 At this time, please welcome LPI senior researcher, Jennifer DePauley, who welcoming and introductory remarks. Thank you, Nicole. Hello everyone, it's so nice to be here with you all today. My name is Jen DePauley and I am a senior researcher at the Learning Policy Institute. We appreciate you taking the time to attend today's webinar. This webinar can, excuse me, presented in co-sponsorship with AASA, the Superintendents Association, the National Association of State Boards of Education, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, Edprep Lab and the Soul Alliance is the fourth in our six-part series on transforming state education policy through a whole child approach. In our previous webinars, we dove into what the science of learning and development tells us about how districts can implement whole child design in schools, and how states can set a whole child vision and support schools in transforming learning environments. At its core, the science suggests that schools that optimally enable healthy development, learning and success, integrate structures and practices that enable positive development or relationships, learning environments filled with safety and belonging, rich learning experiences and knowledge development, the development of skills, habits and mindsets, and integrated support systems for all children. Building from these design principles for schools, today we will be diving into how we can build adult capacity and expertise for whole child school design based on the science of learning and development and drawn from our whole child policy toolkit. You can find the toolkit at the link in the chat. And now, I'd like to hand it over to two of my amazing colleagues, Marjorie Westler, Principal Research Manager at LPI, and Maria Heiler, Senior Researcher at LPI and Director of the Edprep Lab, to talk about how we can build the capacity and expertise of school leaders and teachers and why that is so important. Marjorie, I'll hand it over to you. Thank you. And good afternoon, everyone. When we talk about building adult capacity, many people immediately think about the teachers, but it's also important to consider school leaders. It's the leaders who prioritize a whole child education. They develop teachers' knowledge and skills to implement a whole child approach in the classroom, principles manage and improve their schools, and they are critical in building the positive whole child school environments where students and teachers can thrive. A critical question then is how do we prepare and develop principles who can make whole child education possible. We conducted a comprehensive review of the research to understand the features of high quality principle learning. We found that what principles learn matters. They need to learn instructional leadership, which means knowing how to develop students' higher order thinking and how to select effective curricula materials. They need to learn how to improve schools by doing things such as using a variety of data to inform how they move forward. They need to learn how to establish positive school environments by creating collaborative work environments for teachers and working with families and community stakeholders. They need to learn about staff development and how to help teachers improve their practice, and they need to learn how to meet the needs of all learners. We also found that in addition to what principles learn, how they learn matters, especially important to our applied learning opportunities such as inquiry projects based on real schools. Internships are important where pre-service principles take on the responsibilities of a leader. Expert coaches or mentors who can provide support and guidance contribute in important ways to principle learning, and so does being in cohorts or networks, having a group of professionals to learn together. So we know what makes for high quality learning. It's having the important content together with the powerful learning strategies. And having these learning opportunities is important to develop principles, leadership knowledge and skills, but they also matter to other important school outcomes, including teacher retention and student achievement. A study in California shows that if a principal had low quality preparation, the probability of a teacher staying in their school would be 78% on average. But if a principal had high quality preparation, the probability is up to 89%. Likewise, there's a strong connection between principal's professional development and academic gains for students. A student whose principal had more access to professional development had higher projected learning gains, and these gains are equivalent to an additional 29 instructional days in English and three months worth of additional math instruction. And importantly, these achievement gains are especially notable for historically underserved students of color defined here as black, Latino and Native American students. So principal learning really does make a big difference for principals, teachers and students, but do principals have access to the high quality learning opportunities that foster these outcomes? Well, yes and no, mostly no, at this point. On the positive side, most principals do have some access to the important content and access to this content has increased over time. So principals certified in the most recent 10 years were more likely to report access to important content than more veteran principals. However, not many principals had access to the authentic job based learning, only about half experience internships with coaching or regularly participated in a principal network. And access to the high quality learning varies by school poverty level. So principals and low poverty schools had a lot more access to important content, as shown in this slide, and more access to those impactful learning strategy. And that led me to the role of policy in shaping principal learning, because we found that policies can support both the quality of principal learning and access to it. So I'll share two examples starting with the state of California. As shown in 2017 California revised its leadership standards to emphasize things such as educating diverse learners, developing staff and involving stakeholders. And these performance expectations were translated into program approval standards and new expectations for both pre-service training and induction. These policies changed principal learning in the state. More recently prepared principals in California had greater access to learning about key topics than veteran principals. And they were also more likely to have those problem based learning approaches that were part of the new program expectations. In another example, the principal pipeline project funded