On a hot summer day in July 2016, I had the good fortune of being the one not on vacation on our small policy and research team. Instead, I went to DC to serve as Teachstone’s representative for a convening of policymakers, researchers, and ECE practitioners. They were gathering to discuss if and how exemplary Head Start grantees might be identified for Leading by Exemplar, an initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and led by Bellwether Education Partners.
As we sought to identify the ways in which exemplary programs could be identified, the relationships between the teachers and the children in Head Start classrooms bubbled up repeatedly in our small group discussions of quality factors to consider.
Strong, healthy relationships with children, effectuated through discrete, identifiable interactions between the teachers and children, are at the core of great teaching, and no one in that convening raised any question about that. One need not be a CLASS advocate to find it difficult to imagine an exemplary ECE program without an explicit focus on high-quality teacher-child interactions!
Following the convening, Bellwether reviewed Head Start “exemplars,” meaning those programs with significant learning gains for the children served. Five of these were selected for more in-depth study of their design and practice: Acelero, CAP Tulsa, Educare Miami-Dade, Fairfax County Public Schools, and Utah Community Action.
These Head Start grantees, like all grantees, are familiar with the CLASS as their classroom quality is monitored with it. However, as you will read in the briefs linked below, each of the exemplars integrates the CLASS in their professional development, going beyond the use of CLASS only as a monitoring tool, and linking CLASS data to powerful professional development!
I’m thrilled that Bellwether has published four reports reviewing the methodology, analysis, and program highlights of the Leading by Exemplar initiative:
A few takeaways from my initial reading:
Perhaps the most important lesson is that while the core focus on teacher-child interactions as measured by the CLASS does not vary in these exemplary Head Start programs, the implementation may look different, and we must continue to support programs as they determine the best practices for their specific program and setting.
I’d love to know what you find in your reading of these comprehensive briefs!
Whether you are writing your transition plan, preparing to return, or have already returned to in-person learning, you, like many other educational leaders, are likely facing many challenges and unknowns.
As you continue to craft and refine your plans, reflecting on the considerations below can help you more effectively build a blueprint for a successful reopening.
In the wake of the widespread civil unrest after the killing of George Floyd, the national conversation about the inequities in the educational opportunities provided white students and students of color has been amplified. Due to racial and socioeconomic segregation, Black students, and other students of color, are more likely to attend poorly funded schools. EdBuild, a non-profit focused on fair and equitable school funding, reports that high poverty school districts that predominantly enroll children of color receive on average, $1,600 less per student than the national average. By their calculations, there is a $23,000,000,000 gap between funding for schools that primarily serve high poverty Black students and those that predominantly serve white students. Schools that predominantly serve high poverty white students, only receive $1440 less per student (EdBuild, 2019).
I recognize and admit to having a chip on my shoulder about the field of early childhood education - and, at times, disbelief that others may not see that period of time as the power-packed years in our developmental timeline which can lay the groundwork and set the course for much of the rest of our lives.
Since the coronavirus has disrupted many of our in-person plans, you might be trying to figure out how you can transition in-person coaching to online coaching. Online coaching can open a number of doors for coaches and teachers that might not be an option in face-to-face work.