From: Kirsten McCrimon [kmccrimon@ncsmartstart.org]
Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 2009 8:55 AM
To: Tery Schelling
Subject: Ready Schools e-News












Quick Links
 
     NC Ready Schools    
   
 
 
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.
Voices from the Field
We want to hear from you!
 
The North Carolina Partnership for Children wants your help updating our Ready Schools map.  We would like to hear about the ready schools activities in your community.  Do you have a school participating in the initiative?  Do you have a community Ready Schools Team?  Please share your stories to kmccrimon@ncsmartstart.org. 
Alamance County
 
In Alamance County, the district-wide Ready Schools Task Force is having regular meetings and have recently begun hosting conversations between Kindergarten and Pre-school teachers.  They hosted an event called "Happy Hour with Chocolate" for K and Pre-K teachers and had over 50 people attend!  They plan to host more events like this at least bi-monthly with the goal being for the two groups to think about K transitions and joint trainings.   
What's New?
NC Ready Schools Grant Opportunity!!

The North Carolina Partnership for Children through a grant from the W.K.Kellogg Foundation will be issuing new Ready Schools Incentive Grants in 2009.  Successful applicants will receive both a cash award and a facilitator that will provide on-site technical assistance and professional development  opportunities.  Applications must be submitted jointly by the local Smart Start partnership and the local school district.  The official grant announcement has been sent out with all of the details. The due date for grant proposals will be mid-March.  Please contact Kirsten McCrimon kmccrimon@ncsmartstart.org for more details or to participate in the grant conference call scheduled for January 28 from 4-5pm.

NC Ready Schools Webinar-- January 28, 2009 1-3 p.m.
 
The North Carolina Partnership for Children with support from the NC Department of Public Instruction and the FPG Child Development Institute will offer a webinar on January 28, 2009.  It is called Putting the Pieces Together:  Understanding the Components of the Ready Schools Initiative in North Carolina.  The training will:
  • highlight Ready Schools efforts occurring at the state and local level across North Carolina. 
  • provide tips and explanations for building effective Community-District Teams.
  • provide tips and explanations for building effective school teams.
  • provide understanding for how the two teams should work together effectively to move NC Ready Schools forward in your community/district.
For more information about the webinar, or to pre-register please contact Kirsten McCrimon at kmccrimon@ncsmartstart.org.
Drop-out Prevention 
 
The Children's Council of Watauga County was awarded a $70,000 grant for drop-out prevention.  They were 1 of the 39 new organizations and 37 of the existing organizations that received money from the General Assembly's drop-out prevention grants.  These grants ranged from $9100 to $150,000 for a total of $14.4 million.  To see the complete listing of grant awardees, please visit http://www.ncpublicschools.org/newsroom/news/2008-09/20081217-01
For more information about drop-out rates in your community or for strategies for promoting students staying in school visit www.all4ed.org.
Legislative Updates
Governor-Elect Perdue's Transition Advisory Group looks at Education
 
On November 25, 2008, 46 leaders in Education met with Governor-Elect Bev Perdue's transition team to discuss, identify, and prioritize 7 areas of concern relating to education which were: 
1. Education Cabinet
2. Address the role and needs of early childhood (0-5) Education
3. Address retention of students throughout their educational experience (kindergarten-post-secondary)
4. Identify ways to address school infrastructure
5. Make the education system more responsive to the economic needs of the state.
6. Identifying and implementing best practices and financial innovation
7. Hire, retain, and develop the best teachers and administrators.
To view the complete report and see the list of participants visit  http://bevperdue.com/uploads/Education.pdf.
Obama nominates his new Education Secretary
 
President-elect Barack Obama nominated Arne Duncan as his Education Secretary.  Mr. Duncan is currently the CEO of Chicago Public Schools where he has been for the past seven years.  During his tenure as CEO he has been credited with improving the school system by focusing on teacher quality.  He also expanded pre-k. 
View an 2007 Edutopia interview with Mr. Arne at http://www.edutopia.org/arne-duncan-chicago-public-schools-video.
Research
When Worlds Collide
The November/December 2008 Harvard Education Letter discusses the impact of pre-k programs on the public school system.  While in some instances the school personnel can site the residual benefits to children participating in pre-k programs there are some institutional paradigms that some schools have to adjust to.  Dr. Carolyn Cobb, a NC Ready Schools Consultant and former Executive Director of the Office of Early Learning, is quoted in the article.  To read the entire article visit http://www.edletter.org/insights/collide.shtml.
A Spotlight on the Ready Schools Pathways 

Ready School Pathway # 5 Connecting culturally and linguistically with children and families 
 
Camille Catlett, of the FPG Child Development Institute (UNC-Chapel Hill), bi-monthly produces and distributes a set of resources on cultural, linguistic, and ability diversity called a Care Package. The Care Packages were created to support participants in an OSEP-funded project called Crosswalks. (http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~scpp/crosswalks/ )
 
Each Care Package highlights new content materials as well as resources for increasing the emphasis on diversity in professional development. Most of the resources are available to download through a hot link. Though the project has ended, she will continue to create and distribute the Care Packages for the foreseeable future.

You may also access previous Care Packages and sign up for new updates at
http://www.fpg.unc.edu/%7Escpp/crosswalks/pages/carepackages.cfm.
Professional Development/
Trainings/Conferences
Mark your calendar
  • February 26-27 Safe Schools and Character Education Conference.  Pre-Conference February 25. Raleigh Convention Center.  http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/charactereducation/
    home/2008confglance.pdf   
  • May 5-8, 2009 National Smart Start Conference (www.ncsmartstart.org/conference/ )
    Greensboro, NC
  • July 12-15, 2009 CAYL (Community Advocates for Young Learners) Conference.  This conference is geared for elementary school principals who have pre-k in their schools.  The principals will be exposed to best practices in early childhood.  The Conference will be held in Cambridge, MA.  For more information visit http://cayl.org/?q=PrincipalConference2009 .
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.
Safe Unsubscribe
This email was sent to eforehand@ncsmartstart.org by kmccrimon@ncsmartstart.org.
The North Carolina Partnership for Children, Inc | 1100 Wake Forest Road | Raleigh | NC | 27604

THIS IS A TEST EMAIL ONLY.
This email was sent by the author for the sole purpose of testing a draft message. If you believe you have received the message in error, please contact the author by replying to this message. Constant Contact takes reports of abuse very seriously: if you wish to report abuse, please forward this message to abuse@constantcontact.com.