by the Wallace Foundation was intended to create a steady supply of well prepared and well supported principles. It was piloted in six cities across the US and they all shared common strategies, such as adopting standards to guide principal preparation, hiring evaluation and support. They delivered high quality preparation often in partnerships with local universities. They used data on candidate skills to inform hiring and to match candidates to schools and they aligned principal evaluation and support. In all six cities, students in schools led by principals in the initiative outperformed those in comparison schools and the principals were more likely to remain in their schools. So we know that policies can make a difference. So what can states and districts do. They can use licensure and program approval standards to ensure that programs include important features such as quality internships and coaching. They can invest in professional learning by funding leadership academies and paid internships. They can make sure that preparation and professional development include content on how to support diverse student bodies, and they can direct resources to high poverty schools to equalize access to principal learning, or do things like underwrite preparation for prospective principals who will work in those schools. They can build those local pipelines that identify teachers with strong leadership potential and carry them through their preparation and ongoing learning. In some access to high quality professional learning matters for principal success, especially those implementing new models like a whole child approach, and it matters to their teachers and students. I'm now going to turn the session over to Maria Heiler to talk about teachers. Maria. Now that we've heard about some of the ways that principal learning needs to be envisioned and supported. I'm going to drill down a bit into the part of the toolkit that focuses on designing teacher preparation systems for whole child learning and developments. As a reminder, this is the framework for guiding principles for whole child design and tells us how school should be organized to support whole child learning. The ed prep lab brought together a group of leading teacher educator scholars practitioners. Most of who are ed prep lab members, along with policy partners to develop an aligned set of design principles focused on teacher preparation rounded in the science of learning and developments. The result is a wheel that looks very similar. The framework, however, while aligned focuses on how how educator preparation programs need to be designed in order to prepare teachers who are able to create their create the learning environments that reflect the whole child design principles. I'm going to take just a few minutes to go through each principle. You'll note that each one focuses on the content of what teacher candidates need to learn, as well as the design features of programs aligned with sold. In this presentation ed prep lab has a series of learning cafes on the topic, and you can check those out for a deeper dive. So the first principle focuses on a curriculum rooted in a deep understanding of learners learning and developments programs should be designed to prepare educators who can effectively address the complex ways in which children learn and develop. This includes a curriculum that connects subject matter with strategies for an asset based approach to learning that centers students backgrounds, families and community, and equips educators with the understanding of the conditions necessary for optimal brain development in children and adolescents. Teaching standards and accreditation processes are aligned with the science of learning and development. They better support the ability of programs to create and implement such a program such a curriculum. The second principle focuses on the development of skills habits and mindsets of an educator, an equitable educator program should be designed to develop educators with mindsets that support all students well and equitably. The program should model empathy approaches the social emotional learning and cultural competence and prepare educators to use restorative practices so that all students feel a sense of safety and belonging. This includes supporting and strengthening teacher candidates understanding of how to build partnerships with families, community members and other educators, while focusing on children's learning strengths and needs. The program should prepare educators who understand how contextual realities impact the experiences of their students, their understanding of themselves, and their perceptions of social identities. State standards and accreditation processes that are aligned with the science of learning and development, advanced practices such as culturally sustaining and responsive pedagogies. The principle three focuses on rich experiential learning opportunities programs should be designed to immerse teacher candidates in rich experiential learning opportunities that are paired with authentic and performance based assessments. The program should model a full range of learning experiences as part of their scope and sequence, including practice feedback skill development, growth and understanding, and expansion of capacity for adaptive expertise. These type of learning experiences require strong partnerships with districts communities and families, which is a common theme across all of these principles. The fourth principles is pedagogical alignment and modeling. The program should be designed around a coherent version of whole child development learning and teaching. They should model a vision of learning and development were instructors supervisors and cooperating teachers and act and unpack approaches approaches, they expect teacher candidates to use in practice. This includes the integration of theory and practice around the sold aligned vision, which will shape preparation programs and clinical experience, and is made possible, again by close partnerships between program schools and district. This type of alignment and modeling requires that candidates spend extended time in schools and classrooms with expert mentor teachers to guide their learning and development as they learn to teach. Finally principal five is supportive developmental relationships and communities of practice program should be designed with structures that give time and space to the development of professional communities of practice that promote active interactive constructive and iterative learning. This programs needs strong reciprocal relationships again with PK 12 schools. This includes program structures such as teacher residencies cohorts and clinical teaching teams that are organized to create