Pattonville Early Childhood School Improvement Plan 2015 …fccms.psdr3.org/District/Pages/S02EB262E.0/Early Childhood School... · The team then evaluated the best possible strategies

DRAFT

Pattonville Early Childhood School Improvement Plan

2015-2017

DRAFTTable of Contents

I. Introduction & Mission Statement 3 .........................................................................

II. Planning Process 3 ..................................................................................................... .

III.Parent & Staff Survey Results 4 ................................................................................

IV.2014-2016 Early Childhood Improvement Plan 5 ....................................................

V. Gantt Charts 7 ............................................................................................................

VI.Research 19 ...............................................................................................................

VII.Bibliography 22 .......................................................................................................

Early Childhood School Improvement Plan 2014-2016 !2

DRAFTIntroduction

The Early Childhood Improvement Team (ECIT) was established in the spring of 2007. Parents, early childhood staff and community agency representatives attended regularly scheduled meetings to research, assess and develop a plan to improve early childhood programming and services for Pattonville’s families with young children. An integral part of this team’s focus is to support and contribute to the Pattonville Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP) by determining the extent of impact early intervention has on future student achievement. It is the desire of the Early Childhood Improvement Team to positively contribute to the district’s student achievement success at a significant level.

Pattonville Early Childhood Mission Statement

All children will be provided a safe, nurturing and positive learning environment. We are committed to creating developmentally appropriate learning opportunities for all children.

Planning Process

The Early Childhood Improvement Team has consisted of the following staff and community members over a two year planning period:

Mallorey Burns Parent

Joanna Chirwa Parent

Suzanne Falvey YWCA Headstart and Improvement Team Co-Chairperson

Lee Grant Early Childhood/ECSE Paraprofessional

Shelli Greenblatt Parent and Early Childhood PTO President

Christine Kent Early Childhood/ECSE Teacher

Cherie Magueja Early Childhood/ECSE Social Worker/School-Family Facilitator

Natalie McCarthy Parent

Lisa Schulte ECSE Occupational Therapist

Jan Schweiss Parent Educator & Early Childhood Screening Facilitator

Kristin Simpson Parent and Early Childhood PTO member

Andrea Snowden Parent and Early Childhood PTO member

Laurie Wenzel Director of Early Childhood Education and Improvement Team Co-Chair


DRAFTThe focus of the improvement team has been to determine the needs of the Pattonville community’s families with young children and develop a plan to address those needs. The needs of these children and families were then examined with the perspective of the broader needs of the district, specifically improved future student achievement. Based on research studied from both inside and outside the district, it became evident to the team that early intervention and education is necessary to support districts efforts toward improved student achievement. The team then evaluated the best possible strategies to implement at the early childhood level based on research. Besides the early childhood improvement team itself, subcommittees will be used for implementing and monitoring specific parts of the plan.

To ensure vertical agreement, the plan has been shared and is supported by all of the elementary school principals.

Parent & Staff Survey Results

A summary of the Early Childhood Improvement Plan was sent home to early childhood families who have young children in our classroom-based and itinerant program as well as other parents participating in the Parents As Teachers program. Each family was asked to provide feedback on the improvement plan.

Parent Survey Results

The Early Childhood Improvement Plan was also shared with each early childhood staff member. Each staff member was asked to provide feedback on the improvement plan.

Staff Survey Results

Question Number Percent

I support the plan

I support the plan with questions

I do not support the plan

Question Number Percent

I support the plan

I support the plan with questions

I do not support the plan


DRAFTContinuous Improvement Plan Guiding the learning of Students, Parents, Staff, and Community through the year 2016.

Mission: All children will be provided a safe, nurturing and positive learning environment. We are

committed to creating developmentally appropriate learning opportunities for all children. Goal: All students demonstrate significant improvement in their understanding and application of state

standards (including Missouri Early Learning Standards).

EARLY CHILDHOOD

Targets IndicatorsAction Steps

Research-Based and Data Informed Levers for change that Promote Continuous Improvement.

All early childhood students are proficient in Pattonville’s Early Childhood Curriculum, MO Early Learning Standards and/or Parents as Teachers Foundational Model Curriculum (CSIP Target A).

• Study space issues in the district for possible early childhood classrooms

• Explore other early education funding models.

• Revise the early childhood curriculum and assessments.

• Monitor and align service to the district demographic data

• Develop and monitor data demonstrating impact of early intervention in PSD

• Implement new Foundational Model Curriculum in the Parents as Teachers program

• Consider all possible space options in PSD for adding early childhood classrooms in collaboration with YWCA Head Start.

• Secure alternate funding options for further development of early childhood programming for children and families.

• Revise the early childhood curriculum and assessment based on current best practice early education and the Missouri Early Learning Standards.

