 Good afternoon and welcome to our fourth webinar, the webinar series on school community partnership for the whole child. We're talking about strategic leading and continuous improvement for early childhood comprehensive models. My name is Ralph Grafana. I'm Program Director of Early Learning at the Council of Chief State School Officers and wanted to let you know that this is a collaboration of a number of national organizations, including the National Association of elementary schools, the local superintendent's association ASA, the National Early Childhood Specialist Association of State Departments of Education and the Education Development Center. I'm pleased that New America has agreed to host this series and is recording the information that you're going to witness for the next hour and have it available on their website. There will also be resources on the event site that will give you information about some of the national models that I would like to just go over. We are building some of the conversation on several models that have emerged over the last two decades or so in this country. There's the Child Parents Center P3 model out of the University of Minnesota. And we have Brian Stokes here today who is going to talk about that model in the context of the Chicago public school system. The Buffett Superintendent Early Childhood Plan is another model that we see in Omaha, and we have Heather Phipps here who's going to represent that model. First 10 is one from the Education Development Center, and that's available in a number of places across the country. And we have Ian Larson here from Maine to talk about that model in the context of the work she's doing at the state level. The Judy Centers are a number of comprehensive centers in Maryland operated by the Maryland State Department of Education. And then first school from the University of North Carolina is another model that we have seen over the last few decades. This is an opportunity to learn about these models but also to talk about more comprehensively about ways and how we can provide a number of support services for our young children as a transition into school. And with that I'm going to turn it over to Ed Manusak from the local school superintendent's association to moderate the session with a wonderful panel. Thank you. Well, thank you, Ralph, for that introduction and also the overview of this amazing webinar. We are thrilled to have you with us this afternoon for those that joining us and excited that you're a part of this with the amazing panel. I am Eddie Manusak Superintendent at Dundee Community Schools in Dundee, Michigan, but I'm also representing the ASA and I'm the co-chair of the Early Learning cohort. I'm a national organization, a national cohort that has approximately 75 members that are either superintendent, central office administrators, or other district staff that come together for the common purpose of making early childhood matter most. And so I am thrilled to be here with this esteemed panel. And I know that we're very excited to dive right into what we have to offer you today. So just know that we're going to go ahead and get started. But before we do, we're also wanting you to know that from our vantage point, I know all of you are in the middle of dealing with all of the COVID issues that I know every district has to deal with. And we clearly understand all of the sacrifices that you're making in your schedule to be here today. And we just know that you are not alone. I know, you know, we are here to support each other in that endeavor, because that's something that we certainly all are dealing with. So I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that as well. So I would love to allow my esteemed panel to introduce themselves just to tell us who they are where they're reporting from today, and just a little bit more about themselves. So if we could first have Miss Leanne Larson from the main Department of Education, if you could do introduce yourself to our group today. Hello everyone I'm as Eddie said Leanne Larson, and I have the privilege of being the early learning team coordinator coordinator in mains Department of Education. Our team is responsible for all of the programming that supports both early childhood public pre-k through the elementary years. And it's just a pleasure to be with you all of you this afternoon. Well, fantastic. And then if we could have Heather Pips from Millard Public Schools in Omaha. Good afternoon. It's fun to see everyone introducing themselves in the chat. I'm Heather Phipps. Like Eddie said I'm the associate superintendent for educational services in Millard Public Schools, which is a suburb of Omaha, Nebraska. We have about 24,000 students were the third largest school district in the state. And we are part of a collaboration between 11 districts in our two county area. And I'm excited today to talk a little bit about what that collaboration has led to in terms of work with early childhood. Fantastic. And if we could turn next to Anita Chu, if you could introduce yourself to the group. Good afternoon. My name is Anita Chu, the very blessed superintendent of Garvey School District. We serve about 5000 KX students pre-KX students in an urban area situated in Los Angeles County serving a very diverse and highly vulnerable population over 80% of low income families. Proud to be here and sharing our Californian sunshine with all of you. And certainly that last but not least, we would like to have Brian Stokes if you could introduce yourself. Sure. Thanks, Debbie. So hi everybody, Brian Stokes. I am Chief Roach of Education at Chicago Public Schools. We are the nation's third largest school district and you're making progress towards building universal pre-school for all of our three-year-olds, in addition to working with our cities, Department of Finance and Sports Services to create opportunities across the birth to five spectrum. So really excited to be here with all of you. Well, excellent. And we are thrilled to have all of our panelists on this call today and then all of you that have joined us. So let's go ahead and jump right into some of these questions, because I know this topic clearly is one that we want to know more about from each other organizations and how you're making leadership work with early childhood programs. So Brian, can you please provide a general description of the CPCP3 in Chicago? Sure, absolutely. And I'll start with a caveat that I have been here at my role at CPS about six months and so I'm still learning and, you know, gaining so much knowledge about the work we've done and the history of this work. And I'm really excited to partner with Arthur Reynolds at the University of Minnesota, who has done a tremendous amount to build and lead this model. So the Child Parent Centers, as I'm sure most people know, are one of the foundational models and research studies that have really informed our field alongside, you know, the Apsodarian project and the Perry pre-school project. I'm proud to be a board member of the High School Foundation, which continues to build on the work of the Perry pre-school project. And, you know, I think really sets a clear foundation for the important role of high quality early childhood education in, you know, promoting school and life success for our students. Chicago launched the CPC PROC model in 1967 in four sites in our west side of our city, intentionally serving those students who are in communities that face the greatest barriers to success and still continue to be communities that have faced historic disinvestment. And so what Chicago pioneered in the CPC model really brings together comprehensive education, family support for students and their families across the preschool to grade three spectrum. But this idea that we need strong alignment in our early grades that, you know, we often think about sort of preschool and then the school system, but nothing magical happens at age five. It's a spectrum as we all know. And so the model works to promote child well-being, family engagement, high quality early childhood education, and smooth transitions across that grade band. And it's built on this idea that you have, you need a strong collaborative leadership team, effective learning experiences, aligned curriculum practices, parent