opportunities where educators observe one another share practices develop plans together and solve problems collectively. Funding of these types of models of teacher preparation is critical to create a sustainable diverse teacher workforce. We're excited at the potential these design principles to help preparation programs to organize their work to best prepare teachers to engage in sold aligned deeper learning and equity practices. To do this at scale however preparation programs need policies that advanced this type of work. So policy recommendations. And that support this work come in two buckets access the high quality preparation and state systems to guide high quality practice. The two buckets work in tandem, like two hands clapping, there's movement there, and they're clapping on beat to produce a strong stable and diverse teaching profession. Access to high quality preparation states must provide financial incentives to underwrite the cost of preparation and ensure the cost of becoming a teacher does not prevent an individual from accessing high quality and high retention preparation. This also includes support to expand high quality clinical training and the school and university partnerships that I spoke about that can sustain intensive clinical sites and support programs like professional development schools, teacher residencies grow your own or registered apprenticeships. Simultaneously, state systems need to be built to guide high quality practice. To do this states must ensure their standards for teaching reflect what we know about how people learn. Assessments for candidates and program review for preparation programs should reflect and prioritize measuring progress on a standards and states must also work to support access to comprehensive and high quality induction by investing in accomplished teachers so they can mentor novices. These policy recommendations are stepped towards providing educator preparation programs the support and resources they need to prepare the teachers and leaders are students deserve today and in the future. Thank you and I'll now turn it back to Jen. Thank you Maria and Marjorie for grounding today's webinar and such great information and that background in the science of learning development and why it's so important that we build adult capacity and expertise for the schools that we want. It's now time for our panel. Today's panel will be moderated by Seth Gerson. Seth serves as program director in the National Governors Association Center for best practices, where he works to support governors and their staff on K 12 education issues. Basically set has served as a director of government relations for the National Board for professional teaching standards, and as a senior education policy advisor to US Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island. We're excited to have Seth with us today. On our panel, we have Pender Megan, who serves as the Education Commissioner for the state of Maine as devoted her career to advancing the mission of public education. She is a classroom teacher, a principal of the real the regional education alternative learning school and alternative and service based high school for students who have struggled in traditional school settings, and prior to becoming commissioner was the assistant superintendent of the Brunswick school department. Patricia Varela is an assistant professor of urban educational leadership in the department of educational leadership at Montclair State University. Dr Varela's research focuses on implementing equity oriented leadership through leader responses, programmatic interventions and preparation. Dr Varela also studies equity oriented oriented crisis leadership, examining how school leaders can respond to crises without further harming marginalized communities. Dr Joan Johnson, who is the assistant superintendent of teacher education and licensure at the Virginia Department of Education, an advocate in teacher education for over two decades and a proven leader in program development and teacher preparation accreditation. She is leading the work at the video e to expand opportunities for the teaching profession and ensure the Commonwealth school communities have access to high qualified qualified educators. She has facilitated the development of the state's strategic plan for recruitment and retention and led the state in its first registered teacher apprenticeship program with the Department of Labor and Industry. Welcome to you all and I'm going to pass it over to Seth. Thanks Jen and good afternoon everyone. It's great to be with all of you today and I just want to thank LPI and all the great partner organizations that are hosting and sponsoring this webinar today. Thanks Jen said I'm Seth Gerson program director for K 12 education at the National Governors Association and just a little bit about National Governors Association our membership are the governors and all 50 states and five territories and since 1908 we've supported them really by providing them with a safe space a safe forum to regularly connect with each other to exchange ideas, share promising practices strategies they're using challenges they're facing. It's an opportunity for governors to regularly share across party and state lines and there's a spirit of bipartisanship that infuses all of our work and that starts with our leadership which is always a current Republican governor and a current Democratic governor. Now our chair is Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey and our vice chair is Governor Spencer Cox of Utah and we have an executive committee that oversees all of our work. That is evenly split between Republican and Democratic governors, and I'm particularly excited for this conversation because it focuses on the intersection of the three big areas that governors are primarily focused on right now first, academic recovery and support. We have student staff mental health and well being whole child learning and development, and third educator recruitment and retention with the webinar frames as building adult capacity and expertise. So as this webinar reflects we know all three are interrelated and at NGA we're certainly supporting governors. And you certainly need a strong, stable, high quality educator workforce to effectively address academic recovery and student well being, and that without addressing the mental health and well being of students and building strong partnerships between families, schools and communities. It's very difficult to address the academic needs and gaps that we're seeing right now with with the students so all are connected. So I'm excited of framing and I want to get started and really move to our, our great lineup that we have for this panel. Commissioner mankin I'd like to