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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 to
others or email kmccrimon@ncsmartstart.org to
subscribe. We welcome your input and
feedback. |
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Are You on the
Map? |
It's time to update the Ready Schools
map. What ready schools activities are
happening in your community? Are there new
schools participating? Do you have a
community Ready Schools Team? Send your
stories
to kmccrimon@ncsmartstart.org. |
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Great Things Are Happening in
Davidson County! A Ready Schools
Update. |
Through its work with
Smart Start of Davidson County, Lexington City
Schools was an early participant in the NC Ready
Schools Initiative and has worked to integrate it
into their overall school achievement
efforts. Involvement in the initiative is
part of the school district's Graduation Rate
Improvement Plan. The district has also required
each elementary school to include ready schools
strategies in their school improvement
plans. The school district is now going even
further in its ready school efforts with South
Lexington Elementary School becoming a participant
in the FirstSchool project.
FirstSchool
is focused on improving the school experiences of
vulnerable children through the use of data
focused on their experiences to guide the
conversation and intervention; dialogue focused on
the impact of race and poverty on vulnerable
children and their families; and changes in
practice that impact the classroom environment,
the content and quality of instruction and the
relationships between the teacher and the students
and the teacher and the families. This encompasses
the very heart of the FirstSchool inquiry approach
to working with children and families.
FirstSchool and Lexington City Schools
officials are enthusiastic about the opportunity
to work together and recognize that their success
at South Lexington Elementary will ultimately
serve as a model for the rest of the state and the
nation.
To learn more about FirstSchool,
visit http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~firstschool/ or
read about the Davidson County ready
schools efforts, visit http://www.the-dispatch.com/article/20090128/ARTICLES/901280299/1057?Title=R
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Lenoir County- a Ready
Schools Success |
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Last year, after returning from one of
the Ready Schools regional meetings the newly
formed Lenoir County Community-District Ready
Schools Team decided to move forward
with the initiative. Their
results- eight out of
ten elementary schools of Lenoir
County's elementary schools have completed
the High Scope Ready Schools Assessment
and incorporated Ready Schools objectives
into their School Improvement Plans, according to
Ellen Benton, Elementary School Coordinator
in Lenoir County.
It should be noted that
Lenoir County Schools is not a ready schools grant
recipient. They have done this on their own
without any additional outside help! When
asked how they have funded the initiative Ms
Benton said it was a joint effort between the
Central Office and their Local Partnership.
The Associate Superintendent of Curriculum
purchased the High Scope-Ready Schools Assessment
for each of the sites and the Lenoir-Green
Partnership for Children donated $25 gift
certificates to each member a school-based Ready
Schools Team. Way to
go! |
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Putting the Pieces Together
Webinar |
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NC Ready Schools
Grant Opportunity!! |
Applications for 2009 Ready Schools Incentive
Grants are due February 27. Successful
applicants will receive both a cash award and a
facilitator that will provide on-site technical
assistance and professional development.
Applications must be submitted jointly by the
local Smart Start partnership and the local school
district. Contact Kirsten McCrimon
kmccrimon@ncsmartstart.org for more details and to
receive a copy of the application package.
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Newly Revised Position Paper
on the Developmentally Appropriate Practices for
Children Birth-Eight. |
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Ready
Schools- MIAMI |
Ready Schools- MIAMI, one of eight
SPARK (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready
Kids) sites funded by the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation, was featured in an article by the
Miami Herald ( http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/825984.html).
North Carolina along with DC, Georgia, Hawaii,
Mississippi, New Mexico and Ohio are the other
SPARK sites.
During this year's Smart Start
Conference (May 5-8) part of the Ready Schools
track there will be sessions presented by Ready
Schools-Miami and SPARK Ohio. Ready Schools-Miami
will be a pre-conference session. Visit http://ns2.ncsmartstart.org/conference/2009/
for conference registration and
details.
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New Publications from
FirstSchool |
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FirstSchool, with support from the Foundation
for Child Development, has published a series of
briefs which discuss many of the key elements that
schools, administrators, and policymakers need to
address as they move forward in their pre-K
through third grade efforts. The work is based
primarily on the work of the collaborative
FirstSchool committees. Each link includes a PDF
statement and a short video clip further
explaining the topic.
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Arne Duncan- New US Secretary
of Education |
During the appointment hearing for Arne
Duncan, US Secretary of Education,
he outlined President Obama's Zero to
Five education plan.
- Appoint a Presidential Early Learning
Council
- Provide support for working parents of young
children
- Provide early learning challenge grants for
states
- Fund voluntary/universal pre-school quality
enhancement grants
- Increase Head Start and Early Head Start
funding
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The Case for Investing in
PreK-3rd Education: Challenging the Myths
about School Reform (January 2009) |
A new policy brief by
the Foundation for Child Development (FCD) policy
challenges three popular myths regarding
educational reform.
- Elementary Schools are fine, problems begin
later.
- Good Pre-K programs guarantee greater
success.
- Solving the "Fourth-grade slump" will
reverse today's widespread period of
underachievement.
The brief proposes that
the secret to positive
educational achievement in young children is
to provide
coordinated, enhanced learning
opportunities for children pre-k to third
grade.
http://www.fcd-us.org/usr_doc/TheCaseForInvesting-ChallengingMyths.pdf
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Developing Early Literacy-
A Report by the National Early Literacy
Panel
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Alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, rapid
naming skills, writing (such as writing one's
name), and short-term memory for words said aloud
are some of the best early predictors of literacy,
according to a report released in January by The
National Early Literacy Panel. The Panel
convened in 2002 to study the development of early
literacy skills in children birth through age 5 or
Kindergarten. Visit http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/publications/pdf/NELPReport09.pdf
to read the complete
report. |
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Teaching English Language
Learners- What Research Does and Does Not Say
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In North Carolina,
South Carolina, Indiana, and
Tennessee the population of English Language
Learners increased by 300% between the
1994/95 and 2004/05 school years.
This article
reviews key literature findings to determine the
best way to teach this vulnerable
population.
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A Spotlight on the Ready
Schools
Pathways
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Respecting Diversity
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www.ColorinColorado.org has
resources available for parents and teachers of
English Language Learners. Resources include
tip sheets with reading strategies, practical
teaching and assessment suggestions, and summaries
of the latest
research. |
Professional
Development/
Trainings/Conferences
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Mark your calendar
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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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