involvement, professional development, continuity and stability to create the core of a strong program. So from those four sites on the west side back in 1967 we've grown the program to now serve 5400 students in the P to three grade bands across 19 of our CPS schools, and of course all those families being served as well. There are a number of quality elements. So, you know, our CPC programs have a full school days or our school day and CPS to seven hours. We have reduced class sizes. We make sure that the instruction is sensitive to the needs of our students, you know, structure to really support authentic child engagement. We have a balance with, you know, teacher led instruction so really looking at the best of both worlds, and diverse learning experiences so math, literacy, science, etc. And I think, you know, the model is really marked by this idea that the family is always a partner throughout the entirety of a child's education career and finding new ways to bring families in. It's an amazing program, and I know that they have the right person at the home for sure Brian so thanks for giving us that overview. Next, Leigh Ann, you have been a partner with the Education Development Center, the EDC on your work you've completed in the state of Maine. Explain to our audience what this partnership involved in getting started. Thanks, Eddie. Thanks. So, first, let me just give a little background about how Maine got started with the first 10 work. Maine was the recipient of a preschool expansion grant that enabled us to expand public preschool and 13 school systems across our state, all of which were high poverty settings and a real mix of rural and urban context. The expansion within the expansion grant mean was particularly the concerned with making sure that we were finding ways of better coordinating services to support children and families who were enrolled in our public preschool programs. We made sure that each of the settings had a preschool coordinator position on board, but as we were implementing, we began to notice that the coordination piece with providers and partners outside of the school wasn't always as smooth as we wanted it to be. And not only that, but even the coordination within the school systems wasn't always as smooth in those transitions, particularly as students were moving out of pre K and into the early elementary years. So the early childhood specialist at the time who led that prod the expansion grant as well as myself got very interested in exploring various models that support that P3 span and one that we were particularly interested in was the work of David Jacobson at EDC. Partly because it really looks at using that pre K K transition as a pivot point for reaching up and reaching down across the first 10 years of children's lives. And that's been an important goal for us as a state to really embrace and think about how do we put the resources in place that we need for those students in those first 10 years of their lives. So we worked with EDC to have a two pronged approach as a state, both in terms of helping to support the 13 school systems and developing first 10 models. But at the same time we felt like it would have been a missed opportunity if we hadn't worked with EDC as well to help folks at the state level better understand this model. So we turned to them for some consultation, both in terms of the local level work to build out first 10 models at the grassroots level. And we also pulled together a team from across state agencies that all have a vested interest in those first 10 years of children's lives to learn together about various models that we might think about employing and to follow the work that was going on in the 13 communities. So it really led to a very mutually beneficial 18 months or so for us, where not only were our local level folks investing and developing these models but those of us at the state level we're having the opportunity to watch that development and learn right along with them and really think about how as a state we might be able to embrace this work and move it forward beyond the life of the expansion grant itself. Well, I can tell you that the differences that are being made in the state of Maine because of your partnership and your leadership are absolutely tremendous. So thanks for offering that overview and that introduction. So next I turn to Heather and I came to learn about the Buffett Early Childhood Institute with my work as a co-chair of the ASA Early Learning cohort. So describe to our panel what the superintendent's early childhood plan is and how did it begin. So I sit here as one person who's part of a huge collaborative that actually started in 2013 with some state legislation. So systemically we had some state legislation that created what we call our learning community and the learning community is Douglas and Sarpy County and those two counties together in campus 11 school districts. The learning community itself is a government organization. They have a board and they can levy up to a half cent. I think just systematically and strategically that's good to know because that is how the superintendent's early childhood plan is funded. So we have that overarching learning community and then the superintendents were charged with really trying to address early childhood issues specifically for children who live in poverty who might have some gaps that other children might not have. So that isn't necessarily the superintendent's area of expertise. And so the superintendent and the learning community partnered with the Buffett Early Childhood Institute who really has some of the greatest minds and experience in early childhood. We are really lucky to have these people in town. So really in that partnership, we developed the early childhood plan. So there's the learning community. There's our partnership with Buffett Early Childhood Institute and then there is the superintendent's early childhood plan. That plan focuses on birth to grade three. And to me one of the key things in our model is that we're responsible for kids really at conception. So when they walk in our door when they're five, everything that's happened in their life from conception on impacts what's happening. So that birth through third grade model is really key to the plan. Also key to it is school as hub. So we really seek to create a school that serves as the hub for families for communities for community organizations for services outside of that so that school as hub is a key concept. So we have home visiting to focus on birth to three. We have preschool to focus on our four and five year olds, and then are obviously our K through three and really K through five programming that happens within our school. There's a heavy parent and family support component. I was really when Brian was talking about their model. Some very similar quality things are as part of our programming. Also professional development, not just for staff in schools, but for community partners for parents and caregivers for community daycares and preschools for example. And because we are 11 districts, some of whom are we have one that is a the largest school district of the state and it's urban, all the way to some that are very small and rural. So we look pretty different. So there are multiple models at work in our plan. We have 10 schools that are full implementation sites, we have two of those. So when I talk today I'll talk primarily about what's happening in our full implementation sites, but we also have customized assistance so Buffett early childhood works with each district on early childhood initiatives that would be beneficial for them that might look different than what the needs would be in another district. And then that PD for all that I talked about, not just targeting staff the targeting parents and caregivers of all kinds. So that's kind of a broad overview of the program. And I know that you and the work that your colleagues are doing in Nebraska is beginning to spread nationwide for sure. So, we're obviously thrilled that we can learn more about it today. So last, again, you know, our next panelist that we haven't heard from yet, Anita, you from your perspective as a superintendent and myself as a sitting superintendent. We have these unique chairs and roles