start with with you. We know that many states are struggling with educator and staff shortages what's been your primary efforts to improve educator recruitment and retention before both the short and the long term in Maine and what's been the catalyst for those efforts. Thanks for that question and yes in Maine just like across the nation we also are struggling with an educator workforce shortage and that goes for the leaders that was a fascinating previous session around the importance of developing and supporting great schools. We have a teach main plan that really emphasizes nurturing and supporting and giving tremendous respect to the profession of education and for so many years that has been stripped away by a variety of socio economic political and other constructs but we really are working hard in our state to provide educators with the trust with the respect and with great high level opportunities for ongoing development and learning. We're not leaving any stone unturned in terms of, you know, being way out of the box with with our efforts to provide them with innovative we're getting certifications for educators actually as innovation engineers. And we're really trying to highlight peer to peer professional learning that allows educators to share their expertise with one another and that goes for cohorts as was mentioned earlier and, and building those networks of sharing across and we. I guess I would just quickly also add we have an online platform called engine, and that is where educators are able to share their really innovative work and where they're able to get resources and support one another and I think that deep respect for the field is one piece of the entire teach main plan that's trying helping us to try to make this a desirable and fulfilling and professionally recognized opportunity. Thank you commissioner I think that's such an important point that not only the supports and the opportunities are providing for sharing the expertise across the state but how you're using the bully pulpit to really speak about professionalism and speak to the importance of teaching and being an educator during this this time. Dr Johnson I'd like to move to you for a similar question. What's the primary efforts of Virginia in this area and educator recruitment and retention, both short and long term and particularly with that whole child learning and development in mind. You're a mute Dr Johnson. So quickly I would say I must give some context I think the political landscape does influence our state greatly in terms of education, the governor's term is four years and so we've seen quite a bit over the last four years and we just actually have a new governor that came on so with those changes that impacts many of our initiatives. And so the new governor's initiatives are very heavily focused on giving parental rights, prioritizing teacher excellence and high quality, and through some of those initiatives as well as using more data, really at the state level to inform and understand and unpack the needs barriers and then creating unique specific opportunities around some of those we have learned that quite a bit of the challenges are going through quite a few cycles as we are coming out of COVID, the needs and demands are changing we're going through an exit process. That's another phase that I think in our state is unpacking individuals stayed on to try to help with the COVID but now are really exiting with high turnover even more high turnover and with retirement and so we're really trying to use that data to inform some of our practices and then really taking a step back to support our divisions and some unique ways in short term and long term. In short term, we're looking at specifically some incentives to hire recruit attract and trying to always use the barometer of the whole child as our foundation and trying to make decisions and looking at that as our north star. As we work with divisions in making decisions about what programs initiate. We tried to do some of that through our strategic plan, which is referenced in my bio. And also looking at some long term strategies of the apprenticeship model the teacher apprenticeship model, residences and we have quite a few initiatives around principle inspiring superintendents are inspiring principles where with networks, as well as where they are receiving some mentorship and support in trying to retain educators, as well as ensuring success for high school graduation and graduation. A couple things. Thank you Dr johnson and I think that's you know again an important point not just the initiatives that you're working on but how turnover also at an agency can make a difference or you know in a political office how to sustain those efforts across those administrations is something that we're always looking at and how to anchor that work in different stakeholders across a state so there's some continuity. I'd like to move to Dr Varela, Dr Varela, similar question to you from a programmatic level from Montclair State, what has been the primary efforts you've had there to improve educator recruitment and retention. I think the way that we look at it is twofold so you know we have aspiring leaders who come to us and I think one of the things that is most interesting is we look at our curricular materials to see if they align to what leaders are facing literally are my department meeting before I got on here was about are we preparing our leaders for the world that they're going to lead in and thinking about you know the Wallace foundations. They did a report and even looking at the LPI report that says principles are incredibly important. One of the things that we see a lot of times in our classes is students are asking can I do this now. Right, they know that the landscape has changed. They know that the, the political climate has changed and particularly in New Jersey where there are very small districts. You know you can go from one district to another, and, and it's, it's night and day and so one of the things that that's been our focus in our department is are our materials giving them what they need to be those effective leaders I mean I think the data that was shared in the talk in the beginning where you see this 89% increase is you know it's real right you see leaders who are if they're highly effective they're able to coach instructionally lead manage and support children and their teacher so they stay right. And I think the other thing that we do at Montclair which is really important is, you know we have. We have a center the center of pedagogy as well as a smaller division within that the Montclair State University network of education renewal. It's really helpful, but one of the things that we work there me and my colleague Marilyn Davis on is