The OSPI Early Learning team invites you to participate in a brief survey regarding the future of young children and families in Washington State. For the past year many parents, early learning providers, caregivers, elementary teachers, and others have been working to identify draft goals and strategies that will meet the needs of children and families across our state for the next five years. They have developed a draft list of ideas to include in an early learning coordination plan. This effort has been led by the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF). DCYF and OSPI would like your reactions to these ideas.
OSPI Office of Native Education, Title I Part A and LAP, Migrant and Bilingual Education, and Special Education contributed to this draft coordination plan.
You can use this link https://dcyf.wa.gov/news/comments-needed-statewide-early-learning-coordination-plan to access information about the draft plan, and to take a survey to provide your reactions. The materials are available in Spanish, Somali, and English.
Please forward this information along to your students’ families, friends, relatives, or colleagues. DCYF is collecting comments and reactions until January 31, 2021. Thank you!!
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Usually, OSPI posts the WaKIDS data from fall on the State Report Card that follow January. However, with the unusual circumstances of 2020 due to COVID and remote learning, the fall 2020 WaKIDS data will not be posted on the State Report Card this January.
From the fall 2020 data, we found nearly a quarter of students have at least one incomplete domain-level data out of the six possible areas of assessment. At least 70% of the objective-level data is needed for a domain-level data to be produced. Also, the number of kindergarten students who participated in WaKIDS this fall is about 12,000 lower than previous years. With our population being significantly smaller and because nearly a quarter of students are missing 1 out of 6 domain-level data, it is not possible to produce appropriate state-level readiness data.
There is no reason to doubt the validity of the student level data, but the rate of non-participation and the systemic nature of the non-participation mean that the comparisons across schools or districts or over time at the state level may not be possible. Thus, data use should be limited to local, formative assessment practices, including facilitating conversations about student development between families and schools, but should not be presented in aggregate as representations of overall “readiness” at a school level or higher without first checking to see rates of assessment completion.
WaKIDS score files from fall 2020 checkpoint are available for each school district in WAMS File Downloads.
Files can be found following this path in EDS: WAMS> Assessment Operations> File Downloads> 2021 Administration> 3. WaKIDS Score Files.
WaKIDS data can also be accessed directly from the MyTeaching Strategies® assessment platform.
If you see blank cells instead of scores in the score file you downloaded from WAMS or in the Data Export Report you generated from MyTeachingStrategies®, that means the teacher selected ‘Not Observed’ for that specific objective. However, we should not stop there. It will be very important to understand why “Not Observed” was selected and help teachers problem-solve any barriers they may be facing. If teachers were faced with impediments to observing and collecting information for WaKIDS, which assesses foundational skills of entering kindergartners, they may be facing more serious issues interacting with children and families in general. Following up as to what information teachers were not able to collect and what gaps this leaves for their instruction will be a critical use of WaKIDS data this year.
To help understand the data better, the WaKIDS Data Use: Fall 2020 webinar is available for you on our website. In this webinar, Yoona Park and Kerri Blankenship share ways to use fall 2020 WaKIDS data. They discuss in detail about various report functions that are available in MyTeachingStrateiges® which can help you use the data for your own analysis purposes.
From time to time, Teaching Strategies, the vendor for the WaKIDS whole-child assessment tool, reviews their practices and improves their ways of calculating scores. Teaching Strategies recently updated their scare scores. The method you may have been using to convert scores might not work any longer. If you are interested in learning more about how you can use the raw data and scores for your own analyses purposes such as converting WaKIDS raw scores to GOLD® raw or scaled scores, feel free to reach out to our office. We would be more than happy to assist or direct you to resources that can help you.
Transitions require resiliency to adapt to new circumstances while holding fast to trusted family and friends. Children from birth through kindergarten and their families need support to feel welcome in their new environment. When children and families feel warmly accepted in their new learning community, they are more likely to find success in school as learners and leaders.
