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Welcome to the NC Ready Schools Learning Community. This e-Newsletter has been developed by The North Carolina Partnership for Children, Inc. to keep you informed regarding the Ready Schools Initiative in North Carolina and across the country. Please feel free to forward it on to others or email kmccrimon@ncsmartstart.org to add other names to the email list. We welcome your input and feedback.

What's New?

Mini-grants for Public Schools, Parent Groups, and Libraries

Ezra Jack Keats Mini-grant Program is offering up to $500 to public schools and libraries in the United States. For more information regarding the grant requirements click here.
The Lowe's Toolbox for Education Grant program is now accepting proposals for projects that encourage parent and community involvement. Grant requests are for up to $5,000. K-12 schools and parent groups associated with non-profits are encouraged to apply. For more information regarding the grant click here.

	Good News for Early Education in the Higher Education Act Reauthorization!
The Higher Education Act accomplished two important tasks. Establishes a definition of a "highly competent" early childhood teacher. This definition follows the language of NCLB's (No Child Left Behind) highly qualified teacher. Provides an opportunity to access federal funds for early childhood teacher education programs. Click here to read more.

Research

Does the age that children start kindergarten matter? Evidence of long-term educational and social outcomes

Elementary parents across the country who have children with summer birthdays often ask, will their child be successful? Over the years researchers have sought to answer that question. This study uses the National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS) to compare the age of kindergarten entry to several academic, social and labor market outcomes. These researchers found that if retention could be controlled then children starting school sooner will have greater labor market returns. Click here to read the complete article.

	NC Early Grade Retention in the Age of Accountability
FPG Child Development Institute, NC Child Care Resource and Referral Network and the NC Department of Public Instruction collaborated on this brief. It highlights the retention trends for kindergarten through third grade students, discusses the implications and provides alternative solutions for retention. Click here to read the report.

	Elementary School Classrooms Get Low Rating on High-quality Instruction
Bob Pianta, lead researcher and Novartis US Foundation Professor of Education at University of Virginia, found that in most classrooms he observed students were passively engaged in whole group or individual seat work for 90 percent of the day. Pianta and his team of researchers believe this can be attributed to high stakes testing. Click here to read the complete article in Science Daily.

Ready Schools at Work in North Carolina

	Lexington City School Board
The Lexington City School Board has adopted a resolution to continue the local Ready Schools work as a strategy to reduce high school dropout rates. As a part of that resolution they've agreed to implement Ready Schools findings into the School Improvement Plans of their local elementary schools.

Raising a Kindergarten Reader

In Region A, the area at the western tip of North Carolina, Macon, Jackson and Haywood Counties have initiated a "Raising a Kindergarten Reader" program with their kindergarten students as part of their focus on the "welcoming families" Ready Schools Pathway. Each child gets a book bag with books to read at home with their families. The book bags are rotated among the students so that each child is able to read a variety of books. It promotes the concept of parents and children reading together and is a good early communication tool as well between teachers and parents. Kindergarten teachers are also linking the work in the classroom to the book topics. This project is similar to a local Smart Start Raising a Reader program that began last year in Region A preschool programs. Local officials have been very excited about the results of this project.

Scavenger Hunt Using the High Scope Assessment Tool in Carteret County

When Carteret County decided to provide additional training for their community Ready Schools Task Force, one activity, developed by Cynthia Downum, (Elementary Lead Teacher for the district and Co-Chair of the RSI Task Force), was a scavenger hunt using indicators from the High Scope Ready Schools Assessment. The RSI Task Force held its monthly meeting at Bogue Sound Elementary School, the Ready School's demonstration school, and the first school site chosen to undergo the assessment process. Instead of just taking a mundane tour of the school, the members of the RSI Task Force were treated to participating in a scavenger hunt!

Mrs. Downum developed two scavenger hunt checklists using some of the more observable indicators from High Scope dimensions such as "Environments" and "Respecting Diversity". Two teachers from Bogue Sound Elementary School, who are also members of the Task Force, led teams around the school, as they observed, talked, and made notes next to the indicators on each list. After about 20-30 minutes of touring the school, the teams reconvened to discuss what they had observed and how they would use their documentation to rate each indicator.

While this was clearly a brief introduction to rating the indicators on the High Scope Ready School Assessment, it was an excellent (and fun!) way to help the community level RSI Task Force members become familiar with what the school would be looking at, how easy or hard it might be to make those judgments, and to better understand the nature of the dimensions and the assessment process.