extending to school districts in New Jersey to see what it are their needs. How can we improve their efficacy, and how can we support them on the journey, you know, one of the things that New Jersey has going on right now is a lot of different curricula are being passed down right to make the the school climate more inclusive and so you know you have leaders who you know I always say to leaders is if everything's important nothing's important. And so how do we help leaders who are in practice, and also in their training, identify what are the highest leverage items what are the things that happen how do I weave in things in other ways. So that way we do have highly effective leaders who have teachers who want to stay, who can recruit teachers into into their schools. One thing I'll say is one of the things the reasons I think that's really important is the efficacy of the leader is that you know when I was a teacher and I was a principal, prior to coven. You know the joy of a school look different. And you know I can harken back to those memories of you know students that I think about and I'm like oh my gosh I remember that that time that place. And now because of so many things and because of the pandemic, you know that that joy that love of education is gone and so I think, if you have highly effective leaders who can signal to that who can say we are recovering that we are insure, you know our schools are whole child oriented. Then I think you have, you know, a better opportunity of retraining retaining teachers and recruiting teachers, and then you don't have these gaps where some schools I work with they had 16 teachers absent in one day. Right. And so those are some of the things we're thinking on as far as a programmatic level but also thinking towards the community lens. Thank you Dr and really resonates with me I mean I think that's that's right that you know not just as Ted Sizer said not just schools as places for learning but places for joy. I know that's what we're all all aiming for and I love how you talked about bringing with Dr Highler was talking about earlier in the, in the program but around really tightly bringing together teacher preparation programs in the school districts and so doing that outreach to understand and to then parallel that to what the teacher preparation program is providing. Commissioner Mankin I'd love to move back to you and ask you around the support conditions and environment that you're providing in Maine for educator preparation programs school districts and schools to be able to have the capacity to move this work forward. Sure, yes, we've created several networks and frameworks and cohorts of educators. There are, let's see, a list of some really cool things. We have in a first of all we've created a whole new office in the Department of Education, it's the Office of Educator Excellence providing all kinds of support and managing the teach main plan. We also have designed, sorry. I'm getting texted right in the middle. I'm sorry that we have have also put together a collaboration with some of our key business partners who are helping us to develop a vision called and actually we're eager to move some of the work in that direction it's going to be called the Center for Educator Excellence or for teaching excellence and that will continue the work of the peer to peer support networks that we have and where we're we're trying to create the relational environment as you mentioned you know what are we're providing opportunities Oh another whole important thing is that educators have been invited to work at the Department of Education as distinguished educators where we're trying to share with their peers some of their most exciting interdisciplinary project based engaging instructional practices that are so key to the whole student approach. And, and so it's less of a top down from the department saying here's how this will happen but rather it's a peer to peer. engagement and the networks have just grown and the comments we're getting from the field are, you know, in 20 years of education. I've never had more meaningful powerful experiences and so we're all in for creating those types of experiences for our teachers and for school leaders. Thank you Commissioner and I really like that around not just educate engaging educator voices but embedding them as part of the development of policy by having them at the department education so right there on the on the front end is a really important important aspect. Dr Johnson moving back to you. Similar question how have you found, especially with districts in so much need right now and needing that capacity building. How is the state created the conditions to support the environment for being able to move this work forward. You're on mute. Dr. I believe now that it is in such the forefront of everything that we do politically economically. I have a lead that we have come together to be honest and use it as an opportunity. And so specifically, there have been more attempts to collaborate and bring together stakeholders and so specifically I mentioned, we have what is Maryland in Virginia where Virginia is for learners initiatives for Virginia Department of Ed, as well as a Virginia school consortium, where we are working with aspiring superintendents those in leadership now principal roles, and providing coaching and mentoring to them. And then we're also bringing together various educational associations around the table, working with us informing helping to inform practice and implement practice and policies, as well as superintendents and so we have a specific sub category a sub group of superintendents that are specifically interested in licensure and recruitment and retention. And then we have established for the first time a statewide initiative for an advisory committee for recruitment and retention. And so bringing together different voices and using our state platform to bring those individuals together and trying to leverage some of the ESSER funds that we have been given over the last couple of years to incentivize working collaboration and then I'll always come back to our teacher apprenticeship model as well, which I believe is one initiative that my office is directly involved with that as well. Thank you Dr Johnson. And again you know one of the through lines I'm seeing through here is not just around this focus on supporting teachers but how to create the working conditions by you talked about the supports for superintendents and the support principles such an important part of the environment altogether for thinking about educators and, and their pathways. Dr for all turning back to you. Again looking up from the programmatic side how has the state provided the support conditions environment for for Montclair