and I know Heather as a superintendent as well as assistant superintendent there in her district in Miller. But we, you know, we get involved sometimes in these special projects where we have these unique experiences these unique opportunities. And I know that you, in your role, were able to participate with the Office of Head Start and their public school collaboration demonstration project. Briefly described to the audience, what this entailed from your, from your schools perspective. Glad to you. Well, my school district have the distinct honor to be selected as one of the 13 leadership teams all across the nation to take part in this public school collaboration demonstration project champion by the Office of Head Start. Our team representing California was strategically formed to include our Child Development Director, principals, our parent leaders in the Head Start program, as well as now County Head Start administrators and myself. From summer 2019 to summer 2020, we engaged in a very focused collective inquiry on how to strengthen pre-K kinder transition through three different levels of collaboration and partnerships. So at the district level, we the team designed and implemented a pilot program to strengthen our transition, which primarily included two activities. The first one is a pre-K kinder transition days where our pre-K parent staff and children visited the kinder campus. So our teachers from both programs co-delivered the learning activities. Our students are partnered, our pre-K students are partnered with the kinder parties, engaged in the end-con activities, and spend the day together talking about their experiences. Our teachers had the chance to observe, take part in the hands-on activities as well as very powerfully discussing the commonalities as well as differences in all aspects of the school life, including the behavioral expectations, the learning environment, even how meals are being served, health foods are being served. So the feedback has been amazing. In addition to that, we also had the second activity of our pilot is our joint PD that involved both our pre-K and our kinder teachers. So they had the chance to share their standards, curriculum assessments, as well as examining the commonalities and differences in the implications if we want to strengthen that transition. And so moving now to the county level, it is absolutely an excitement and honor to take part in the county level project, which resulted in a transition systems framework, which has more than 100 pages long that covers, I mean, that includes a lot of resources, a lot of resources on the commonalities and the differences, comparing to two systems, as well as resources for administrators, parents, staff, very, very comprehensive framework, which was showcased just a couple of months ago in September to 80 school districts in the Los Angeles County, as well as the charter schools and the subsidized early learning providers. So we do see that this will be, this has become the framework to guide our practices moving forward. And lastly, certainly not least, at the national level, it was such a wonderful opportunity to meet and to have a dialogue with the 12 other state teams and getting inspired by their ideas. So is some substance kind of the height lies of this project has been amazing and producing a lot of great outcomes. Thank you. No, so I know Anita that there's going to be probably some people on this call that are going to want that resource that was shared with 80 other districts. So I know that that may be something that we will be able to hopefully get out on our resources page. If you are able to provide that link, you know that would be that would be great. So, Brian, I'm going to turn to you because I know that clearly, each of us in our, you know, roles are dealing now more than ever with issues of equity. And I know that equity is a centralized theme throughout this webinar series and has been. So how has the CPC P3 in Chicago addressed issues of equity. Absolutely. You know, I think, you know, when you look at city is diverse as Chicago and in so many different ways. You know, we covered kind of the full the full gamut. But there are obviously areas where they're disproportionate impacts and their disparities that we have to address. And so, I would say that everything we do in CPS is really rooted in and driven by equity. And so our ambitious vision for our learners that we want to see everyone succeed. And so, you know, CPS fortunate to have an equity office in our district that has developed an equity framework and that's part of the resources that are linked on in the chat. And, you know, we define equity as really championing, you know, individual cultures talents abilities languages interests of each student and making sure they receive the opportunities and resources they need to succeed. And, you know, one of the foundations for us of that approach is target universalism thinking about how we have one goal for all of our learners and we've got some really ambitious goals for our young learners. And we're sure that we understand what all the systems and structures are that they're facing in their lives and their communities and their families, you know, from the school system itself, and how, you know, different students will be situated differently towards that goal, and then providing unique resources to reach that goal. And mentioned at the beginning that we as a city are building a system where all students have high quality early childhood education opportunities in their community that meet their unique needs and really our resource to meet those needs. And so, you know, as we think about that ultimately we're envisioning a system within our district where four is the age of entry and then students are seamlessly transitioning to the early grades in their community. So, you know, really powerful family relationships and rigorous instruction being at the core of that and so I think the cbcp three model as, you know, as a model and as something that we continue to build on really does set a clear foundation for that work we're thinking of city wise and move towards universal pre K. I would also say that, you know, we've set some, you know, very ambitious goals for our youngest learners and for ourselves in terms of our youngest learners. So, you know, we want to see by 2024 a 50% increase in the number of students who are scoring as ready and all the gains of our kindergarten entry assessment. And we've made some progress there but we you know what we know is that if we can, you know, we can cross that bridge we've made a significant progress towards more of our students being ready to learn. And I would say that, you know, those gains don't fade that by second grade, 65% of our second graders are at or above national attainment and literacy and math. And so, you know, we know getting there isn't just an early childhood defined as pre school strategy, it's a broader, you know, early childhood early elementary birthday birth to age eight strategy. You know, thinking of the CPC model. It's a it's a pretty key part of our vision and our focus, and it lets us really target cohesive meaningful instruction and deeply engaged families. There was, I think actually it's continuing a longitudinal study of people who were in the CPC model in the 80s that's kind of followed them into adulthood. And what that study has found so far is that people who took part in the CPC model have, you know, as adults so now higher average incomes, higher health insurance coverage rates, lower rates of incarceration lower rates of substance abuse that their life has actually been their life trajectory has been kind of transformed they were given a greater opportunity greater resources for success as a result of that intensive intervention p to three. And so, you know, I think our commitment to the model or commitment towards universal preschool really is a commitment to equity and equitable life outcomes. And, and Brian you're addressing some really key issues here of, you know, when we are in our positions of leadership and our organizations, being able to succinctly and clearly communicate so that what I refer to as speaking bilingually and what I don't mean is speaking a second language what I mean is being able to communicate