OSPI Early Learning Newsletter October 2019 

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Welcome!

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In This Issue


Great Kindergarten Transitions

As part of a state scan of kindergarten transition practices funded by the Preschool Development Grant, OSPI, in partnership with the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), interviewed Early Learning and Early Childhood Special Education Coordinators from each of the nine Educational Service Districts (ESDs). Through their close involvement with WaKIDS, Washington’s kindergarten transition process, ESDs see the breadth of early learning and kindergarten transition practices across the state and have a unique perspective on promising and research-based best practice. They were asked to identify the best kindergarten transition practices they have observed.

Here’s what OSPI heard:

  • Strong connection to entering kindergartners, developmentally appropriate kindergarten classrooms, and strong trusting relationships with families.
  • Staff speak children’s home languages.
  • School’s understand families’ cultures and support children to learn in their home languages.
  • Teachers connect with families during their non-work hours, especially migrant families.
  • Shared release time of early educators and kindergarten teachers for planning, shared professional development, and family conferences.
  • Kindergarten teachers who conduct home visits, as an option for the Family Connection component of WaKIDS.

Over the coming months, OSPI will gather more information about kindergarten transition practices directly from teachers and families, focusing on schools with high percentages of migrant students, English learners, special education students, and low-income students in regions with the highest rates of child welfare cases. 

If you or someone from your school district is interested in participating, please contact OSPI Kindergarten Transition Specialist, Gretchen Stahr Breunig at gretchen.stahrbreunig@k12.wa.us.


Important Updates and Reminders for WaKIDS Implementation 2019-20

WaKIDS is legislatively mandated to be part of state-funded, full-day kindergarten. WaKIDS includes a kindergarten entry assessment. Teachers must assess each kindergarten student and enter scores into an online platform called MyTeachingStrategies GOLD®. 

The assessment window begins with the start of the school year and ends by October 31st at 9 pm. District Assessment Coordinators (DACs) will have until November 2nd to confirm assessment completion for their district. 

We are in the home stretch for the assessment component of WaKIDS! Please review the following information to assure a successful completion to the fall assessment.

1. Confirm your class lists in MyTeachingStrategies GOLD® are accurate:

  • Missing students? Students who started school prior to October 15, 2019 must be assessed. If such a student is NOT showing up in a MyTeachingStrategies GOLD® class, teachers should notify their principal to contact the district assessment coordinator and ask him/her to move students into the classroom. All student moves must be complete by 4 pm, October 25th.
  • Need to remove a student? Teachers will not be able to finalize assessments if there are students in their MyTeachingStrategies GOLD® class with no data. Teachers must contact their principal to archive any students no longer in their classes. Click here for instructions on archiving students.
  • Spanish Language and Literacy Objectives? Teachers may see these objectives showing for some of their children. This happens when the Spanish Language flag is marked during the student import. If teachers are not assessing these objectives they should disable this option in the child’s account by clicking on the child’s name in the class list and checking “No” for the “Assess this child using the Spanish language and literacy objectives?” option. Click here for more information.
  • Preschoolers? Students enrolled as preschoolers should not be assessed in the WaKIDS license for the MyTeachingStrategies® online platform. Only kindergarten and Transitional Kindergarten students are permitted. If you have students who are enrolled as preschoolers in your district in MyTeachingStrategies® please delete the classrooms (instructions here) and archive the students (instructions here) by 4 pm, October 25th.

2. Monitor progress toward completion:

  • Check your assessment status: Teachers, principals and District Assessment Coordinators should run an Assessment Status Report, found in the Reports section of the MyTeachingStrategies GOLD®, to confirm 100% completion in the areas of Social-Emotional, Physical, Language, Cognitive, Literacy and Math. Areas for Spanish Language Acquisition are optional and may remain at 0% if not required by the district. Click here for support with the Assessment Status Report.

3. Assure assessment completion:

  • Teachers make sure their data is finalized: Once teachers have selected the appropriate level of development for all objectives within an area, they must confirm by clicking the “finalize” button.  A green icon with a white checkmark indicates that the selected level is the final level chosen for a given objective. All areas must be finalized for all students by 9 pm on October 31st. For information about how to finalize click here.
  • Confirm completion: District Assessment Coordinators have until 9 pm on November 4th to resolve issues with incomplete assessments.
  • Gender X students? MyTeachingStrategies® does not yet have an option for children who do not identify as male or female. Districts will have to make an arbitrary gender designation to upload them into the assessment platform. However, student gender information will be pulled from CEDARS, which will override this with the correct designation.
  • Check correct student attribution:  If your school/district offers Transitional Kindergarten DACs and CEDARS administrators have until November 5th to assure the correct student attribution has been selected so that Transitional Kindergarten student data is not reported with WaKIDS kindergarten entry data. Students participating in TK should be reported to CEDARS with an appropriate program code in Element I06 – Program Code at the school in which they are receiving services. Students in this program should be reported with a kindergarten grade level (K1 for full-day kindergarten and K2 for part-day kindergarten) in Element B13 – Grade Level.

Who to contact for support:
For technical issues related to the MyTeachingStrategies® online platform call: 844-853-4653. If your issue is not time sensitive, you may also email: wakids@teachingstrategies.com. There is typically a 48 hour turn around on emails, but telephone support provides immediate assistance.

Teaching Strategies also has a self-help portal with over 900, easily searchable articles to assist you. To access the portal, please click here.

Contact the WaKIDS Team for support at 360-725-6161 or wakids@k12.wa.us.


WaKIDS for Administrators Online Course

New to WaKIDS? Know someone who needs more information about our state’s mandatory kindergarten entry process, the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills? 

