potential configurations and will publish materials and FAQs on a Robinson committee website maintained by district staff.

Equity audit: The district extended the timeline for an equity audit led by American Institutes for Research (AIR) to accommodate a two-year review. Dr. Chiu said a root-cause analysis event was held Dec. 9 and that an initial draft of AIR’s findings is under review and will be presented to the school committee in a future meeting. School advisory councils are scheduled to review findings at the building level.

Operational notes: Dr. Chiu also announced three operational items: Sheila McGovern, the district’s library media specialist at Christopholi and Robinson, was named among the Massachusetts School Library Association’s 10 "rising star" president awardees; the district continues to await a third-party investigation report from PowerSchool about a data incident and is coordinating with legal counsel and insurers; and Influenza A has led to elevated student and staff absences, with the district reminding families of standard exclusion guidelines (stay home with fever or vomiting/diarrhea for 24 hours after symptoms stop) and recommending vaccination.

What’s next: Dr. Chiu said the superintendent evaluation subcommittee will receive additional data links and measurable evidence toward the performance indicators later in the spring as the year-end evaluation is prepared.