to your audience, exactly what their need to hear at that moment. One of the things that struck me in one of your comments is this whole idea of, you know, this longitudinal study and the benefits that you and your program are offering your families is just tremendous, and it kind of piggybacks off of the work of like, you know, this is winning economist James Heckman, and then also Dr Tim Bartek from the up John Institute. There's all kinds of interesting and longitudinal issues of, you know, when, when you have families that are staying within your, your city or within the state, the return on investment on the investment that your school system your organization is making is profound as it can be as high as 16 to 17 to one. And I just credit Chicago, you know, public schools in the CPC project for doing such great work so you know that's that's amazing job. And to you in your department and the connections that has made with districts when the state of Maine have been just absolutely tremendous. Clearly you're a very connected state Department of Education, you know, you know, expert, and has addressing whole child learning and development been a key to this success. The study definitely been a key to it, you know, really whole child development is, I would say at the center of first 10 models. You know, we work with school systems and building out their plans. They're thinking certainly about how to align instruction and assessment more seamlessly across the pre K to five span, but they're also thinking about children's health, their educational development, their families access to resources, and the relationships that they're building with families before kids are even coming into the public school systems and certainly as they are progressing through them. So, growth is most definitely at the center of the work that they're engaged in. We've seen some really exciting work happening as the schools have been engaged in first 10. You know, we see them certainly doing things like PLC work to align curriculum better. But also things like goat what what they often call ghost walks with teachers walking through each other's classrooms just really studying what's the environment like. And what's this going to feel like for children when they're moving from one classroom to another. They've also been employing something called play and learn groups more frequently, where they're inviting children, you know, ages to three. Before they're coming into their public pre K programs just to come and play together, and parents get together, meet teachers, talk together talk about strategies that they could employ gives those educators a chance to see maybe where some of the needs that families have are and help to link them to resources within the community that could better serve them. What's been fascinating to for us as a state because we've been engaged with this work in a state level committee is that a lot of what we get to see happening at the local level, then enforces reinforces for us. Some of the decisions that we make around programming and policy at the state level. So that relationship that we have is very beneficial. A great example of that has been the investment that we've made in developing an open source pre K curricula and K curricula that's modeled after the Boston public schools work. Since that shared in an earlier session in this series about that work. We've been able to take it have developed a little bit more of a main flavor to that curriculum that fits with the rural nature of our state, but it's an interdisciplinary curriculum, and it's been very valuable in building a more seamless progression for children in some of our schools. We've also are just on the cusp of implementing a mental health consultation initiative in our state and that definitely is a result of what we have noticed in working with schools about the needs that they face on a daily basis in terms of children's mental health and parents mental health and making sure that they're getting the supports that they need so that's been key. The other piece that I would say that's been interesting about the state level teams work is that because we are across agency and we all bring different levels or different areas of expertise to the table. I think that in and of itself has gone a long way to helping us all think in terms of whole child development. It's easy sometimes to get very focused on your area of expertise, you know we'll have the literacy specialist the math specialist at the table, but we also have our social director of social work. We have our nutrition services folks at the table. So everybody is talking together and it's really stretching our thinking about how we bring resources together in a more thoughtful way. So in the end it just struck me by saying the, you know, sometimes you had mentioned so many different things that, you know, imitation is the best form of flattery. I know that you had mentioned the Boston public schools, you know, and that just comes to mind, and we need to eliminate this from our vocabulary as professionals that are in education of, we don't steal ideas we share them right. We're sharing all these great ideas. So when I want to turn next to Heather. So Heather circling back though to the issues with equity and knowing this is also a central theme that has driven the work of the Buffett Early Child Institute as a partner with your school. So one of the results you've been able to either document or use or demonstrate with your school district in the overall within the overall superintendent's early childhood plan has been able to demonstrate so what is what does that look like. I think that that we're all sharing some pretty common themes in terms of working to develop a model to achieve equity for all students how is it that we can ensure that all students have quality early childhood experiences. Not just students who happen to be in a position to go to an expensive preschool for example. But those are very similar themes, and you ask about what results we've seen data has been key to the work of the early childhood plan from the beginning. Our goal is to find replicable research based valid things that make an impact for kids. So the evaluation component just because this webinar is about the systems and the strategic piece of this. The evaluation has been key to this work from the beginning we have a lot of conversations about how we're evaluating whether or not it works. We revamped the entire evaluation process in the 1718 school year, because we really felt like what we were able to look at wasn't telling us everything that we needed so that constant revision. This is really about creating a research based model that can be replicated other places so formally. We are using a lot of tools we're using hovers to look at our home visiting we're using class we're looking at NWA map we're looking at mess which is the Minnesota executive functioning scale. Like we have a lot of formal measures in place to evaluate the work that we're doing. Specifically the research questions focus around the quality of classroom instruction in our preschools, the quality of that home visiting experience, the types of family engagement that we see happening, the parent and child interaction that we see happening. And then really looking at the academic achievement and the developmental achievement in birth to three, and then in that magic three year old period where they're transitioning to preschool. And then what it looks like in pre K through third grade. So we take a lot of really hard looks at this. Our work is funded not only by the learning community but by some other nonprofits, because a lot of people are interested in knowing what we can prove works with early childhood, you know we all say this is the silver bullet, but can we prove it and you know, Brian referenced being able to look at long term you know not only are they ready to enter kindergarten, but long term are they still there so we're looking at all of those things. We do find classroom practices have improved over the years family engagement has improved over the years. We know from looking at the data that the math scores for our students in our programming is lower than expected levels and so we're watching that longitudinally to see