TABLA / 6 NORMA E

Grades

Overview: With universal access to Pre-K, the District’s public education system is truly a P-12, rather than a K-12 system – with the great majority of Pre-K programs being delivered within elementary schools. The District has two types of public schools – the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) which is a traditional school district and 61 autonomous, publicly-funded public charter schools each of which is considered its own LEA. The District is one of the few states to have achieved universal access to Pre-K programs for 3- and 4-year-olds. More than 70% of 3-year-olds and 90% of 4-year-olds participate in public Pre-K. Because of the integration of Pre-K into our public schools, the District is well-positioned to implement a high-quality plan to improve the overall quality, alignment, and continuity of teaching and learning from Pre-K through third grade.

A recent Risk and Reach Report (see Attachment 106) indicates that, of the eight Wards in the District, Wards 5, 7 and 8 have the highest risk based on poverty rates, infant mortality rates, single parent families and other socio-demographic risks to child health and development. Overall, the District’s population is economically and racially diverse. But, most Wards of the city have concentrations of wealth or poverty. Ward 3, in Northwest DC is the wealthiest Ward in the city and amongst the wealthiest in the country. Wards 7 and 8, in Southeast DC –east of the Anacostia River – have high rates of unemployment, poverty, underperforming schools and crime. As part of the high-quality plan for Pre-K to Third grade approaches, the District will support focused work and interventions in Wards 5, 7 and 8, through the creation of Early Learning Neighborhood Coalitions as well as through targeted investments in evidence-based strategies that support early learning and development from preschool through 3rd grade. The map below shows the location of the Pre-K programs in each Ward, most of which are in the DC Public Schools or in the public charter schools.

(a) Enhancing the State’s kindergarten-through-third-grade standards to align them with the State’s Early Learning and Development Standards across all Essential Domains of School Readiness

Given the integration of Pre-K within the DC Public Schools and DC public charter schools, it makes sense that the standards and assessments used in Early Learning and

Development Programs and the early elementary grades should be aligned. In 2013, the District released a version of the DC Early Learning Standards (DCELS) that aligns the expectations of what young children should know and be able to do according to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the K-12 standards adopted for math and ELA in 2010. The District has recently joined a consortium of ten states to enhance a formative assessment of the Essential Domains of School Readiness, beginning with a Pre-K assessment, incorporating a KEA and continuing into third grade. This consortium (which also includes North Carolina, Arizona, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, North Dakota, Oregon, and Rhode Island; plus South Carolina as a collaborating state) supported by three research partners (SRI International, the BUILD Initiative, and Child Trends) was recently awarded a $6.1 million grant from the U.S.

Department of Education under the Enhanced Assessment Grant (EAG) Program to enhance the K-3 formative assessment that NC is developing under their RTT-ELC grant (referred to as the North Carolina Assessment or NCA). By joining the EAG Consortium (described in detail in Section E1), the District has gained access to invaluable resources of both national experts and state-level peers with whom to collaborate in enhancing the DCELS. Participation in the EAG consortium will also allow the District to launch standards development work for the early primary grades, and alignment of both standards and assessments. The District will also be working with SRI International, the research partner developing the K-3 assessment for the Consortium, using the same methodology to produce a continuous assessment system from preschool through third grade.

(b) Identifying and addressing the health, behavioral, and developmental needs of Children with High Needs from preschool through third grade, and building families’ capacity to address these needs

Via a series of statewide investments, deep partnerships, and innovative policy designs, the District has made significant investments in the health, behavioral and developmental needs of children, especially those with High-Needs. In 2010, the Council of the District of Columbia passed the Healthy Schools Act that requires that all Pre-K-12 schools statewide serve students nutritious breakfast for free and funds this work via payments from OSSE to schools. The Act also expands access to local, fresh produce, funds school gardens, and mandates minimum standards for physical and health education in DCPS and public charter schools. The DC

Council is currently considering the Healthy Tots Act which would extend similar provisions to licensed child development centers.