• Develop programs for children and families in our school community so that our programs are commensurate with the demographic population served at our elementary schools.

• Develop methods to collect data to inform us as to the effectiveness of our program.

• Develop and implement plan achieving complete transition to Parent as Teachers Foundational Model Curriculum.

All early childhood students will develop early skills that lead to responsible citizenry (CSIP Target B).

• Further develop and implement Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS)

• Implement all tier action plans for early childhood’s PBIS program.

Foster high levels of parent/community involvement in early childhood programming (CSIP Target A).

• Market the program to ‘hard to reach’ families

• Establish meaningful family partnerships.

• Examine PTO and build strong parent organization

• Develop high quality marketing and communication tools for the program including YWCA Head Start partnership aspects of the early childhood program.

• Develop a plan to build stronger, meaningful family partnerships collaborating with community resources, agencies, our PTO and elementary schools.


DRAFTTarget: All early childhood students are proficient in Pattonville’s early childhood curriculum, MO Early Learning Standards and/or the Parents as Teacher’s Foundational Model Curriculum.

Action Step: Consider all possible space options in PSD for adding early childhood classrooms in collaboration with Head Start.

Activity Who’s Responsible

Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan

Study current space status in the elementary schools and determine if additional space for early childhood classrooms is a possibility

Director of Early Childhood Education, LCAT, EC Improvement Team

Consider alternative options including the use of the Briarcrest building as a possible location for early childhood special education programming.

Director of Early Childhood Education, LCAT, EC Improvement Team

Work collaboratively with YWCA Head Start in determining possible options for shared space.

Director of Early Childhood Education, YWCA Head Start Administration



Action Step: Secure alternate funding options for further development of early childhood programming for children and families.



Research fee-based smaller scale early childhood enrichment activities that could be offered other than preschool.

Director of Early Childhood Education, EC Improvement Team

Study other early childhood programs to gather information regarding their funding methods.

Director of Early Childhood Education

Research the feasibility and effectiveness of planning one large fund-raising event per year.

Director of Early Childhood Education, EC Improvement Team, EC PTO

Research collaborative options, activities, and events with YWCA Head Start for shared financial responsibility

Director of Early Childhood Education, YWCA Head Start Administration



Action Step: Revise the early childhood curriculum and assessment based on current best practice early education and the Missouri Early Learning Standards.



Develop a curriculum & assessment committee, including parents and representatives from YWCA Head Start.


Determine current best practice curriculum in early childhood education.

Director of Early Childhood Educ., Early Childhood Curriculum Development Team

Ensure the revised curriculum is aligned to Missouri Early Learning Standards.


Revise the current curriculum and develop corresponding assessments.


Present the curriculum to the PSD Curriculum Coordinating Council, elementary principals and kindergarten teachers for approval.




Action Step: Develop programs for children and families in our school community so that our programs are commensurate with the demographic population served at our elementary schools.



Gather information to determine PSD’s demographic/subgroup information at the elementary schools.


Analyze the data and make recommendations to the early childhood improvement team as to the targeted programs needed for specific subgroups.


Access and use the YWCA Head Start Community Assessment conducted by Vision for Children at Risk (VCR) to drive early childhood programming plans.




Action Step: Develop methods to collect data to inform us as to the effectiveness of our program.



Develop a plan for each student to be assigned a MOSIS number to help in the identification and data collection process.

Director of Early Childhood Educ., PSD Data Specialist

Research methods using Visit Tracker, Power School and Sped Track to develop reports and data that could be used in measuring effectiveness of programming.

Director of Early Childhood Educ., ECSE Process Coordinator, PAT Staff, PSD Technology Dept.

Examine ways to gather disaggregated data to look at more detailed information such as programming’s impact on specific sub groups of children.

Director of Early Childhood Educ., PBIS Leadership Team, PSD Technology Dept.

Determine the audience in which to share this data/information and develop a plan for sharing this information.

Director of Early Childhood Educ., EC Improvement Team

Continually make revisions to early childhood programming based on data results.




Action Step: Develop and implement a plan achieving complete transition to Parents as Teachers Foundational Model Curriculum.

Target: All early childhood students will develop early skills that lead to responsible citizenry. Action Step: Further develop and implement Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS).

.



Develop a plan to increase compliance to the Affiliate requirements established by Parents as Teachers National Office.

Director of Early Childhood Educ., PAT Staff

Develop a family assessment process.

Director of Early Childhood Educ., School-Family Facilitator, PAT Staff

Develop a plan for monitoring staffing needs as a result of progress on increasing compliance to the Affiliate requirements.


Develop a plan for monitoring/evaluating progress towards implementation of new Parents as Teachers curriculum.