how that changes over time. Another thing we've really found is that home visiting and rolling families in home visiting is hard. Like we, it just is you have got to cross this trust barrier that we aren't trying to partner with you to catch you doing something. We really just want to partner with you to help. And that we're having conversations about how you play with your kids, not because we think you're playing with your kids in a wrong way, but because how you're playing with your kids is helping their language development. And I mean we constantly battle that so that's been one of the things we found. Aside from all of the hard data. I would like to talk informally about what's happened in our school district. We have two full implementation sites in our school district, but we have 25 elementary schools in our school district. And I think informally, the biggest impact that this work has had is elementary principals are not used to thinking about a two year old they've never seen as someone they should care about their current development. And all of a sudden we're shifting that focus to all of our elementary principals trying to go out in the parking lot after school and say hey we have home visiting I see you have a one year old would you be interested in this. When they're doing parent teacher conferences and there's a younger sibling running around and it looks like hey that's a student that might be an issue when they're in kindergarten, instead of just filing that away. And the other saying, oh, let's reach out to that family let's try to create this school is hub concept, not just in those two elementaries. So for us some of the best results has been that collaboration. I need to talk about the collaboration small and then bigger county wide for us as a school district it really has spread to our other schools, and then obviously the fact that we're able to collaborate across 11 districts is just huge. Well, and what's impressive. The most about this is the replicatability of what your partnership has developed in, you know, speaking from personal experience and the work that I've been involved with where we're in my small corner of Michigan. I'm a superintendent I've banded together with our nine other local superintendents here in my little corner of southeastern Michigan, and we are, we have our Monroe County superintendents early childhood plan. And it's using the tenants and the, and the aspects in the, you know, structure of what you've been able to put in place with the partnerships you've developed the one key is we don't have that legislation hook for the funding. So we got to work on that right I got to work on that. However, however, I do want just a, you know, to mention that, you know, the work that is being done with your with your organization and the collaboration. I know that just recently and I know it's not something that we have in the chat for now but you had a five year strategic plan that took a lot of effort. So it's not just, you know, a thought process here, it's long term thinking you're thinking longitudinally as well. So sometimes we, I like using this analogy and I've borrowed it for many years, I think, potentially BJ stone from had given this to me. When I saw her speak many years ago, we have to think with sometimes we have to use a stethoscope because we have to measure the heart of the matter. Sometimes we have to use the microscope to look at the details of what we're dealing with, and then we have to look with the telescope to look long term, and it sounds like your organization has been doing all of those three things and so that's a credit. Next we'll turn to Anita. And Anita, can you share how your participation with headstart, who is a national leader in providing quality early childhood educational experiences for children and their families has enhanced. What is happening within your school district you had touched upon it with your first answer. Well, succinctly put, the impact is incredible. And it is multifaceted. So allow me just to highlight a couple of the amazing outcomes. See the participation with office of headstart in regular national leader has given my entire team, my district team in all segments, such a strong affirmation and validation of the importance and the contribution of headstart programs and services. Particularly like what Leon says, is developing the whole child, which is oftentimes the undervalued part in the are the great level span, and also the equity promoting equity in the early ages, such an important important contribution. So as, as I have experienced the contribution of our headstart program has not always been a properly valued segment of our district services. So the participation with office headstart definitely has served as a morale booster for our entire team, particularly our headstart team, including our staff and our parents. Another amazing outcome is, as I mentioned the ability to need and connect with 12 other teams from other states. This definitely has helped us to gain a national perspective. So, you know, on paper we know that we probably share similar challenges. Yet now we can actually hear similar challenges, and we get new ideas how these challenges might be better addressed. So this national perspective has helped us to examine our programs, which, you know, after these year and a half, we also have put together our transition program, our transition plan, as I mentioned, which include transition days, which includes our joint PD for staff as well as for parents. It's been an amazing journey. So singly put, you know this participation with the office of headstart has given us the opportunity and the platform for iron to sharpen iron and for passion to fuel passion, which all of it has helped us to strengthen our pathway to achieve the seamless quality prepaid kinder program and creating that educational experience for all of our children. And one of the things that I know Dr. Deb Bergeron, who is the program director for the office of headstart and I know you and Eda have had the pleasure interacting and like I have with her, and as an amazing advocate and leader of this federal agency, she has a symbol for headstart. If you can picture that in your mind. You know, if there's an arrow in that, and it's pointing up, and she has oftentimes referred to that as an arrow, not just allowing students the chance, but allowing families the chance to be lifted out of poverty. And I just know that that is any type of group effort with whatever Anita or Heather or Brian or Leanne all the work that you've done. There's a profoundness of what we've been able to achieve or you have in your amazing roles that you've played. So Brian, I have another question for you. So what are your thoughts on how school districts can support comprehensive approaches to early childhood learning and development, more generally. Okay, so I appreciate your kind of reference to the headstart arrows I do think that had started such a great model for how we should think about the whole child and the whole family. You know, Leanne earlier mentioned the work in Maine rather preschool development grant, and you know in thinking of your question. So five years ago, I had the privilege of helping to lead Illinois implementation of our preschool development grant. The state actually just released the state actually just released an evaluation of that work, which is one of the links in the chat. And it was really designed around, you know, figuring out what families need what what children need to succeed and how we were going to reach the families who were typically the furthest from opportunity. So, you know, in thinking about how school districts should approach this work. You know, I think, both the CPC model and the preschool development grant model that we use in Illinois, we're built around assessing what the gaps were in our system and one of our big gaps as a state and I would say up until a few years as a district was that most of our services were part day versus full day. And so we knew that that wasn't that wasn't kind of moving the needle in terms of what children needed. You know, the need to set an ambitious goal so you know in terms of our preschool development grant. We set this really ambitious goal as a state that we were going to find