|
The National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), in partnership with the National P–3 Center, is proud to announce the release of a new guidebook, Leading Learning Communities: A Principal’s Guide to Early Learning and the Early Grades (Pre-K–3rd Grade). The guide articulates a vision and practical strategies leaders in early childhood and elementary education can use to strengthen the learning opportunities provided to young children.
Backed by relevant and recent research findings, the guide defines six competencies to help elementary school principals navigate aligning Pre-K–3rd grade for children, families, and the adults who serve them within a school, and practical strategies that will support these competencies.
-
Competency 1: Understand Child Development and Its Implications for High-Quality Instruction and Interactions, Pre-K–3rd Grade
-
Competency 2: Develop and Foster Partnerships with Families and Communities
-
Competency 3: Embrace and Enact a Pre-K–3rd Grade Vision
-
Competency 4: Ensure Equitable Opportunities
-
Competency 5: Share Leadership and Build Professional Capacity
-
Competency 6: Promote a Culture of Continuous Improvement
The understanding of how to provide equitable and high-quality learning opportunities to young children not just in pre-K, but also throughout the primary grades, has grown in the past 10 years. This guide brings together current research and field-proven strategies about reforming elementary schools to effectively engage and support young learners and their families. Importantly, the guide also discusses the value of schools engaging with the mixed-delivery early care and education (ECE) system, and it also addresses the need for greater attention to equity issues across early learning and the early grades.
Go to Resource: Principals and Pre-K-3rd Grade
OSPI released a competitive grant process in iGrants Form Package 125 on March 23, 2021, and applications are due on April 22, 2021. OSPI and DCYF will select up to 10 school districts for a planning grant to establish a new Transitional Kindergarten program in fall 2021 with funding to help the district build a high-quality classroom from May to October 2021. This planning grant applies to school districts starting new TK programs and does not apply to the nine districts that received the grants in FP 101 for Phase 1 or for districts planning expansion of existing TK programs.
This grant provides the following elements to support best practice:
- Digital planning worksheet for school districts and early learning partners to assess the unmet need among four-year-old’s and ideas for screening to understand the children’s developmental needs.
- Support to create the required shared recruitment, waitlist, and enrollment with Head Start, ECEAP, Early Achievers family child care homes and centers, among other licensed community-based child care providers.
- Funding for one TK classroom to purchase Creative Curriculum® and contract for MyTeachingStrategies Cloud®
- $5,000 to purchase related materials for one Creative Curriculum® TK classroom and/ or outdoor play area
- Required completion of the TK Administrator Academy covering elements of developmentally appropriate practice, tools, partnering strategies with community-based early learning programs, family leadership and voice materials, and details on building a shared recruitment and enrollment process and staff.
- Support to hire staff representing children from BIPOC communities, with priority given to districts serving highest percentage of Black and African American students, American Indian Alaskan Native, Asian and Pacific Islander communities, and Hispanic communities.
This grant does not include teacher training in Creative Curriculum®, staff salaries, or apportionment for TK students. If you have questions, check the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) posted on the OSPI TK web page or email gretchen.stahrbreunig@k12.wa.us. We aim to learn from these mini-grants to inform best practice with all Transitional Kindergarten programs and encourage districts new to this work to apply.
FY22 grants to close the early learning opportunity gap
The FY22 Creative Start grant program seeks to close the opportunity gap for early learners, preschool to 3rd grade. It supports:
- New and continuing arts integration projects.
- Creative, academic, and social emotional growth for young learners.
- Innovative professional growth for early learning educators.
- Single-site efforts serving one location or Regional efforts that support multiple sites.
Grants for Single-site projects are for $5,000-$10,000. Regional (Multi-site) grants are for $10,000-$25,000. No matching funds are required.
Application open from March 4 through April 8.
Click here to learn more and apply.
|
WaKIDS 101 is the one-time training required for all kindergarten teachers new to WaKIDS. This includes Transitional Kindergarten and certificated special education teachers who provide instruction to kindergarten students with disabilities and Transitional Kindergarten teachers. The training introduces all three components of WaKIDS, including its purpose, structure, and possibility. Participants will gain a better understanding of how observation is foundational to effective instruction and learn practical strategies for collecting, using, and sharing evidence. Teachers must successfully complete WaKIDS 101 in order to administer WaKIDS.
Additional online WaKIDS trainings available include a training for administrators and a refresher training for teachers who already completed WaKIDS 101 but want to reacquaint themselves.