State to do this park. I think it's, you know the constant conversations with the state. You know looking at our program seeing what programmatic features we want to address what we want to add what we are looking. When we look across the state and we look at you know particularly funding in different districts. How do we prepare our leaders to tackle those challenges and so I think, you know to me. Those are the things that we use what the state is giving us, and we help our students interpret that right, as well as you know I know that ESSER funds were such a big part of recovery. But one of the things that you know I think my colleagues and I at the center pedagogy realize really quickly is that principles didn't necessarily know what to spend those things on. And so, while the initial rush was to get every kid one to one hot spots. We did a study with 60 principles across the country, and the, you know, the, the trend in those interviews was that you know principles were like but we have these ESSER funds right we're one to one or where we got hot spots but what else can we do. So thinking about looking at the state, you know particularly in New Jersey as I had mentioned with those curriculum adaptations changes or, you know, new curriculum initiatives. How can we help to counsel. And I think one of the things that I think is really interesting is, you know, there's a hot button item of free lunches, right how lunches were free during the pandemic and now they are no longer some districts are rolling that back. And so thinking to thinking of my school leaders that you know my aspiring school leaders how I talked to them of like what would you do. How would you talk to families about that right how would you extend those conversations, but then also talking with the school leaders who are in service, and saying you know how can we help you what do you need because a lot of this is so is, you know, unfettered territory and so I think as we partner with the state and as we think about how to support these initiatives. Our job as a university and particularly my department is how do we, how do we help. Right how do we help meet the principles the aspiring principles where they are. How do we make sense of the things that you know they're experiencing. And then how does that align with, you know, the constituents that the the principles lead in, you know, or for. So those are some of the things that we're doing at Montclair. Thank you Dr Verralla and I think that's so important where you're talking about how to use those unprecedented federal funding, not just to use the money but to use it well. I think about the intentional practices that can be supported in that way and then your research over time as shown in your colleagues at Montclair skate to help guide districts during that time of prioritization on both. I'll just chime in on her comment also. I think what we have tried to do is to obviously use the data as I mentioned before in terms of the needs right into helping us determine how to use that funding and helping them use the funding. I also would say I have tried and our staff has tried to find ways of doing short term, and then some institutional or systematic kinds of things with that funding that will build a foundation, even if we don't see the results for the next 10 years right. I think we need some discussion about trust in the chat and so for me that's part of that. If we're making decisions about building infrastructure or, or trying to demonstrate that we're supporting our divisions and our principles and the students and the parents at various levels that's building that trust and establishing the foundations that will go beyond the tenure for the essence right. Yeah, can I just piggyback on that too as well you know I think Dr Johnson you, you really bring up this like thing that I've seen across the school districts that I work with is, what are the short term plans, because I think a lot of schools were cash rich. And they had, they were like what do we do. But I think it really became one of those things where it's like what do we need short term, and then what do we need long term and I think what was helpful was to your point Dr Johnson of looking at the data right. I think the tape came out with their report that there was so much learning loss and it hasn't happened since the 70s, etc. For me, it was important to talk to the school leaders and say so what was the same prior to the pandemic so if you've always had low achievement and math. That's actually a systematic problem that we need to talk about and get into and maybe as our funds could help be helpful in that way right maybe we can more training, we can think about a lot of diverse ways. I think that was, you know that's the key and I think that's the opportunity for university partnerships is to have someone who can say let's think dynamically about the funding. Let's look at your data and then let's see what are the short term what are the long term, and then you know one of the things I always think of our, what are the things that are nice to have that you can finally include. Maybe you want to try for your district but it's so interesting to me as I prepare leaders because they've, I didn't have that as a principal and I know my friends who are principals didn't have this moment. And so if we think about crisis as it's like consistently happening, we have to train our aspiring leaders to think financially and programmatically what do you do when you have a cache of money. And you have problems presenting again, what do you do next, really helpful conversation between the two of you and with thinking about the short and long term. I wanted to go back to you Dr Johnson a little bit to talk about the apprenticeship program I know that's what a number of states are looking at right now, particularly on cross agency collaboration you know how you've been working with the Department of Labor and how those conversations have have gone to be able to do so. You're on mute. Sorry for the third time. I think because of the crisis level I think people are more receptive. We all have gotten stuck in our own silos right we all at the state level. But I think because of the kind of the pressure on the pot right there has to be some collaboration, we are working towards some of the same goals. For the first time, teaching profession became part of that workforce that needed support beyond the traditional support and so I believe that, obviously, there were some models that I use that inspired me around the country. I think they're about 11 or so programs now that are registered teacher apprentice programs. We've had youth apprenticeships in the country for years. You know, the teacher apprentice model is new because now the Department