Playbook for Becoming an Early Learning Community
The White House has released a Playbook for Becoming an Early Learning Community in conjunction with its recent Summit on Early Education. The Playbook outlines 7 steps, each with a number of recommended strategies and helpful examples from around the country: 1. Mobilize key stakeholders in your community. 2. Use data to share the basics on young…
“Collective Seeing, Learning, and Doing”
I have occasionally referred to the Collective Impact Model, a powerful approach cross-sector collaboration used by many communities across the country, including Pittsfield. The approach is based on the five conditions shown in the graphic above. The Collective Impact Forum has recently shared a great collection of resources in its Top Reads and Resources for…
Kind Summary of the Primary Years Agenda by Eye on Early Education
For a summary of my recent Kappan article, “The Primary Years Agenda: Strategies to Guide District Action,” see Birth to Third Grade: Seizing the Opportunities at Eye on Early Education. The Kappan piece will be available for free through December.
Does Your Design Process Look Like This?
Does your partnership sometimes “go wide” before focusing in on concrete strategies? For a helpful toolkit on designing new strategies, initiatives, and/or programs, see Design Thinking for Educators by the renowned design firm IDEO. Thanks for Bob Ettinger of Cambridge for sharing this resource. To see a creative application of this process to early education, check out the…
Ambitious Vision: Principal Leadership in PreK–3rd Learning Communities
The National Association of Elementary School Principals has published an ambitious vision of the principal’s role in PreK–3rd reform. This report, Leading Pre-K-3 Learning Communities: Competencies for Effective Principal Practice, outlines six competencies that together form a comprehensive approach to leading early learning partnerships. This approach will require district support in addition to principal leadership. The full…
Want to Run a Better Meeting?
Birth-3rd is about all manner of collaboration, and most collaboration requires meetings of one kind or another. Kathryn Parker Boudett and Elizabeth City of Data Wise fame have a new book, Meeting Wise: Making the Most of Collaborative Time for Educators. Check out this audio interview with the authors at Harvard’s Usable Knowledge website.
Early Learning Assessment Literacy
See The Early Learning Assessment Literacy Challenge at New America EdCentral for an article on the effective use of assessments in early childhood education. The article includes a number of embedded links to useful guidance documents, including Early Childhood Assessment: Implementing Effective Practice. From the EdCentral article: “A strong consensus among education experts supports the notion that one…
The Work of Kindergarten Readiness in Review
Tufts intern Jess Petraglia has compiled an impressive booklet documenting the learning of Somerville’s Kindergarten Readiness Group over the last 18 months: Somerville Kindergarten Readiness Booklet_2013-14. The Kindergarten Readiness Group is a professional learning community of community-based and public school early childhood educators. The booklet includes Somerville’s kindergarten transition form and visual summaries of the following topics:…
NAEYC Presentation on Birth-Third in Lowell
Linda Warren and I did a joint presentation on Birth-Third in Massachusetts at the NAEYC Professional Development Institute in Minneapolis last week. Linda and her colleagues at Early Childhood Associates are providing support to Lowell’s Birth-Third Alignment Partnership. Linda presented on Lowell’s strategy and plans, and I provided an overview of the EEC Alignment Partnerships. Linda…
National P-3 Institute this October
From Kristie Kauerz, Director of the National P-3 Center at the University of Washington. Please let me know if anyone would be interested in organizing a Massachusetts delegation. Applications are now open for the October 27-30, 2014 team-based National P-3 Institute. This four-day professional education institute is focused on implementation and evaluation of comprehensive P-3…