| 2018-19 Regional PreK-3 Leadership Workshops |
 |
Regional P3 Leadership Workshops
Focused, high-quality PreK-3 systems provide us with the greatest potential for achieving World's Best Workforce (WBWF) goals. PreK-3 systems with a broader scope, including collaborations with other organizations and providers, enable communities to focus their efforts on maximizing child outcomes.
These workshops are about learning and doing. District/community teams will spend time learning about evidence-based school improvement strategies within a PreK-3 system, followed by dedicated time spent on ensuring the most impactful school improvement strategies are effective in your PreK-3 system.
Day 1 - Elements of High-Performing PreK-3 Systems: Community Partnerships, Transitions, and Data-Driven Improvement
Day 2 - Teaching and Instructional Quality in your PreK-3 System: Aligning Curriculum, Assessments and Instruction, and Ensuring High-Quality Learning Environments for ALL Students
Day 3 - Blending and Braiding: Maximizing your Federal, State, and Local Resources to Support your PreK-3 System
Alignment and coherence are a focus throughout the workshops where teams practice aligning on paper (e.g. practices, procedures, policies, etc.) followed by ensuring alignment in practice, which is coherence.
Team Participation
Who Should Participate
Districts and charter schools must register in teams. Since the workshops are focused on action, team members should include those who are in a position to contribute to the design, implementation, and evaluation of your PreK-3 system. Suggested teams minimally consist of: early childhood administrator, elementary school principal, Head Start Director and community early childhood program leader. Day 2 teams should add a teaching and learning administrator or specialist. Team members may be different for each session. Team leaders should decide who is best suited to participate in each session.
Locations
DULUTH COHORT: Northeast MN
Dates: Nov 28, Jan 24, Apr 1 - 10am-3pm
FERGUS FALLS COHORT: West MN
Dates: Feb 13, Apr 4, Jun 11 - 10am-3pm
LITTLE FALLS COHORT: Central MN
Dates: Dec 4, Jan 15, Feb 26 - 10am-3pm
OWATONNA COHORT: Southwest MN
Dates: Nov 13, Mar 5, April 17 - 10am-3pm
THIEF RIVER FALLS COHORT: Northwest MN
Dates: Dec 6, Jan 9, and Feb 27 - 10am-3pm, (Feb 27 is remote)
TWIN CITIES COHORT: East MN
Condensed 2-day workshop at Maple Grove Community Center
Dates: Mar 14, Apr 25
WESTBROOK COHORT: Southwest MN
Dates: Dec 10, Apr 17, TBD - 10am-3pm
Day 1 - Agenda & Resources
Agenda
Day 1
Click Here
Presentation Slides
Day 1
Click Here
Tools
2018-19 PreK-3 Regional Workshops – Team Activities Summaries
Click Here
Mapping Programs and Services Using the Kauerz Framework
Click Here
Mapping Leaders Using the Kauerz Framework
Click Here
P3 Alignment Activities
Click Here
P3 Planning - Post-Session 1
Click Here
Resources
From Fragmentation to Coherence: How more integrative ways of working could accelerate improvement and progress toward equity in education
Click Here, Carnegie Corporation of New York, November 2018
Videos
Community Learns Sign Language to Engage with 2 Year Old Girl
A two-year-old girl who is deaf loves to chat with anyone. When her neighbors found out, they came together to learn how to communicate with her. Steve Hartman reports from Newton, Massachusetts, for "On the Road."
Click Here, YouTube, CBS News, February 15, 2019
Lessons from the Longest Study on Human Development TED 2017
For the past 70 years, scientists in Britain have been studying thousands of children through their lives to find out why some end up happy and healthy while others struggle. It's the longest-running study of human development in the world, and it's produced some of the best-studied people on the planet while changing the way we live, learn and parent. Reviewing this remarkable research, science journalist Helen Pearson shares some important findings and simple truths about life and good parenting.
Click Here
Vista Unified P3 Continuum
The P-3 Continuum is a system to provide articulated family supports and early foundational language, literacy and numeracy supports to children starting before they are born and continuing into the early elementary grades. The P-3 Continuum places equal emphasis on the development of social/emotional skills and academic competencies. We have found that many of the students coming into kindergarten with an achievement gap lacked the socialization skills necessary to apply themselves academically. Additionally, a central focus of the continuum is to coordinate strategically with a variety of health and human community services that many students simply do not access until they start kindergarten. We call these wrap-around services because, if provided in a timely manner, they wrap around the student as their brain and body are forming.