of Labor has recognized that and so that really kind of has emphasized and brought attention on the needs, and the education workforce right just like all the other important key relevant professions. And for us in my department, it was an easy connect and learning about the resources that's kind of how I started those conversations, learning about the types of resources that could, you know that would be available from from the federal side of things to divisions as and to individuals for tuition or other support. Again, another opportunity, right, if the state took on some additional responsibilities to collaborate and move forward with that and so we had great partners with our Virginia Department of Labor and Industry. I have a staff that worked with me one on one hours as we work through that process. I also, there were various networks in the nation and there are various individuals that have led initiatives in other states. And so there are some very great networks that are out there, individuals that were offering services but I guess I found that because of the knowledge of Virginia licensure. And I wanted to ensure that our program included the capabilities of individuals to come through and be successful with obtaining a degree and obtaining the job and being successful on the job as well as licensure. Right, so we really needed the content and someone that had the skills in the state's licensure to work with the Department of Labor. So, again, it was a time of learning myself and other staff the few staff that we had that could work on this initiative. Really, it was an opportunity for exploration for research to collaborate with other states. So again that networking and developing new relationships led us to making choices about the model for the apprenticeship because there are several models out there and so in our state. The background and teacher prep also led me to emphasize and understanding that that's a piece of the puzzle that we can't leave out. And so the model in Virginia is specifically a collaborative between the division as the employer, the EPP providing that technical support and assistance and the state really serving as an intermediary with the registration and much of the administrative responsibilities again, knowing that the divisions are interested they need support. But how can the state take on some of that burden for them. And so that research, we are now in the implementation phase and have some initiatives related to our ESSER funds so for me that's creating some structures and incentivizing them to build structures. I'd love to see this year that we have new positions across the Commonwealth, specifically a title of educator apprentice and really unpacking and making the process and transparent routes to licensure. We see lots of benefits on all sides and bringing in the collaboration, I call it the innovative collaboration with the EPPs, who are now also working with divisions they never had worked with before. Right, and looking at their curriculum as we've mentioned, making sure it's relevant, talking about feasibility sustainability, collaborative rating around those pieces. And so, I'm just looking forward to the implementation over the next few years, right. And so we're at the very beginning of that and so enjoying that, again, as an opportunity that has come through that kind of pressure that has forced us together but the Department of Labor they already had a governance board in Virginia set up so again, have been in this quite for many years and have you know very elaborate governance structures and process and procedures in place, but now are coming together with the Department of Ed to initiate this new program. So if you can tell I'm kind of excited about that. I'm really excited and it's really helpful to walk through how you were able to develop or strengthen those partnerships between education and the EPPs to get a newer model, but to make sure it's high quality as well. Hey, Mr. Mankin, I wanted to move back to you and then we'll go to a question or two that have come in while we've been we've been having the conversation and I'll just before I go to you I'll just mention that at NGA we recently finished up a 15 month project, we finished up a 15 month project with six governor's offices three Democratic three Republican on being able to support them on student well being and from within and beyond the pandemic and we saw two themes as part of that project across all six states one was that there had been so much collaboration between health and education and human services on the health and safety side during the pandemic that wanting to continue what Dr. Johnson was saying those continuous relationships going forward once they were made during the pandemic but to address well being, and then the other is engaging parents and families and students and communities to be able to get this work done governors having community conversations on well being with those with those different stakeholders. So Commissioner Mankin just want to ask you, you know, how have you engaged parents and families and students coming out of the pandemic and during the pandemic on this work both whole child and educator recruitment or attention. Right, well, you know, the years, the year leading up to the pandemic, which we could never have expected to happen. Our state re energized a cross agency children's cabinet and that includes Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, but also public safety and Department of Labor and even Department of Corrections, and all of us, but would meet quite regularly to that to develop what essentially is a whole child framework for how from, from birth to, you know, well into adulthood, how are we going to support the young people and the young people who are the young parents and families, and we have created a variety of supports our state before the pandemic we had our own emergency of sorts and it continues to rage on today we have a terrible opioid epidemic in our state. And we recognize that the key to strengthening young people who are in homes where substance use disorder is prevalent where, you know, there may not be as much modeling or support for them. The more we can offer in education to strengthen them in their decision making and in their understandings around how making healthy choices and how they can have agency within even the context of being a young child in a very challenging situation. So, we've been working really well with that children's cabinet model and there are several subcommittees working within that. And I would just put in there that to have a whole child approach to education. You need a whole adult approach really to the educators the school leaders, the district leaders we didn't mention