Quality Partnerships That Last A Discussion of Developing Pre-K - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Quality Partnerships That Last

A Discussion of Developing Pre-K Expansion Grant Partnerships in Orleans Parish April 8, 2016

Early Childhood Education in Louisiana

A 2013 Picard Center longitudinal study shows that children who participate in quality early childhood programs are more likely to enter kindergarten ready and to succeed in the long term. Only 54% of Louisiana children enter kindergarten ready. Children participating in the LA 4 program significantly outperform their peers who did not attend pre-K, with 5-11% higher rate of proficiency in all subject areas of the iLEAP and LEAP in 3rd-8th grade.

New Orleans Early Education Network (NOEEN)

The New Orleans Early Education Network (NOEEN) serves as the Act 3 early care and education network for Orleans Parish. NOEEN is led by Agenda for Children and governed by the NOEEN Steering Committee.

37 Public Schools 23 Early Head Starts and Head Starts 10 Nonpublic Schools 84 Child Care Centers

NOEEN is dedicated to ensuring that every eligible child from birth to five- years-old has access to a free or low-cost seat in a high-quality early childhood education program by:

• Improving QUALITY in the classroom
• Increasing ACCESS for families
• Serving MORE children

Improving Quality

Prior to this school year, not all early childhood programs used a uniform set of standards or evaluation tools to measure progress. Now, NOEEN provides trainings and ensures that all 500 classrooms are using a uniform set of standards, student evaluation tools, and classroom interactions observations.

• TS GOLD checkpoints
• Twice-yearly CLASS system observations
• MyTeachstone access
• Teacher coaching for all early learning centers in the Preschool

Expansion Grant

Increasing Access

Before this year, parents had no resource available to provide them with information on the 150+ publicly funded early childhood options available. Now, NOEEN has partnered with EnrollNOLA and other community partners to:

• Create “OneApp: Infant to Pre-K 4”
• Provide trained early childhood Family Resource Center staff
• Develop the EnrollNOLA Early Childhood Catalog and the New Orleans

Guide to Early Childhood Education

• Build a centralized process to track enrollment in all programs

Serving More Children

This year, NOEEN created a single annual process for early childhood providers to request funding for various types of state-funded early childhood programs. This coordinated process has significantly increased the number of early childhood seats recommended by LDE to BESE for New Orleans providers for the 2016-17 school year:

• 130 additional free pre-K seats at public and

nonpublic schools

• 140 additional free pre-K seats at early

learning centers partnering with public schools in the Preschool Expansion Grant

Improving Quality

• Minimum quality star rating (2+ stars) and additional quality evaluation for

programs wishing to participate

• Agenda for Children provides regular on-site coaching for all PEG center teachers
• School-Center partnerships encourage sharing of best practices and special

expertise between school and center Increasing Access

• Enrolled through OneApp (New Orleans coordinated enrollment process for

grades PK-12)

• Included in New Orleans Guide to Early Childhood Education
• Additional, unique PK program option for families

Serving More Children

• 120 PEG seats in 2015-16
• 260 PEG seats in 2016-17
• Priority enrollment to School Partner’s kindergarten class

January - LDOE granted Agenda for Children funding to support 120 new PEG seats for four-year-olds in Orleans Parish February - Agenda for Children designed a plan for program implementation

• Due to an education landscape of 90% charter school population and 100+

centers, Agenda for Children needed to develop a process for interested schools and center to apply March – application and selection process for interested schools and centers

• Programs/partners had to be finalized by April

in order to meet the deadline to include new programs in OneApp Round 2 application

• Many Center Partners applied, however there

was a shortage of interested Schools to partner with.

Challenge Program application process that was rushed, not in-depth Details of program administration settled far too late Respective responsibilities for schools and centers were unclear Communication breakdowns between partners Center budget constraints During the first year of implementation, NOEEN encountered several challenges that necessitated proactive solutions.

The purpose of the handbook is to provide information and guidance to 2015-16 Preschool Expansion Grant school-center partnerships. This handbook has proven to be a valuable resource and seeks to provide the following information:

• Background
• Basic information
• Grant requirements
• Points of contact
• Appendix of important forms and information, including a school-

center partnership MOU

May 2, 2016

School-center partners Tomika Suarez and Karen Gauthier will now share their Year 1 PEG experience

• Tomika Suarez is currently the Director of Rainbow Academy and

Preschool and has held the position since 2001. Tomika has been involved in center operations since a young age, as her parents founded Rainbow Academy in 1973. Tomika is a lifelong New Orleans native and when not busy running her center (which is rare), she can be found attending her daughter’s volleyball games around the country.

• Karen Gauthier, is a career educator who is dedicated to making a positive

difference in the lives of children. Karen serves as an Early Childhood Coordinator/Literacy Facilitator with New Beginnings Schools Foundation, working with local school leaders, instructional specialists, teachers, students and families. In addition to her work as an educator, Karen enjoys traveling and sharing her love for New Orleans as a volunteer tour guide.

May 2, 2016

Challenge Solutions Program application process that was rushed, not in-depth

• Coordinated Funding Request for PEG, NSECD,

LA 4

• Evaluation committee made up of

representatives from public schools, centers and non-public schools

• Scores based on parent demand, quality,

citywide needs, and site visits Details of program administration settled far too late

• Partners formalized intent to partner in

February

• Collaboration Plan
• Kickoff meetings
• Monthly Meetings beginning in April

Challenge Solutions Respective responsibilities for schools and centers were unclear

• Launch and completion of 2015-16 MOU
• Review and revise 2015-16 MOU with partners
• Webinars on partner responsibilities

Communication breakdowns between partners

• Monthly PEG group sessions
• Kickoff meetings
• Clear points of contact
• Completion of 16-17 MOU

Center budget constraints

• 2015-16 budget evaluations
• Budget review for 2016-17 Center Partners

For the launch of the 2016-17 partnerships, NOEEN has developed the following SMART (specific and measurable) goals:

• Increase the number of PEG seats by 20% for 2017-18
• Teacher’s pre-k CLASS scores, specifically in the Instructional Support Domain,

will improve from fall to spring

• Ensure 90% enrollment in all PEG classrooms for 2016-17 and a minimum

monthly attendance rate of 75%

• All 2016-17 partnerships will continue for 2017-18
• The number of children in a PEG classroom

enrolling in their partner school’s kindergarten class the following year will increase by at least 10%

May 2, 2016