Implement Tier 1 (Universals) Action Plan

Director of Early Childhood, PBIS Leadership Team


DRAFTImplement Tier 2/3 (PAWS, PALS, PAC and Functional Analysis Behavior Intervention Plans) Action Plan


Implement the Home Team Action Plan



DRAFTTarget: Foster high levels of parent/community involvement in early childhood programming.

Action Step: Develop high quality marketing and communication tools for the program including Head Start partnership aspects of the early childhood program.



Update marketing materials including brochures, the early childhood website and social media and develop ways to use them as high quality communication tools.


Develop signage at the Pattonville Learning Center


Create a memorandum of understanding or agreement with YWCA Head Start to ensure marketing materials for all PSD early childhood programs are included in Head Start recruitments as well as Head Start materials are part of Pattonville’s marketing process.

Director of Early Childhood Educ., YWCA Head Start Administration


DRAFTTarget: Foster high levels of parent/community involvement in early childhood programming.

Action Step: Develop a plan to build stronger, meaningful family partnerships collaborating with community resources, agencies, our PTO and elementary schools.



Work and collaborate with apartment complexes to develop activities on their sites as trust building activities.

Director of Early Childhood Educ., School-Family Facilitator

Plan group connection events and alternative enrichment activities outside our classrooms and in our local elementary schools for families to fellowship.

Director of Early Childhood Educ., PAT Staff, EC PTO

Plan two annual parent night out activities to include child care and include the YWCA Head Start families attending the Overland and Briarcrest locations.

Director of Early Childhood Educ., YWCA Head Start Administration

Develop a home visitation plan for teachers and classroom/ instructional staff.


Develop a ‘buzz’ book for use by early childhood parents.

Develop a purpose statement for the early childhood parent organization (PTO) and make changes to the current PTO based on the purpose and outcomes desired including reaching out to parents from YWCA Head Start.

Director of Early Childhood Educ., EC PTO

Develop new ways to engage staff members in the parent organization.

Director of Early Childhood Education, EC PTO


DRAFTResearch

Target A: All early childhood students are proficient in Pattonville’s Early Childhood Curriculum, MO Early Learning Standards and/or Parents as Teachers Foundational Model Curriculum (CSIP Target A).

The Early Childhood Improvement Team and staff are committed to researching and identifying best early childhood practices that lead to student proficiency in early childhood curricular areas and later in communication arts, mathematics, and science. Research findings point strongly to a child-centered, constructivist, more participatory early childhood model. One of the most famous and influential studies performed is the Perry Preschool Study. This study followed 123 African Americans born into poverty and at high risk of failing in school for almost 40 years. Of those children, the ones who participated in a constructivist, high student participation types of curricular model had higher earnings, were more likely to hold a job, had committed fewer crimes and were more likely to have graduated from high school than adults who did not have preschool.

Similarly in our own state, Pfannenstiel and Schattgen (1997) collected data on 2,346 Missouri students and found that children from constructivist classrooms were significantly more advanced and scored higher on standardized tests. They also found that in constructivist classrooms, poverty did not predict children’s learning while in other classrooms, higher poverty was associated with lower achievement.

Another significant and more recent study performed in Missouri studied the effects on later achievement of participation in Parents As Teachers (PAT) and early childhood education classes. Pfannenstiel and Zigler (2007) studied 7,710 Missouri children and found that 82% of children in poverty who participated in both PAT and preschool entered kindergarten ready to learn as compared to 64% of children in poverty who had no involvement in either service. They also found that at third grade, 88% of children in poverty who participated in both PAT and preschool reached the proficiency level of performance on the MAP as compared to 77% of children in poverty with no involvement in either service. In addition, this study concluded that PAT combined with preschool shows promise for narrowing the achievement gap between low income and more affluent students.

Analysis of our own recent data indicates a high percentage of students score proficient or above on MAP achievement tests that have been in our early childhood program, than students who did not participate in Pattonville early childhood. The gap in some grades and content areas is as high as two and a half times (60.2%) more students who participated in Pattonville early childhood programming scored proficient or above than students who did not participate (24.1%). This indicates that students who participate in our early childhood program are inclined to perform better in achievement activities later than those who do not participate in our program

Target B: All early childhood students will develop early skills that lead to responsible citizenry.

With more of our elementary and middle schools implementing Positive Behavior Intervention Support or PBIS, it is natural for early childhood to make an effort to contribute


DRAFTto this early learning. Also with the challenge of our early childhood classrooms scattered in five different sites along with needing a unified strategy that includes the home component (PAT), it stands to reason that we continue to implement a consistent approach for delivering early behavior prevention and intervention efforts.

