EOE BEST PRACTICES “PAGE 2” INFORMATION
Best Practice: Map community’s priorities, funding and assessments for children from birth to age eight in order to better align resources and achieve greater impact.
Additional Background
Community Compact grant funding will be available to help communities bring necessary stakeholders from the school district, private and public child care providers, social service agencies, and other non-profits together to map priorities, assessment tools, and funding streams and determine actionable next steps.
Often communities are not aware of which organizations (e.g. school districts, social service agencies, and other non-profits) receive state and federal funding to serve young children, which means opportunities to better leverage or coordinate that funding might be lost. For this practice, communities will bring together all of the parties working with children from birth through age 8 – school district leaders, private and public child care providers, social service agencies, and other non-profits, and map the sources and purposes of their local, state and federal funding.
In particular, the mapping exercise should focus on funding streams that have similar purposes, including, but not limited to, grants to serve vulnerable populations, child care, child care related transportation, home visiting and parent outreach programs, and health and nutrition programs. In addition to a document outlining all of the funding, the final outcome should include at least three specific actions that the city or town plans to take to better connect and coordinate services to young children in their community.
Suggested areas of focus for immediate action include improving:
· Transitions from preschool to kindergarten;
· The connection and use of observation-based screening tools for young children; and
· How private transportation of young children connects across child care programs and public schools
Best Practice: Focus on college and career planning beginning in middle school and continuing through high school in order to ensure that all students have access to the opportunities that provide both experience and help to foster informed decisions about college and career pathways.
Additional Background
Community Compact grant funding will be available to help communities bring necessary stakeholders from the school districts, regional vocation technical schools, non-profit organizations, local employers, and institutions of higher education together to map existing college and career readiness collaborations for middle and high school students and determine new opportunities for students to learn about potential career areas.
Preparing students for college and career is a key purpose of our K-12 system, and it becomes that much more important as students enter the middle grades. In this practice, school districts will map all of their activities – as well as those throughout their communities – to assist students in determining the next steps in their college and career path, and learn more about what they need to pursue that course successfully.
Community Compact grant funding and technical assistance will be available to help communities bring necessary stakeholders from the school districts, regional vocation technical schools, non-profit organizations, local employers, and institutions of higher education together to map existing college and career readiness collaborations for middle and high school students and determine new opportunities for students to learn about potential career areas.
A priority of the mapping and recommendations should be in connecting students with vocational programs in comprehensive high schools, regional vocational schools, institutions of higher education, and local employers. The final outcome should include at least three specific actions the district plans to take with its stakeholder group to better connect middle and high school students to career opportunities.
As part of this exercise, districts and their stakeholder team will identify what tool they are using – or plan to use – to provide students with on-line access to Individualized Learning Plans.
Best Practice: Maximize opportunities for students to access specialized vocational education through collaborations between regional vocational technical schools, comprehensive high schools and community colleges.
Additional Background
Community Compact grant funding will be available to help communities bring necessary stakeholders from regional vocational technical schools, comprehensive high schools and community colleges together to develop systems for collaboration to maximize opportunities for students to access specialized vocational education.
Across the Commonwealth, there are thousands of students on waitlists to get into regional vocational technical high schools. At the same time, comprehensive high schools and community colleges offer vocational programs. By aligning the three sectors, communities can rationalize the system of vocational opportunities for students, reducing duplication and maximizing space, and therefore open up necessary vocational education classes to all students.
Best Practice: Understand projected changes in student enrollment and demographics and the impact of those changes on the school district’s budget and operations in order to provide a district with the needed information to develop a strategic plan for its future.
Additional Background
Community Compact grants will be available to support a consultant to study a district’s current and projected enrollment and the impact that any recent or projected changes will have on the school district’s budget and operations, as well as to identify, and plan for, next steps in the implementation of strategies to mitigate such impact and maintain a quality educational program in the district.
Across the Commonwealth, school districts have been coping with challenging trends in enrollment growth or decline over the past decade or more. Changes in the overall population of the region, district participation in the school choice program, and expanding charter schools can all be significant factors in driving these trends. These changes in student enrollment can have significant impact on a school district’s capacity, facilities, and personnel needs. For a district to make a strategic plan for its future, it must have an understanding of what has been happening in its district and region, what is likely to continue, and what are appropriate next steps to embark upon once the challenges are detailed and accurately identified.
For this practice, the Community Compact grant funds can support a consultant to conduct a study of recent and/or projected changes in student demographics, the impact of those changes on the school district’s budget and operations and recommend alternatives for efficiencies and structuring to sustain and improve the level of services.
Best Practice: Coordinate and communicate key student- and school-level data in real-time in order to inform decision-making and reporting.
Additional Background
Community Compact grants will be available to support a consultant or additional staff time to help school districts in joining the School Interoperability Framework (SIF) to facilitate data reporting to the Commonwealth and information sharing across districts. In addition, Community Compact communities will receive a grant to support a consultant and/or technical assistance to help districts in assessing and improving school technology readiness, including ensuring that they have scalable connectivity to support digital learning, and that they are getting the most access for their broadband budgets.
School districts need IT systems to coordinate and communicate key data in real-time for reporting and decision-making, and need an IT infrastructure to give students, teachers and administrators the tools they need for digital learning. Through the Community Compact program, the Commonwealth will assist any school districts in joining the School Interoperability Framework (SIF), to facilitate data reporting to the Commonwealth and information sharing across districts.
In addition, the Community Compact program will assist districts in a) assessing and improving school technology readiness for next-generation learning, teaching and assessment and provide resources and support in closing technology gaps with respect to infrastructure, devices; b) professional learning, technical support, and sustainability including ensuring that they have scalable connectivity to support digital learning; c) provide technical and project management resources to assist schools and districts in upgrading their broadband infrastructure; and d) provide technical assistance to schools and districts to improve the affordability of broadband services.