Click Here, or go to: https://vimeo.com/252727656
Module 1
Getting Started
Foundation of P3 Work:
- Alignment (both vertical and horizontal)
- Coherence (ensuring alignment in action)
- System building and system reform
P3 Work Requires:
- Commitment (P3 is a new system and a new way of working. It is never complete, but always evolving and improving)
- Clarity (Districts and communities must fully understand the nature and purpose of P3 work)
- Collaboration (many variables impact child outcomes, requiring P3 systems to focus on human capital throughout)
Activity 1: Child Development and School Success
What influences a child’s development and learning (and ultimately life outcomes) throughout the early childhood age span (birth to age eight)? For example, what impacts third grade reading? (school engagement, social skills, health, income, etc.)
Mapping
- Discuss and write variables/events (can be specific or general; significant or minor impact)
- Create poster depicting age continuum
- Organize/depict variables/events on continuum
- Initial assessment, how does your current system(s) influence these variables?
Purpose
- Allows team members to see child development and key factors related to school success along the prenatal to grade three continuum.
- Facilitates discussion on what is being prioritized and what needs to be prioritized, including the perspectives of team members with different backgrounds and roles.
- Helps teams identify levers of change that could make the greatest impacts.
- Shows how your current system impacts the variables generated.
Team and Group Discussion
- What are the benefits of seeing development on a continuum like the one you created?
- Who are the adults that impact children's learning and development throughout the continuum?
- Did you identify any gaps or areas that should be prioritized?
- How could you use this activity to build shared understandings and advance your P3 work?
- What levers of change could make the greatest impacts?
Activity 2: Developing Shared Understandings about your P3 Work
Team Discussion
- How would you define P3 in your community/district/school?
- What is your role in a P3 system? How would it be different than what you are currently doing?
- What does it look like now – what should it look like?
- What should it accomplish?
Activity 3: Mapping Current Efforts in Your Community
Identify current efforts in your district and community. These may be programs, services, initiatives, funding streams, etc. (in other words, what is being done in your community that impacts or influences child development and school readiness?). Before starting, discuss the data/information you need in order to complete the activity (e.g. strategic plans, WBWF plan, community programs and initiatives, etc.).
Mapping
- Discuss and brainstorm all the programs, services, initiatives, plans, etc. (i.e., anything you identify, formal and informal, that may impact child learning and development).
- Make sure to consider activities in the community through the city, county, funders, health, businesses, faith community, and so on (e.g., Reach Out and Read, well-child care, family support programs, enrichment opportunities).
- Build off of poster created during Activity #1 or create new poster depicting age continuum
- Organize/depict events, activities, structures, and resources on continuum
- Initial assessment, what data/information do you need to expand or enhance your findings?
Purpose
- P3 is about system building and coherence. This activity allows you to see current efforts throughout your system as well as other systems.
- Facilitates discussion on what is currently taking place and what should be taking place.
- Identifies opportunities for better coordination and planning.
Team and Group Discussion
- What are the benefits of seeing this information on a continuum like the one you created?
- What role does data play in the process? Are the gaps or areas where more data is needed?
- Does our organization's plans and goals reach all areas vertically and horizontally?
- How do we prioritize our work/efforts based on our findings?
- What goals should we create? Or, how do our current goals need to be enhanced?
Activity 4: Mapping Your Early Childhood Systems
Now that you have identified current efforts (e.g., programs, services, initiatives, funding streams), map out your current early childhood systems/programs.
Children are in a variety of settings prior to kindergarten. These settings can be parts of formal systems (e.g. licensed child care or Head Start) or parts of informal systems (e.g. FFN care). The purpose and intensity of these settings will vary, and children may be in a mix of settings. When building a P3 system, for numerous reasons, it is essential that you understand where children are throughout the birth to grade 3 continuum. For example, if we are going to build a comprehensive, coherent P3 system, we need to understand children's learning experiences sequentially throughout the continuum.
Mapping
- Discuss and brainstorm all the places children are before they enter kindergarten (e.g. child care centers, ECSE, preschools, FFN care, Head Start, Early Head Start, ECFE, private preschools, etc.).
- Make sure to consider informal places and how you would identify new children/families.
- Create new poster depicting age continuum or system areas (e.g. early childhood and K-12).
- Depict all of the places where children could go to kindergarten, or where kindergarten age children are schooled. Work backwards to identify all of the programs/places that feed into the kindergarten opportunities.
- Initial assessment, what data/information do you need to expand or enhance your findings?
Purpose
- To identify and learn about where children are in your district/community before they enter kindergarten?
- To help you identify and plan your level of support in each part of the system.
- To help identify potential partners.
- To show where alignment needs to happen (e.g. transitions, practices, priorities, etc.).
Team and Group Discussion
- What are the benefits of seeing a map of the places that feed into your elementary system?
- What are the feeder patterns throughout the system?
- How are transitions between the parts of the system?
- How do you identify and understand ALL children in your community?
- Where are there opportunities for partnerships?
