Boston Public Schools Scaling and Quality for Early Childhood Programs

April 5th, 2019

1

Department of Early ChildhoodDr. Jason Sachs, Executive DirectorBPS Earlylearning.org

BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS Early Childhood

Context:

■ Mayor/SI mandate.■ Paid for by City in Public Schools■ Public school infrastructure■ Curriculum/PD/Coaching■ 75% now implementing last 25% in a mixed

delivery system■ K-3rd grade alignment work■ Research and evaluation plays a large role in the

design

Fiscal Year Enrollment Increase

FY15 2278 57

FY16 2388 100

FY17 2678 290

FY18 (Projected)

2811 133

Total 590

BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS Early Childhood

Data that Drive BPS Strategic PlanImpact on ELA grade 5 MCAS Improve Instructional Quality

(from 2012)

EC Theory of ChangeBOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS Early Childhood

If we...

then all children will become internally driven learners, able to read, write, and communicate effectively by 3rd grade and BPS will close the achievement gap.

Align our work to the BPS vision,

implementation plan & instructional vision

Expand the early childhood vision to

early elementary grades (up to and

including 3rd grade)

Target PD & coaching to make specific

changes in instructional practice

Use data to

consistently improve

our curriculum, PD,

and coaching

Collaborate with teachers, instructional leaders & other depts.

Build capacity for high quality K1

through Universal Pre-K

Expand programming to support families

beyond the academic day and year

Leverage partnerships to

sustain our capacity & share our findings

EC Strategic PlanExpansion & Integration (2017-22)

BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS Early Childhood

Develop, expand and integrate curricula, instructional practices, & assessments from P-2 in BPS & CBOs

Redesign PD & Coaching/Accreditation for sustainable changes and equitable access

Collaborate with other departments to better serve all students

Expand summer, out of school time, and family engagement for families to reduce opportunity gaps

Build capacity with external partners through advancement, communications, and evaluations

Curriculum

Professional Development

District collaboration

Supporting families

Partnerships

BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS Early Childhood

How do we define quality:■ CLASS and Content measures (Math and ELA)■ Fidelity--adherence and quality■ NAEYC

■ Coaching feedback--(formative guides the work/projects)

■ Student outcomes:○ PPVT○ Woodcock Johnson Applied Math○ Hearts and Flowers & Digit Span for Executive Function○ MCAS (state proficiency)

■ Strong interaction between student demographics, school quality, fidelity of implementation, and student outcomes

Mission- driven staff Stability over timeDiverse team

NAEYC

Focus on K1 -170 classrooms

Summer Early Focus

Focus on K2 -185 classrooms

Focus on First - 127 classrooms

Focus on Second - 120 classrooms

ExCEL P-3 studyPEG

UPK

UPK Mixed Delivery System

Connector

BuildBPS

P-2 Alignment

Support schools through curri-culum, PD & coaching

Program Evaluations & Partnerships

National Partners (CSSO)

District collaboration

OSESS OELL APL District structures by network

Adoption by other districts

Appendix slides

BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS Early Childhood

Curriculum objectives

Develop, expand & integrate curricula, instructional practices, & assessments from P-2 in BPS & CBOs

Deepen EC practices.Align and deepen instructional practices from K0 to grade 2 and bridge to gr. 3 practices.

Align BPS K1 and community-based organization (CBO) K1 practices.

Establish coherent EC curriculum.Establish K2-2 literacy curriculum coherency

Expand Focus on 1st & Focus on 2nd curricula

Support high mobility students with Tier 1 & 2 interventions & access points

Align EC assessments & observations.Develop formative & summative assessment system with observations, student work, & student performance

Identify supports needed to close achievement gaps

Engage families in child’s learning.Integrate family engagement in their student's learning by expanding Home Links curriculum in grades K0-grade 2

Evaluate our progress.Study longitudinal effects of P-3 achievement by examining the relationship between students, instructional quality, and outcomes

BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS Early Childhood

PD & coaching objectives

Redesign PD & Coaching/Accreditation for sustainable changes and equitable access

Align our goals.Align our PD & coaching to teacher, school & district goals.Connect PD to where teacher has indicated they want to grow.Provide evidence of growth towards that goal on evaluation.