Register for a free, three-hour online WaKIDS training appropriate for principals, early learning coordinators, district office administrators, coaches and specialists.

This self-paced course includes: What is WaKIDS, Family Connection, Whole-child Assessment, Early Learning Collaboration, Using WaKIDS Data

To register, contact the early learning office at WaKIDS@k12.wa.org and ask for access to the WaKIDS for Administrators course.


Do You Need a Quick Start? WaKIDS Implementation 2019-20

Make sure that you have a copy of The WaKIDS Assessment Implementation Quick Start Guide 2019-20 , which includes an outline of key roles, responsibilities and timelines for the implementation of WaKIDS, with links to helpful instructions.

The guide can be found in the Messages section of MyTeachingStrategies®, the assessment platform used in WaKIDS or contact the WaKIDS Office at wakids@k12.wa.us.  If you do not have access to MyTeachingStrategies®, please contact your District Assessment Coordinator


Transitional Kindergarten?

“Promise Kindergarten”,Future Ready”, “Opportunity K” - these are all different names for the same thing: “Transitional Kindergarten”.

Transitional Kindergarten (TK) is a kindergarten program for children not yet age five who do not have access to high-quality early learning experiences prior to kindergarten and have been deemed by a school district, through a screening process and/or other instrument(s), to be in need of additional preparation to be successful in kindergarten.

Transitional Kindergarten programs must meet all the requirements of full-day kindergarten established in RCW 28A.150.315, including administration of the WaKIDS whole-child assessment, within the first ten weeks.

School districts interested in implementing should also ask themselves their following questions:

  • Is there a need? How do we know?
  • Who are the other programs in our community that serve children of this age and how will we coordinate enrollment?
  • Do staff have early learning backgrounds and the knowledge and skills to provide this kindergarten intervention?
  • How will we identify space and make it developmentally appropriate?

OSPI has created guidance for Transitional Kindergarten, in the form of Frequently Asked Questions, which can be found here on the OSPI website.

For more information about TK, contact Karma Hugo, Director of Early Learning at OSPI, karma.hugo@k12.wa.us


Personalize Learning with the UDL Lens

Special Education Technology Center (SETC) 2019 Annual Conference

Registration is open for the SETC 2019 Annual Conference: Personalize Learning with the UDL Lens. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that makes learning personal, offers choices, and removes barriers so that all students can achieve in an inclusive environment.

The Special Education Technology Center is a statewide grant funded OSPI project administered by Central Washington University. SETC provides training, consultation, technology loans and resource information to help school districts, educators, and families implement assistive technology (AT) interventions in addressing the learning needs of children with disabilities.

Date: November 13, 2019

Location: Spokane or participants can join remotely from locations in the Bellevue School District, Bellingham School District, Tacoma School District, and Olympic ESD 114.

Audience: District and building administrators. Team participation is encouraged but is not required. 

Information on registration for the conference and the Fall 2019 SETC webinar offerings are currently available now online. Questions? Contact SETC at (509) 963-3350 or wrightsu@cwu.edu.


OSPI Math Feature: Nothing Stopped Sophie

Written by Cheryl Bardoe, Illustrated by Barbara McClintock

When her parents took away her candles to keep their young daughter from studying math...nothing stopped Sophie. When a professor discovered that the homework sent to him under a male pen name came from a woman...nothing stopped Sophie. And when she tackled a math problem that male scholars said would be impossible to solve...still, nothing stopped Sophie.

For six years Sophie Germain used her love of math and her undeniable determination to test equations that would predict patterns of vibrations. She eventually became the first woman to win a grand prize from France's prestigious Academy of Sciences for her formula, which laid the groundwork for much of modern architecture (and can be seen in the book's illustrations).

Award-winning author Cheryl Bardoe's inspiring and poetic text is brought to life by acclaimed artist Barbara McClintock's intricate pen-and-ink, watercolor, and collage illustrations in this true story about a woman who let nothing stop her.

Ages 5 & up

Key Math Concepts

  • Math is everywhere
  • Perseverance
  • Women in math

Activities

Math is Everywhere. Sophie Germain constantly had math on her mind, and this book shows that math is involved in everything we do in our daily lives. Take students on a community walk around the school or neighborhood to point out and model for them how math affects everything around them. Have students observe and list the many ways math surrounds them, and perhaps challenge them to come up with math equations or problems to solve that explain some of their observations.

There is a great list of accompanying activities that have been put together by Diana Cruchley on her blog. Her activities incorporate cross curricular topics and span a range of grade levels. 

Copyright © 2019 All Rights Reserved. Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.

This year, we will be partnering with our Mathematics office at OSPI for special features in the newsletter! 


Stay Connected

Teaching Strategies Contact Information

For help with the GOLD® assessment and/or its online platform MyTeachingStrategies®, please contact Teaching Strategies directly:

Phone:  844-853-4653
Email:   wakids@teachingstategies.com

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District’s Early Learning Contacts

OSPI keeps a list of “Early Learning Contacts” posted here: Early Learning Contact List and Updates 

Contact Us

Early Learning Office Information

Ellen Mathews, Administrative Assistant for Early Learning and WaKIDS, OSPI  
Office: 360-725-6161 | Email: ellen.mathews@k12.wa.us or WaKIDS@k12.wa.us    

Amber Havens, WaKIDS Assessment Coordinator, OSPI  
Office: 360-725-6180 | Email: amber.havens@k12.wa.us   

Karma Hugo, Director of Early Learning, OSPI  
Office: 360-725-6153 | Email: karma.hugo@k12.wa.us