our most priority families right our families who are in deep poverty, who are experiencing homelessness. Families now child welfare system, and children with IEPs, and we were going to be really intentional about finding those four year olds and bringing them to a comprehensive full day high quality program that was going to lift up both them and their families. And Heather mentioned, sort of the barriers to enrollment around home visiting that you need to build family trust you've got to go out and find families and that was something that, you know when in implementing the preschool development grant model. You know school districts weren't necessarily used to the idea that you had to go out and find families right you put the sign on the marquee out front preschool enrollment is you know next Tuesday from 12 to five, and whoever shows up shows up and the seats all filled. But the reality was that the seats weren't being filled by the families, you know if our goal is school readiness for goals closing the gap and limiting disparities, the seats weren't being filled by the families, who most needs we reach to accomplish that goal. So, you know, I think that being able to have an ambitious goal and to build a meaningful, you know, layered system and support structure to achieve the goals critical. I think having the right staff in place to execute so you know we know, I can say an artist or I think probably anywhere right there's never enough hands to go around to do everything that needs to be done. But being able to sort of intentionally figure out a way of dedicating resources and building intentional ownership of those key tasks really important so thinking of the CPC model there's a head teacher who's accountable for professional development. So, our principal development grant model had an instructional leader whose job it was to develop and support teachers and you know we heard my read the evaluation and what I heard when I was in the governor's office was that before we had that dedicated teacher preschool teachers were just going to you know the same PD as you know K to eight teachers, and there wasn't differentiation there wasn't a focus and what their needs were and a lot of districts around the state. And so I think that intentionality is really, really critical. And I would say that you know then the charge becomes figuring out how to scale, scale quality, and ensuring that you're reaching as many students as possible that's the challenge that we're taking on now. But I do think that head start I think the, and especially the work of the preschool development grant really is a great, a great starting point. And Brian, I'm not, you know, going to speak for origins for any of you but as a former kindergarten teacher who actually did home visits, you find out so much, not just about that child, but really about that family. And we talk about equity, you know, that is, there's no better window into the world of that when you are the individual knocking on that that door of that home, whether it's an apartment or whether it's a town home, you know, whether it's a homeless shelter. You know, you're the one knocking. And I think that's so important that, and I really wanted, you know, to where you had said find the families. You're absolutely right you have to be able to be willing to do that work, no matter the scale of what you're trying to do. I know that, no, we all are dealing with this pandemic and I know that the number of families that have become disengaged. But my good friend, Dr. Finch who I know is participating in this as a participant today from West Valley in Washington, Yakima, Washington, West Valley 208. He has often said, that's a after COVID and AC practice. What are we going to do, how are we going to figure that out I think that's a really important thing to consider. One of the other things I want to talk to Leanne about was, but as a member of a State Department of Education, what are the implications for how states can support early childhood and elementary collaboration. Yeah, thanks Eddie. So, there's lots I could talk about on this topic, but I guess probably one of the most important pieces that I've come to after 20 years of work in a state agency is just how important relationship building is with schools and communities. I cannot stress enough that the relationships that myself and my colleagues in the Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services in Maine have with schools and communities makes a huge difference in understanding the needs that exist. I'm really listening to the realities of the work, helping schools and communities identify the strengths that they have, and that they're already bringing to the table, and then figuring out how to use those strengths to address the challenges. Just being thinking partners with them is, you know, huge. I think that as a State Department, part of our role can be focusing on what's working well. So, shining a light on successful practice and helping to connect that practice across different communities. I feel like a great investment of our time is when we are helping to link schools and communities across our state so that they can learn from one another, facilitating networks that allow them to share the positive work that they're doing, and helping them to problem solve and document lessons learned. You know, a great example that came out of the first 10 work. When we brought our 13 different communities together to share was, you know, one of them was very frustrated because they felt like they were putting a lot of opportunities in their space and not drawing a lot of families in to take advantage of them. And another community said, Well, you know, we had that same experience but what we discovered is, maybe we needed to stop expecting families to come to us and we needed to get out into the community. And I think that realization was like a turning point for many of our first 10 sites, and really understanding that, you know, as much as we, many of us value and are very passionate about our educational experience that hasn't necessarily been the same for all of our families and school is not always viewed as a safe and comfortable place to be so we have to think differently. And I think part of our job as a State Department is to help plant those seeds of how to think a little bit differently. I also think we have a responsibility, you know, when we engage in programming to really go at it, thinking about implementation science, I'm a big believer in helping schools build capacity, but in the end, they've got to be able to do this work for the long haul so we have to think about how resources that we're providing, how are, how are they going to be able to carry on the work, once the grant dollars are gone. It's been interesting listening to some of the other panelists today, the, the number of times we've talked about Head Start and how many lessons we could learn from Head Start has been amazing and wonderful. And that has been a lesson we have learned we've heard from all of our sites that there's a deep desire to have a family service coordinator position in elementary school settings and, you know, one of the things we're doing as a State Department is trying to think about how can we help school systems, grade and blend funds differently to secure those positions and then what would that look like for them. And I think Heather touched on this in her remarks about helping principals, because, you know, the reality that we often face in a small state like ours is a lot of our elementary principals that's early childhood is not their background. So what can we do a better job of and, you know, the work we've done in first 10 has helped to really accentuate for us that we need to put some better professional learning in place for elementary principals around whole child development and the kinds of tenants that first 10 is built around so that's definitely a direction that we're heading heading in. Now there's, there's a great article by Ella Regenstein. Why hasn't a 12 education embraced early childhood. And in that article, a reference, I believe it was an ASP. No, Gracie branch you moderated last Thursday's panel. I know that any SP had had sent out a survey. So how comfortable are you as an elementary principal