Prevalence studies indicate that 10-15% of young children have mild to moderate behavior problems (Campbell, 2005) with higher rates expected (15-30%) in children who live in poverty (Qi & Kaiser, 2003). Demonstrations and evaluations of the PBIS model in over 1,000 schools, many in Missouri – have resulted in impressive outcomes including decreases of incidences of problem behavior, school suspensions and expulsions. A promising approach for delivering early behavior prevention and intervention efforts within early childhood programs is through the use of program-wide PBIS (Fox & Little, 2001). Key elements of a program-wide PBIS model include establishing a team, defining expectations for children’s behavior, teaching young children to respond to expectations, acknowledging children’s positive behavior and using data to drive implementation decisions (Dunlap, Lewis & McCart, 2005).

Target C: Foster high levels of parent/community involvement in early childhood programming.

Research indicates that supporting more involvement at school from all families is an important strategy for addressing the achievement gap. According to a review of recent research published by the Educational Development Laboratory (National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education, 2002), children with involved parents, no matter what their income or background, are more likely to attain increased levels of educational achievement, demonstrate better social skills, graduate from high school and attend post-secondary education. Specifically, more than 30 years of research demonstrates a positive relationship between parent involvement and student success (Cotton & Wikelund, 2001).

Studies by the Community Involvement Program (Henderson, 2007) have found that schools in low-income areas working with community organizations contributed to these changes in schools:

• improved school leadership and staffing • higher quality learning programs for students • new resources and programs to improve teaching and curriculum • greater parent and community involvement in school activities and programs • new funding for family services

There is a Head Start center and two additional Head Start classrooms in the Pattonville School District: Warson Road and Briarcrest Elementary. Working with Head Start in a complete collaborative model will help Pattonville to achieve many of the benefits found in the above stated community agency collaboration research.

Finally, Ruby Payne (1998) writes, “For students and adults from poverty, the primary motivation for their success will be in their relationships. The key to achievement for students from poverty is in creating relationships with them.” We now know the economically disadvantaged families in our school district continue to be among the most served in early childhood. Our belief in Pattonville is that Personal Connections = Powerful Learning. The early childhood staff must build trusting and meaningful relationships with all


DRAFTfamilies, including those families living in poverty, to contribute to the district’s belief and improve our service to these two groups of families.

In support of all target areas in this improvement plan, Administrator magazine published ten tips, tricks and secrets from the ‘2013 Best School District in America’. Among these ten lessons are to build a foundation of enthusiasm and shared aspiration with stakeholders, form strategic alliances with community partners and rethink funding allocations with creativity and ‘out of the ordinary’ thinking. Repurposing our PTO, engaging ‘hard to reach’ families, connecting with Head Start in innovative practices and resourcefully considering space options will help ensure we move in to the future positioned to provide our young children and families the best possible early education opportunities possible.


DRAFTBibliography

Cotton, Kathleen, and Karen Wikelund. (2001). Parent Involvement in Education. NWREL School Improvement Research Series 6.

Dunlap, Glen, Timothy Lewis & Amy McCart. (2005). Program-wide positive behavior support for young children. Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Newsletter.

Farrell, Elizabeth. (2013). 10 Lessons from the best district in the country. Scholastic Administrator, Spring 2013.

Fox, Lise, Susan Jack & Linda Broyles. (2005). Program-Wide Positive Behavior Support: Supporting Young Children’s Social-Emotional Development and Addressing Challenging Behavior. Tampa, Florida: University of South Florida, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute.

Henderson, Anne, and Karen Mapp. (2002). A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family and Community Connections on Student Achievement. Austin, TX: Educational Development Laboratory.

High/Scope Perry Preschool Study Lifetime Effects. High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, (2008). http://www.highscope.org/Content.asp?ContentId=219

Huffman, L.R., & P.W. Speer (2000). Academic performance among at-risk children: The role of developmentally appropriate practices. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 15.

Neuman, Susan B. (2007). Changing the Odds: Research-based principles of early intervention explode the myth that nothing works for economically disadvantaged children. Educational Leadership, October 2007.

Payne, Ruby K. (1998). A Framework for Understanding Poverty. RFT Publishing Co., Highlands, TX.

Pfannenstiel, J. (1997). Kindergarten learning environments and student achievement: A study of constructivist and traditional teaching approaches. Executive summary. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri-Columbia, Project Construct National Center.

Pfannenstiel, J., & Schattgen, S. (1997). Evaluating the effects of pedagogy informed by constructivist theory: A comprehensive comparison of student achievement across different types of preschool classrooms. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association of the Education of Young Children, Anaheim, November.

Pfannenstiel, Judy & Edward Zigler. (2007) The Parent as Teachers program: its impact on school readiness and later school achievement: A research study. Published report prepared for Parents as Teachers National Center.


http://www.highscope.org/content.asp?contentid=219

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Pattonville Early Childhood School Improvement Plan 2015 …fccms.psdr3.org/District/Pages/S02EB262E.0/Early Childhood School... · The team then evaluated the best possible strategies