- Future task is to identify alignments throughout the system (these can be policies, goals, practices, beliefs, etc.).
Activity 5: Analyzing Current Alignment Efforts
“Most likely, you are already doing a lot of alignment work.”
Remember that the two most prominent practices of P3 work are alignment and coherence. When we align, we are aligning things on paper. The goal from here is to achieve coherence, which is ensuring that what we aligned on paper is coherent in action. This exercise helps us learn the process by identifying and analyzing some current practices. Start with something easy, then work toward more challenging efforts.
Process
- Pick a topic. For example, school calendar, start times, transportation.
- Identify how the topic is aligned vertically and horizontally throughout your system.
- Examine the coherence or action component of this alignment (i.e., is it aligned on paper and in action?).
- Assess how well the alignment works from different perspectives (e.g. for children, for families, for other parts of the system, fiscally, etc.).
Purpose
- The purpose of this activity is to practice the essential strategy of P3 systems, working towards alignment and coherence.
- Identify easier areas of alignment before tackling more challenging or complex areas.
- Practice being intentional about alignment and the process of achieving coherence.
Team and Group Discussion
- What are the benefits of alignment planning and assessment?
- What did you discover from doing this activity?
- How does this impact district/building/program plans?
- How does this impact policies, procedures, practices, etc.?
Activity 6: Governance and Leadership of Your P3 System
Just like an organization, high-performing P3 systems require high-quality leadership and governance. Since it is a system, P3 leadership needs to come from a variety of people at different levels/areas of the system. We should not only focus on who is leading P3 work, but who is not leading P3 work, as it is this area where problems with implementation or ineffectiveness reside. The governance of your P3 system will be determined by local factors, like who the organization is leading the work, funding, scope of work and goals, collaborations, etc. The important part at this time is that you start to identify leaders and key players throughout the systems.
Mapping
- Using your work from Activities 3 and 4, write names of leaders and key players/stakeholders.
- Keep in mind that you may need to add structures. For example, maybe the mayor or other civic leader is a big advocate of this work.
Purpose
- The purpose of this activity is to identify leaders and key actors throughout your P3 system.
- The activity also provides an initial glimpse into the strengths and challenges of implementation.
Team and Group Discussion
- What are the benefits of identifying potential leaders and key actors?
- How is your organization's current governance structured? Would P3 be incorporated or require a separate structure (that would then be aligned to existing structures)?
- How do your current plans, structures, and leaders impact your plans for P3 implementation?
- What is the capacity of your system to do this work?
- Do you need separate teams, or can the work be incorporated into existing leadership teams?
Day 2 - Agenda & Resources
Agenda
Presentation Slides
Click Here
Activities
Activity 1 - ECIPs Goal Setting
Click Here
Activity 2 - Curriculum and Instruction Goal Setting
Click Here
Activity 3 - Assessment Landscape Scan
Click Here
Activity 4 - Next Steps
Click Here
Resources
A Focus on Teaching and Learning in Pre-K through 2nd Grade: Lessons from Boston
Click Here
Day 3 - Agenda & Resources
Agenda
Agenda - Day 3
Click Here
Two goals of the Regional Workshops
- Teams create a P3 plan that includes at least one current district goal, a new district/school/program goal, and a community goal.
- Districts are prepared to incorporate P3 into their 2019-20 World’s Best Workforce plans.
10:00 - Welcome and overview of the day
10:15 - Review Key Components of Days 1 and 2
- Building the foundation for P3 work
- Key P3 components – Day 1: data, partnerships, transitions
- Key P3 components – Day 2: standards, instructional quality, assessments
Teams: What were your key takeaways from Days 1 and 2? How has it, or how will it, impact your work?
10:45 - Focusing Direction (team activity #1) Fullan and Quinn
- Focusing Direction elements (shared purpose drives action, a small number of goals tied to student learning drives decisions, a clear strategy for achieving the goals is known by all, change knowledge is used to move the district forward).
Teams: What data is the most important to your work? What are strengths and priorities in your district/community? What is needed in your community to improve child outcomes? How will the focusing direction elements impact your work?
11:15 - Program Design and Essential Partnerships (broadening the scope and reach of your P3 system)
- 15 elements of high-quality (NIEER’s elements, which are built into budgeting tool)
- Meeting the needs of all students
- Mixed-Delivery (cross-sector, cross-discipline)
- Family engagement
12:00 - Lunch
12:00 - P3 Program Design (team activity #2) (ensuring a high-quality, implementable system)
- Key elements
- Estimated costs
- Estimated revenue
Teams: What are your known sources of revenue? What is your current early childhood programming? What would be the ideal system to provide to children and families in your community? What are estimated costs of your current versus ideal system? What costs could be reduced through in-kind support and/or partnerships?