and being a former elementary principal I'm very comfortable. I'm unique. I'm like, you know, I have an early childhood education background I taught kindergarten I you know, have a very specialized undergraduate degree so I'm unique, but a lot of the colleagues around the nation for elementary principals don't may not have that I think the survey, if I remember correctly said about 70% of those that were surveyed said they're not comfortable with it. So if you're in a position of leadership on this, you know, in this call, and you're a superintendent, you know, like, you know how they're being an associate superintendent or a need to be a superintendent, cultivating that and being able to, you know, to help and assist, I think is also a big part of what we are able to do. So great point, Leanne so next I'll turn to Heather. So, how have you been able to maintain a sustainable model that offers your children and families, a positive start in your district, and throughout the other school districts that participate in your superintendent early childhood plan. Well, here's what's funny it's like that was the perfect setup to this question. And everything, everything you just said, yes, I think we, I think we make an assumption that because you're an elementary principal that you feel comfortable and have the skills and knowledge to work with early childhood. And that's crazy if that wasn't your education why would we assume that that's the case. So, weirdly as this sounds. It's not as much about money, money's always good, but it's not as much about money as you might think, I think mindset is a big part of it. I know that we're in our elementary schools where we have preschools. There used to be a mindset that that was a district program, and I don't have to worry about that preschool. Somebody else, I don't know who is going to be taking care of that preschool and I'm just going to worry about my K five kids. So shifting that mindset to not only the preschoolers, but like I said earlier birth birth to school shifting that mindset has been really key. I do think it's important that you contribute district staff and resources and time and effort to early childhood, but it's not this little tiny thing off to the side. I was a middle school teacher and a middle school and high school assistant principal and principal. So my greatest learning curve in that first year was early childhood for sure. And I'm luckily surrounded by some really good people and this work that helped me get a little more up to speed, but we have a director of early childhood and elementary education we have a coordinator of early childhood education. We have a teacher leader for early childhood education, we have a social worker for early childhood education, that district commitment helps sustain it. And then it's thinking about how you use that money you know we talked about how you, you have to be able to sustain this and live on past the grant. We had to get good about asking if we were spending our grant correctly so we were using a grant, and we were running a family resource center, and we were really proud of that. We have a place in our community we had drop in and play, where you can bring your kids and will model play for you and well I mean it was fantastic we were really proud of that. And when we looked at it. It's what Brian said the people who show up to register for preschool aren't necessarily the kids that you need in preschool. We're using our family resource center, we're not necessarily the families that we needed to work with in terms of how you play with your kids. So we closed it, and that was really hard because we had some, a lot of people, a lot of grandmas love to bring their kids to it. But it wasn't targeting the students that we were trying to target with that grant money. And so we used that money to pay for our early childhood social worker. We use that money to pay for additional home visitors in schools that weren't our full implementation sites with the superintendent's plan. We're taking those the pieces that we're learning from our work with the superintendent's plan and our work with the Buffett early childhood Institute, and we're figuring out ways to reallocate based on what our data says, and replicate those models and other schools. And so I think that that sustainability piece is really about continuing to evaluate and ask yourself if you're putting your resources in the right places because likely and said resources are limited. Yes, yes, they are for sure. So, I have one further question and then for Anita, and then I do want to ask there is a question in the Q amp a that I want to get to free for anyone on the panel. But Anita, what has been the greatest challenge as a superintendent that you've faced within your work within early childhood education, and maybe to spin on that what's been your greatest success, what have you done. This is a great question. And I thought that Heather answer my question already. I have to share with you that you know the greatest challenge that I faced as a superintendent in promoting early childhood education is the fact that it is undervalued. You know, it's that whole mindset. It is undervalued for many good reasons. The number one, but you know it's undervalued by many in my district staff, as well as community members, because it's not associated with any immediate high stakes assessments. And you know exactly what I mean. It is undervalued by many because the lifelong impact the whole child development the equity issues is not fully understood or appreciated. It is undervalued because the rules and regulations governing the ECE appeared oftentimes as too confusing and not manageable. You know, so I have to share with you my little story. My first year as a superintendent and that was six years ago or six six plus years ago. I was, I thought I taught first grade to just like, you know, almost like any. I thought I knew about child development I thought I knew easy. I did not know a thing until fortunately. Well, unfortunately, unfortunately that I lost my director of child development I put on this additional head and I serve in that role for a year and a half. So it was, it was almost like a miracle. So it was through that really firsthand experience and I realized that, wow, this is such a different world than what I thought it was, and it was such an amazing and wonderful surfaces. So I have gained so much appreciation I share with my history staff that through that experience you have no idea how much you have taught me the value of early childhood education. But definitely, you know, all these on the mindset, the how we look at has started how we look at early cast start how we look at the entire early childhood education has created my challenges in my endeavor as a superintendent to develop a shared passion commitment and a vision to be the seamless pre-kinder program. Now, the other side. So nevertheless, as we all know that every challenge can become an opportunity. So, because of my deep knowledge of this challenge, it has also led to the deliberate effort and purposeful efforts to create opportunities for communication and collaboration. So here are a few examples. So the child development program is under my direct supervision. I have weekly meetings with my director. And we also have monthly management meetings when all the program administrators have shared will share their program updates, including my child development director. And there is providing the platform for identify areas to strengthen coordination and integration. We believe in an integrated system. This is not another initiative. This is housed in every single elementary school. So principles are supervisors of the child development program working alongside our child development and initiative team. Additionally, our child development director also presents monthly reports to our board, and we have one board member designated as a liaison attending all of the policy council meetings with their parents. And through all of these ongoing meetings, what I believe we have accomplished is allowing everyone in the team, whatever role they serve to gain understanding and therefore subsequently appreciation, a change of mindset, appreciating the value of what their role and responsibilities in