All WaKIDS trainings will take place throughout the summer, beginning in early July. Please visit the WaKIDS Events & Training page after April 21 to register.
WaKIDS Requirement for TK
Transitional Kindergarten is a kindergarten program in Washington designed for children under the age of 5, who are deemed in need of additional preparation for kindergarten the following year. TK is built on five pillars that outline the requirements of TK and Pillar I states “Transitional Kindergarten programs meet 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”. However, given uncertainties and difficulties of the past year, we have extended the WaKIDS assessment period for TK this year to twelve weeks from the program start date. Just as with the WaKIDS data from full-day kindergarten, TK WaKIDS data is equally valuable because it can serve many research and program needs. However, the primary purpose of administering WaKIDS is for teachers to build relationships with children and families and take inventory of the developmental skills and abilities of their children as they come into their class. WaKIDS data provides teachers with a plethora of information to individualize curriculum and instruction to meet each child’s need based on where they are on the progression of development and learning.
We have 10 years of WaKIDS data now that we use to drive WaKIDS programming, increase awareness of importance of early learning and align preschool-3rd grade standards. We hope to do the same with TK WaKIDS data. It is highly critical that all teachers are properly trained, administrators are fully aware of its requirements, and all data is submitted by the deadline.
All information is disseminated from the OSPI Early Learning office to District Assessment Coordinators (DAC) so that they can communicate with their program administrators and teachers who implement WaKIDS. We share and communicate about assessments and early learning news through many channels such as Monthly Assessment Update Webcasts hosted by the OSPI Assessment and Student Information team, Early Learning Newsletter and more. Also, Educational Service District (ESD) WaKIDS Coordinators are a great team of experts who can share more about WaKIDS and TK. You can find all 9 regional ESD WaKIDS Coordinators here. If you have any question, you can also email us wakids@k12.wa.us.
Checkpoint Dates for TK
As mentioned above, your TK WaKIDS data is due in 12 weeks from the program start date. If your program start date is on or before January 15, teachers must finalize their data by April 9. If your program start date is on or after January 18, teachers must finalize their data by April 23. Then, DACs have 3 business days to confirm that all their district’s TK data has been submitted.
Here is an article on 10 Tips for Successfully Completing the Checkpoint.
Here are the instructions on generating the Assessment Status Report.
Color Bands and Age/Grade Level for TK class
4-year-olds are typically preschoolers in Washington State, because children need to be 5 years old by August 31 of the year that they intend to enter kindergarten. However, since TK, which is designed for 4-year-olds, is a kindergarten program, we consider TK students ‘kindergarten students’. In MyTeachingStrategies®, there is no TK as the Age/Grade Level option for classes. However, since WaKIDS is hard-coded in Teaching Strategies’® system as Kindergarten Entry Assessment, all reports generated in the platform will show a purple color band for kindergarten, even if Pre-K has been selected as the Age/Grade Level for the TK class. Teaching Strategies® is researching whether or not this can be remedied given the unique situation with the WaKIDS license. In the meantime, in order to minimize confusion for families, we recommend teachers to use the Family Conference Forms and the Development and Learning Report as they will not confuse with the color band or Widely Held Expectation shown for 5-year-old kindergartners.
Here are the instructions on generating Family Conference Forms.
Here are the instructions on generating the Development and Learning Report.
Alondra Mendoza, Administrative Assistant for Early Learning and WaKIDS OSPI: 360-725-6161 | Email: alondra.mendoza@k12.wa.us or WaKIDS@k12.wa.us
Yoona Park, WaKIDS Assessment Specialist OSPI: 360-725-6180 | Email: yoona.park@k12.wa.us
Gretchen Stahr Breunig, Kindergarten Transition Specialist OSPI: 360-764-0445 | Email: gretchen.stahrbreunig@k12.wa.us
Karma Hugo, Director of Early Learning OSPI: 360-725-6153 | Email: karma.hugo@k12.wa.us
|
ALL STUDENTS PREPARED FOR POST-SECONDARY PATHWAYS, CAREERS, AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT.
Led by State Superintendent Chris Reykdal, OSPI oversees K-12 public education in Washington state. Our mission is to provide funding, resources, tools, data and technical assistance that enable educators to ensure students succeed in our public schools, are prepared to access post-secondary training and education, and are equipped to thrive in their careers and lives.
|
|
 |
|