Beginning in late 2019, the DCYF Preschool Development Grant (PDG) Transitions Team formed —a partnership of Department of Children, Youth, and Families ECEAP and Head Start; DCYF Tribal Liaisons; and OSPI Early Learning, Special Education, Title I Part A, and the Office of Native Education. OSPI and DCYF partnered to survey ECEAP staff, Head Start staff, and kindergarten families. In addition, the transitions team conducted focus groups of early learning providers, school districts, families, and communities. The resulting data and report built a collective understanding of current practices, barriers, and culturally specific approaches to early learning transitions.
The full report outlines strategies to strengthen transitions in Washington, transforming practices from informational to relational by focusing on the child in the context of their family and on culturally specific approaches. The report also identifies substantial challenges and recommendations for supporting early learning transitions.
In addition, DCYF and OSPI recently published two related briefs: a data brief and Seeds of Success. Forthcoming, DCYF and OSPI co-authored five case studies on noteworthy transition practices. For more information on research, tools, and practices to strengthen transitions, please refer to OER Commons Washington Hub Early Learning Group.
For more information, please email Gretchen Stahr Breunig at gretchen.stahrbreunig@k12.wa.us or Mari Taylor at mari.taylor@dcyf.wa.gov.
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Is your school considering strategies to support hybrid instruction and provide children with opportunities to engage safely with their peers? Have you considered moving your inclusive early learning environment outside?
If your school has not considered taking children outside, why not?
The Opportunity:
In 2021, OSPI will release a grant opportunity in late March/ early April 2021 funded by the federal Preschool Development Renewal Grant to support children and families’ transitions to school. This grant opportunity focuses on using outdoor spaces to provide in-person learning opportunities, with a particular emphasis on implementing the PreK and kindergarten Since Time Immemorial Curriculum. To discern your district’s interest, review the curriculum and stay tuned for grant details.
The Benefits:
Learning outdoors builds equity in student learning and improves children’s physical and emotional health, social skills, and academic outcomes. See the Children and Nature Network Infographic, Academic Benefits. All students benefit from outdoor learning opportunities, including students who are disabled and students with social, emotional, or behavioral disorders.
The Questions:
What are the perceived barriers to this approach?
- Risk of injury
- Cost of equipment such as shelter, outdoor clothing
- Expertise of staff
OSPI created Considerations for Outdoor Learning to support your district in these decisions.
OSPI is available to help trouble shoot these issues with your district leaders and teachers and connect you with partners, including the environmental education programs listed and licensed outdoor preschools. Outdoor preschools have been operating as part of the DCYF outdoor preschool pilot, and many of the perceived challenges or barriers to taking children outside for education and care services have been successfully addressed.
Thanks to Elizabeth Schmitz, Aliza Yair, and Ken Turner for co-writing this article.
Citations: Guardino, C., Hall, K.W., Largo-Wight, E., Hubbuch, C., (2019). Teacher and student perceptions of an outdoor classroom. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, 22(2), 113-126. Price, A., (2019). Using outdoor learning to augment social and emotional learning (SEL) skills in young people with social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 19(4), 315-328. Szczytko, R., Carrier, S.J., Stevenson, K.T., (2018). Impacts of outdoor environmental education on teacher reports of attention, behavior, and learning outcomes for students with emotional, cognitive, and behavioral disabilities. Frontiers in Psychology, 3
Image from DCYF website, https://dcyf.wa.gov/news/dcyf-begins-licensing-outdoor-preschools, 2019
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State funds are available to support your district in identifying, implementing, and evaluating best practices to address racial discipline gaps!
Competitive state grant funds are still available for school districts during the 2021 fiscal year to create systems, policies, and practices to address racial discipline gaps. Grant activities focus on student discipline provisions in state law that apply to all school districts involving family and community engagement, disaggregated data use, best practices for behavior, policies and procedures, and staff training. OSPI and partner organizations will guide grant recipients using existing student discipline training materials and resources.
Grant application materials, student discipline training content, and more information is available on the Student Discipline Training webpage.
The deadline has been extended due to ongoing COVID-19 disruptions. Grant applications are due to OSPI by February 4, 2021.
For questions, contact joshua.lynch@k12.wa.us.
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.
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