Support school leaders.Calibrate definition of exemplary EC practice with teachers & instructional leaders.Develop teacher leaders

to increase school capacity.Provide principals with tools to support teacher's growth.

Coach differently.Teachers implement Focus curriculum & attend PD to access coaching.Focus on the magic of starting small - hone in on specific goal to support sustainable, tangible changesCoach team of teachers at a school increase capacity.

Use NAEYC accreditation to assure quality.Leverage accreditation process to increase instructional quality Encourage teachers to meet NAEYC standards by supporting cognitively demanding tasks & culturally sustaining practices.

Evaluate our progress.Measure fidelity of implementation of curriculum and NAEYC accreditation..Assess against teacher evaluation.Continuously refine PD based on teacher need using ExCEL study and EDFS data.

BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS Early Childhood

District collaboration objectives

Collaborate with other departments to better serve all students

Create a system of supports to reach all learners. ASSET team has established collaboration structure and regular meetings between EC, OELL, SEL, OSESS, and grade band P-2 content team leadership

Developed K2-2 Curriculum

coherency to work on literacy for all students.

Support students with disabilities.Support students with disabilities in all settings (BPS inclusion & substantially separate classrooms & in CBOs)

EC & OSESS will develop a set of practices, behaviors, and structures to support interdependence

Modify curriculum for marginalized learners.

Modify curriculum materials with staff from OELL and SPED to work more effectively in Dual Language, SEI, Integrated and sub-separate classrooms

Align supports for families entering BPS and requesting supports.

Support transition of students to BPS schools with Welcome Services and Countdown to K.

Identify high quality partners for full-day summer & after-school with Office of Partnerships and ELT

BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS Early Childhood

Supporting families objectives

Expand summer, out of school time, and family engagement for families to reduce opportunity gaps

Support increase of high quality out of school time (OST).

Create and align district supports to increase use and quality of before and after school programming and provide PD to link to school day curriculum

Use time to support social emotional & health/wellness.

Engage families before they enter BPS.Expand upon birth to five efforts in CBOs to birth to age 8 efforts in CBOs & BPS.Understand what child care supports families need.Connect efforts with Countdown to Kindergarten to support transition to K.

Connect high quality CBO K1 to BPS.Leverage PEG model to create mixed delivery system for UPK to create high quality pre-K in CBOs

Increase K1 quality through curriculum, PD, coaching, and education levels and compensation of teachers

Expand access to high quality summer school.

Provide equitable access to quality summer school seats.

Leverage funding to expand.

Partner with schools & CBOs to create full day programs to provide social emotional and students’ health & wellness.

Partnerships objectives

BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS Early Childhood

Build capacity with external partners through advancement, communications and evaluations

Fundraise to increase coaching.

Funding half of the EC team through innovative funding sources (both private and public grants) to provide targeted PD and coaching to implement the Focus curriculum and NAEYC accreditation.

Build the BPS Early Childhood brand.Build EC brand with Neimand Collaborative.

Launch our curriculum in other school districts & provide PD.

Streamline national & international visits to showcase classrooms.

Engage in formal program evaluations.Conduct IES ExCEL longitudinal study with MDRCEvaluate PEG program with Abt Associates

Measure summer program with BASB.

Cultivate external relationships.

Cultivate relationships with partners, foundations, CBOs, and other districts to increase supports for early childhood programming, professional development & research.

FY19 InitiativesBOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS Early Childhood

Revise FK2 & FOF curriculum to align to standards, expand science, math and social studies supports, revise FK1 for CLSP

Rollout FoF + Fo2 curriculum, expand NAEYC accreditation, give comprehensive, targeted PD & coaching to high needs schools

Adapt curriculum with OELL & OSE to support dual language learners, students with disabilities, and OAG for bias

Sustainable supports for PEG, launch UPK quality investment & expansion, develop summer programs in high needs schools

Fidelity observations in grade 1, Stranahan grant, expanding FK1 and FK2 to other districts, understand what closes gaps

Curriculum

Professional Development

District collaboration

Supporting families

Partnerships