that but with and I did notice one of the comments saying you know with school leaders turning over so quickly because these jobs have almost they've become untenable. The classroom has never been so hard never been so polarizing and divisive and denigrating really used to be that you were proud to be an educator when I first became a teacher. I was in the middle of filling out an application for an apartment. And when I could put occupation teacher, I remember thinking boom I'm going to get this apartment I'm probably going to get a discount they're going to be so happy to have an educator in the building and it was it was a time when education was really respected and we have come come such a far way away from that and I just feel like the more we can do to develop trust in our education system to develop trust in our education educators and our school leaders. The more chance we have of holding on to essentially the underpinning of all democracy which is our public education system. Well thank you commissioner that's really helpful and you know in terms of bringing new individuals into the classroom one of the questions we had in the chat was around power professionals and any of you have something to add on pathways and supports that are being provided right now for power professionals and making sure they can get into the classroom. I would start if that's okay. I would say I love this question, because I think it's such an untapped resource. And I think that, you know, a lot of times, the paraprofessional education assistant just becomes the hand holder or the bodyguard. I think that, you know, in my experience, you know, you take that job because you really love kids, and you really want to be. You want to be in the classroom or in a school. So what I would say is, one of the things that you want to do is assess where your paraprofessionals and educational systems are and create a learning plan for them particularly I think sometimes I see school teachers just dump them in a PD, and then struggle with the engagement because they may not have the background knowledge that they need to engage in the work I think you know sometimes we forget how much training teachers do. Okay, it's a highly intellectual profession as is leadership. And so, for me when you're thinking about how to support them. It's really understanding where they are creating their own professional learning plan resources materials that they can go through with someone similar to how you would induct a teacher right they need their own time. There are times where you can loop them in but I do think it's important to acknowledge them. And so I think that to me is the biggest thing, right is that you treat them with the same professional respect, intellectual respect and you do you design a learning plan for them. So what I think in thinking about the commissioners response to is that you know I just wanted to add, if we're thinking about whole child policy and supporting children. I do agree that we have to think about how do we support whole child adult learning. And so thinking critically about how do your adults learn in the building. What are the best ways in which they're taking feedback, how do they take feedback. What are the wins. What are the next level of work for a lot of leaders to to transform their schools into whole child schools is understanding. How do I support the whole adult. And I think with that is also you have the same mindset for educational assistance and Paris and I always say you know you promote what you permit. So if you value paraprofessionals but you take them out of the professional learning to do coverage that actually signals what you're promoting. Right. And so what I would say is, in order to support them, you definitely want to give them. A lot of people are called when it's like time isolated time right where you don't let them do it. This is a learning time for them. I think those kind of moves signal to them that you are investing in them that you're taking them seriously, but also giving them the genuine space that you would want for a student to learn and to grow. So I'll piggyback on that one exactly what you said I'll unpack a little bit more about the apprentice model that we are developing and implementing in Virginia which I believe does exactly that colleague. The target audience for the apprenticeship model is the grow your own perspective with targeting paraprofessionals instructional aids, potentially substitutes could be part time positions as well, as well as EVP candidates and so the apprentice is a two year period, which they are not the teacher of record, and they are mentored right by a journeyman they say or expert teacher for that two year period and really this will be the first time that we're building a model for training and we'll have certain expectations and responsibilities that go along with mentoring this apprentice and that they will be using our state's performance standards for teachers as part of a competency based review system so as they go through the two years there will be certain competencies, specific outcomes and deliverables that that mentor will be working with them, as well as them taking the classes, right as well as what we call the on the job training where they're getting certain amount of hours over the two year period, many of these again are anchors in the federal Department of Labor's apprenticeship programs. But again I think it's a beautiful match with much of what you've shared in terms of working with the adults in the system those that have really made the commitment to the children into the division, and trying to, for us upscale some of our residency programs as well. So using that model of co teaching, or the apprentice would be two examples of how I feel like we're doing that as well. Well great thank you all for the conversation today, and sharing your insights I'm going to pass it back to Jen to close us out. Thank you, Seth, and I wish we did have more time for this conversation it's been so great. Thank you to Commissioner Megan, Dr Johnson and Dr Varela for everything that you brought to this conversation. And thank you to our amazing co sponsors. As I said earlier today's webinar is the fourth and a six part series on transforming state education policy through a whole child approach, a recording of this webinar and the PowerPoint slides will be made available in the chat you can find a link to learn more about the entire series and register for the next webinar on April 12, which will explore how states can invest resources equitably and efficiently to support whole child systems and school design. We also have a survey in the chat if you have a minute to complete. And thank you all for attending and we hope to see you in April.