supporting this collective vision of seamless prepaid aid program. Anita, it really comes I have a visual learner and what comes to mind is, you have a bus, and you have everyone on the right on the bus but you have them all on the right seat on the bus. And that is not easy to do so that is a credit. So hats off to you for that leadership that you've been able to show in your district in your organization. So I have a question for, I think this question is from Kayla from the, from the Q amp a, and it would be answered by any of you but maybe Brian or Heather, but they want to know, just engaging and bridging the pre K and K, you know, programs and integrating early childhood into the gate greater quick K 12 systems, like in curriculum instruction and assessment I know we briefly talked about Boston public and, you know, the continuum that they have done there and I know that was a topic for our call in our webinar series earlier. So Brian or Heather, could you maybe talk on that, and we have honestly we only have seven minutes left. And then I do have one other question that I would like to get from the audience to either Anita or Leanne after this. It's always super brief so I think that's a great question. I think, first is really demystifying what we mean we say early childhood, and really getting people to see that there shouldn't be a dramatic transition from pre K to K. And so one resource I didn't share, but a couple years ago, Illinois put together a kindergarten transition advisory committee. I was part of that committee we developed a report around what a smooth transition could look like for pre K to K. I think that's a great resource, but but really I think you know during those conversations. People, you know we had kindergarten teachers preschool teachers principals etc. There was this belief that you needed all of this data right to follow a preschooler into kindergarten that we were talking about like, you know bridging two different planets. And I think when we really talk about what's actually required what's actually expected. What should things look like. The level of play should exist in kindergarten. There's a district in Illinois, you 46 here that's done a lot to really bring play into the early grades very intentionally. And so I think it's, it's questioning, you know, if there's, if the reason that transition right now is difficult is because of this pressure to, you know, sort of push standards down questioning where where's that pressure coming from. But I think it's demystifying I think it's getting people to stop being afraid of pre K. I agree I can't work exactly who said, I've been Leanne or Heather. You know the principles are often not prepared as pre K principles or experts that's all and that's true and that's one of our goals in Chicago is kind of supporting and empowering our principles. And I think we have a lot of fear to dispel and a lot of fear to demystify early childhood it's not scary it's not dirty word. Okay, so Heather, what your your brief response and then I've got a question for the end and then we'll finalize with Anita but go ahead. Yeah, the only thing that I would add is what our very own canyon chism in the chat said, which is, we've all said that there's a problem that we don't understand you know everything Brian just said, why aren't we advocating for principle certification superintendent certification to include more education around early childhood so that that learning gap isn't so big for all of us. Okay. So, there's a question from the Q&A for Leanne from Jonathan. What advice would you give a state that is just beginning to set up a system to support early learning across the entire state. That's a big question. That's a big question, Eddie. I know and I think and I think if you have, I know that maybe Jonathan if you wanted to share his information you might be able to reach out to him. But to do that I'd be very happy to have a conversation with Jonathan for sure. Holy bully. I think, I mean, I'm starting the journey, I would want to spend some time probably getting to know some of the people across my state who are really knowledgeable about this topic. And at a variety of different levels Eddie, like I think it's important. If Jonathan you're seated in a State Department, and that's what you know where you're starting to do this it's important to build those relationships across sectors. So, I'd want to be talking with folks in schools and communities but I'd also want to be talking with higher ed I'd want to be talking with Head Start. I'd also want to be talking with child care, because you've got to think more broadly, it is, you know, a mixed delivery system, and that's something that you have to get your head around and build relationships and friendships. Right. So Leanne Jonathan did. Got it in there. Now question and need if you can be brief because then I want to just have some closing thoughts real quick about where we are but Anita the question after you is what I know we touched on this briefly but in a post coded world. You know what, what do you what are you worried about what is something that is worrying you, you know, and I wish I could ask that to all of the panelists but I know we're short on time here. But Anita what what is something that comes to mind that worries you and and having the post coded world for education in your district. Well, it's the intensification of the learning loss and the impact. You know, so we know that we'll, you know, as I mentioned, we serve 80% low income families. You can probably imagine it and the last nine months. The learning gaps and the achievement gaps are being widened. You know, the health and the health not the Kaiser is getting much, much more worrisome. So that is definitely what I've been thinking about almost on a daily basis and how we can best address how we can address the learning loss. So just learning loss is the whole social emotional the whole child. We don't even we can even imagine what that impact what negative impact might be, until we actually can get closer to these youngsters. You know, I actually have some experiences talking to students during this time and just trying to get closer to the world and what they're experiencing. And it's very, it's troubling to hear what the life has been impacted in a negative way. It is, and I know that this is obviously a life event that we all are experiencing. And our hope is that we are going to be safe on the other side and safe during it and safe for our families that we serve and the children and students that we serve. So, a couple of closing thoughts here before we say goodbye. Thank you. I just first and foremost want to say thank you. This has been tremendous. And I just wrote down some key words that I just resonated when you are all talking transitions, collaboration data or data equity. I truly think that if you come back to the topic of strategic leadership that continuously improving. There are true pillars of what we're trying to achieve and it looks as though and it feels as though each of you have done that. And I just am so proud to have been on this panel and I just stepped aside. All of you are just amazing and everything that you do. And I just can't thank you enough for all the work that you put forward, and that just taking this time I know that's 75 minutes has gone like that it's gone so quickly. I would like to acknowledge and just say thank you for our time today to our panelists. I would also like to acknowledge the amazing steering committee of the partners who pulled together this four part webinar series. These include Ralph Graf von Laar of the Council of Chief State School Officers David Jacobson of the Education Development Council, Laura Bruyne from Abby Lieberman and Aaron Lohenberg of New America along with many other support members from New America, Mandy Sorgi of the NAS or NAEC SDE, and then Gracie Branch from the National Association for elementary school principals. And then in case you've missed any portions of this webinar series, you can find the video recordings of each of these located at the New America website. So, I wish we had more time I wish we could get to all of your thoughts and answers, but just keep doing an amazing job, and just be safe be well, and happy holidays to everybody.