A Spotlight on the Ready Schools Pathways

Number 5: Connects Culturally and Linguistically with Children and Families

On August 4-6th researchers from UNC-Chapel Hill hosted a group of African American educators to discuss local and state-wide efforts to improve schooling for young children. Some of the projects discussed included Promoting Academic Success for Boys of Color (PAS), FirstSchool, Drop Out Prevention, Ready Schools, and the Power of K. Researchers also asked these educators for additional ways schools can improve the learning outcomes of minority children. The researchers will maintain ongoing contact with this group, and are looking to expand the group's membership to include parents, community members and central office personnel. For more information, contact Sharon Ritchie at ritchie@mail.fpg.unc.edu

	Number 6: Partners with Families
The Harvard Family Research Project has published a two-part series addressing family involvement. Click on the brief to connect to the complete article. Brief I: Family Involvement in Early Childhood Education Brief II: Family Involvement in Elementary School Children's Education

	Number 7: Partners with Community
Once upon a school.org, is trying to inspire everyday citizens to become involved in education by collecting citizen involvement stories and posting them on their website. To read more about the project or to read entry number 69, featuring a Charlotte-Mecklenburg elementary school, click here.

Professional Development/
Trainings/Conferences

Power of K day at NCaeyc

Registration is open for the NC Association for the Education of Young Children's Annual Study Conference in Greensboro at the Koury Center, September 18-20. Educators who work with kindergarten programs are invited to a special day devoted to the Power of K on Saturday, September 20.

Pre-register to participate in a motivational, inspirational, energetic and fun day focused on the power of the kindergarten year in the lives of children and their families! Rediscover the power of the environment in young children's lives and the power of using learning centers to reach the needs of all children. Spend a day with kindergarten colleagues sharing and learning about effective and appropriate practices in kindergarten classrooms of the 21st Century. Presenters include NC kindergarten teachers, administrators, university faculty and early education consultants.

Go to NCaeyc's website for registration information at www.ncaeyc.org

	North Carolina After School Coalition Conference
Registration is open for the North Carolina After School Coalition Conference. The conference will be held on November 7-8, 2008 in Concord, NC at the Embassy Suites Hotel and Convention Center. Please click here to visit their website for the complete listing and to register.

Mark your calendar

September 16, 2008 Ready, Set, Go! Webinar Email Kmccrimon@ncsmartstart.org to register.
September 18-20 North Carolina Association for the Education of Young Children (NCaeyc Conference) Greensboro, NC
October 1 Creating Learning Environments for Children with Special Needs Salisbury, NC
October 8-9 A Framework for Understanding Poverty Raleigh, NC
October 26-28 NC Elementary School Conference Raleigh, NC
October 29-30 Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement (TESA) Raleigh, NC
November 5-8 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Dallas, TX
November 6 Pre-Conference for the North Carolina After School Coalition Conference Concord, NC
November 7-8 North Carolina After School Coalition Conference Concord, NC
May 5-8, 2009 National Smart Start Conference Greensboro, NC

PLC Training Opportunity

Development of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) is growing among schools in North Carolina. When done well and with thoughtful planning, they can provide a framework for focusing on student achievement, aligning and leveraging resources, developing an intervention framework, and otherwise bring broad-based staff input and planning to school-wide processes. DuFour & Eaker (2008) state in their book - Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work: New Insights for Improving Schools - that they continue to believe that

"The most promising strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement is developing the ability of school personnel to function as PLC's. Our conviction has not wavered; however, we now have much clearer insights regarding the most effective strategies for helping educators make the transition from traditional schools to PLCs." (page 1)

Other models of PLCs are being used, but the emphasis is to create a learning organization that builds a collaborative culture, improves learning for all students, uses results and expands responsibility for all children to all staff.

The Ready Schools Initiative is working with Michael Hickman in the Department of Public Instruction to provide a one-day training on PLCs, with a later one-day follow-up, for all interested schools among the Incentive Grant sites as well as the broader Ready Schools Learning Community. The training dates have not been set, but the initial day is tentatively targeted for the fall (October or November). A follow-up day would be scheduled later in the school year. We would like for the principal and, if possible, one or more teachers to attend. Central office staff is also welcome. In order to gage interest, if you think you might be interested in this training, please contact Kirsten McCrimon at kmccrimon@ncsmartstart.org. For more information about the training opportunity per se, contact Carolyn Cobb at ccobb4@nc.rr.com (919-785-0717) or Michael Hickman at mwhickman@dpi.state.nc.us (919-807-3321).

If you would like to have your local ready schools activities featured in the e-newsletter or you have a conference you would like to be included, please e-mail kmccrimon@ncsmartstart.org.

Sincerely,

Kirsten McCrimon
The North Carolina Partnership for Children, Inc.

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