12:30 - Blending and Braiding Funds to Support your P3 Work
- Potential funding sources
- Program requirements
- Leveraging funds
Teams: What are potential sources of revenue? What are program requirements of your funding sources?
1:30 - P3 Program/System Design (team activity #3)
- Teams design their P3 system, minimally addressing Goal #1 of the workshop.
- Teams work on their posters to prepare for gallery walk.
2:00 - Gallery Walk
- Teams post their work, visit other teams, and engage in discussion.
- Teams share out.
Day 3 Prep
Click Here
Resources
The Fast Track to Sustainable Turnaround: How one principal re-energized a struggling elementary school by focusing on coherence and distributed leadership.
Click Here
Slides and Budget Tool
Day 3 PowerPoint Slides
Click Here
PreK-3 System and Budget Planning Tool
Click Here
Videos
Leaders to Learn From: A Warrior Against the Inequities in Schools
As a former foster child, Superintendent Roberto Padilla of Newburgh, N.Y., identifies with students who face barriers to achieving their goals. He is on a mission to root out decades of uneven resources and other inequities in the Newburgh school district that for decades have held too many students back—especially those who are black, Latino, and low-income.
Click Here, YouTube, Education Week
Topic Video - Focus
In this video filmed at Park Manor Public School in Ontario, Vice Principal Liz Anderson describes the importance of focusing on the student. The Accelerated Learning Framework, developed at Park Manor to provide clarity about what learning needs to be, uses pedagogy as the driver and digital to accelerate learning.
Click Here, Michael Fullan
No Small Matter
Trailer for the game-changing documentary on early learning.
Click Here, YouTube, www.nosmallmatter.com
Day 3 - Team Activities
Preparation for Day 3
2018-19 PreK-3 Regional Workshops – Team Activities Summaries
This document helps teams identify and document their key information from each of the activities from Days 1 and 2.
Click Here
Activity 1 - Focusing Direction
We covered a lot of education components during the first two days, from child development to standards to assessments. If we tried to focus on everything, it would be overwhelming and our P3 implementation would fail. Ultimately, P3 will be incorporated throughout your system. But, starting out, we need to focus direction to ensure we are building the foundation for successful implementation.
Guiding Questions
What data is the most important to your work? What are strengths and priorities in your district/community? What is needed in your community to improve child outcomes? What is the level of support for P3 in your organization/community? What is your district's/organization's vision and/or mission statement?
Focusing Direction Elements adapted from Michael Fullan and Joanne Quinn
- Shared purpose drives action. Work on clearly articulating the stated purpose and focus of P3.
- A small number of goals tied to student learning drives decisions. Create one P3 goal that is tied to an existing goal, create one new P3 goal, and one new community goal.
- A clear strategy for achieving the goals is known by all. Add at least one strategy for each goal.
- Change knowledge is used to move the district forward. See this component of the framework and choose elements to incorporate into your work.
Deliverable
The Ounce states that "Birth-through-3rd grade alignment requires vision, bold leadership, and strong commitment from a variety of stakeholders. Its success depends on implementing a coordinated system of policies and practices" (click here to read further).
Develop a shared moral purpose of your P3 work. What is your vision for your P3 system/work?
Resources
Coherence Progression Protocol - Focusing Direction
Click Here, Michael Fullan and Joanne Quinn
Create a Birth-through-3rd Grade Vision & Strategy
Click Here, The Ounce of Prevention Fund
Activity 2 - Ensuring High-Quality through Program Design
What would be the ideal system to provide to children and families in your community? How are you ensuring your PreK programs are high-quality? How are you ensuring K-2 is high-quality? What would your next steps be to build system comprehensiveness?
Activity 3 - P3 Program/System Design
Teams work on their P3 program/system design. Using poster paper, create a graphic/text that depicts/articulates your vision and system.
Here are some resources for inspiration:
Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education - P3 Framework
Click Here
Berkeley County Public Schools
Click Here
Boston School Readiness
Click Here
Early Matters Dallas Strategic Plan
Click Here
First5 - San Francisco
Click Here
Vista Unified School District (from Day 1)
Click Here
Next Steps - Work on P3 in Your District/Community
PreK-3rd Grade Systems: Lessons Learned from New York School Districts
- Select team members carefully.
- Build on existing strengths, priorities and efforts.
- Recognize where the district is on the path of PreK-3rd grade planning and implementation.
- Focus on early success in a few areas and then build on that success.
- Engage champions in the effort.
- Phase in activities and learn from early implementation.
- Develop a communication strategy.
Click Here, CEELO (Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes)
Click here for CEELO P3 alignment projects
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
New Early Childhood Coordination Requirements in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
Click Here, Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)
Non-Regulatory GuidanceEarly Learning in the Every Student Succeeds Act: Expanding Opportunities to Support our Youngest Learners
Click Here