For the past 12 years, the District has partnered with the Children’s National Medical Center to provide full or part-time nursing services to nearly every DCPS and public charter school, serving children ages 3-21. Nurses are responsible for promoting health and wellness and actively collaborating with students, family members, school personnel and community- based organizations to ensure that the health needs of the students are met. Nursing services include: the administration of first aid; the development of Individualized Health Plans (IHPs) for all students with chronic health care needs; support of special education needs and section 504 plans; participation in IEP and 504 meetings; review of Universal Health Certificates in order to properly coordinate the management of children with chronic diseases, including, but not limited to asthma, diabetes, and epilepsy; collaboration with school staff to provide health education content; partnering with school staff in developing and implementing strategies to identify pregnant and parenting teens; participation in Head Start monitoring and compliance interviews with federal officials; and provision of vision and hearing screening services to all 3- and 4-year-olds in DCPS Title I schools, as part of the Head Start School-wide model.

Also as part of the DCPS Head Start School-wide model, teachers and support personnel are trained to engage families of all 3- and 4-year-olds, including building their capacity to address their health, behavioral and developmental needs.

The District has made significant investments in meeting the behavioral and

developmental needs of children birth to age 8, with particular attention to children with high needs. Project LAUNCH brings together local child-serving agencies to coordinate policies and better serve the city’s neediest families. The project incorporates five basic services to create more connected services: developmental assessments in a range of child-serving settings; integration of behavioral health programs and practices into primary care; home visiting

programs; mental health consultations; and family strengthening and parent skills training. The program partners with other agencies including the Department of Health (DOH), the Child and Family Services Administration (CFSA), and DCPS’ Early Stages to offer less fragmented service delivery. The program also provides workforce development for community-based organizations and has consultants in 12 child development centers. The health, developmental and behavioral services and supports for children birth to age 8 in the District are described more fully in Section C3 and a summary is in the Resource Guide in Attachment 80. It is important to note that as part of the RTT-ELC high-quality plan for CPP4 and for C3, the full range of early

childhood behavioral and developmental health services – Project LAUNCH, Help Me Grow, Healthy Futures (the mental health consultation in child care), and the Primary Project – will cover the whole age continuum from birth through third grade, with expansion of services in the Wards with the most children with high needs (Wards 5, 7 and 8). These social-behavioral health services work with the child and the family as well as the staff of the early learning and school settings of the child.

Currently, DCPS and charter schools, led by the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, are engaged in an effort to develop a mental health blueprint for schools. This work involves mapping needs and assets across all local education agencies for the purposes of determining the most effective behavioral supports for schools and determining the staffing and investments that will be required by the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) to support the capacity of schools to support children's behavioral health.

(c) Implementing teacher preparation and professional development programs and strategies that emphasize developmental science and the importance of protective factors, pedagogy, and the delivery of developmentally appropriate content, strategies for identifying and addressing the needs of children experiencing social and emotional challenges, and effective family engagement strategies for educators, administrators, and related personnel serving children from preschool through third grade.

The District is engaged in a broad campaign to engage teachers, both pre-service and those in classrooms, in rich programs of preparation and professional development that extend beyond academics to emphasize developmental science and pedagogy, identifying and

addressing the needs of children experiencing social and emotional challenges, and effective family engagement strategies. OSSE’s professional development team and certified professional development providers provide training on the CCSS-aligned DCELS, including trainings focused on delivering developmentally appropriate content and ECE classroom pedagogy. Both DCPS and public charter schools have been engaged in an equally rigorous initiative to train K- 12 educators on the CCSS in math and ELA. As part of the District’s Race to the Top grant, the DC Common Core Collaborative was established to help teachers citywide build expertise in pedagogical content knowledge, transition to the Common Core State Standards and significantly improve student learning. These professional development activities include instructional

planning, instructional strategies and creating classroom environments that support the use of the standards. Educators across the Pre-K to 3rd grade continuum also focus on the higher order

thinking skills inherent in the CCSS and go beyond the basics to emphasize the pedagogy that supports achievement of these expectations for children.

DC Public Schools is working with all Pre-K teachers in Title I schools on Head Start family engagement strategies. Both DCPS and public charter schools are also partnering with a local family foundation, the Flamboyan Foundation, to train and support teachers in effective and intensive family engagement across elementary and middle grades. Flamboyan has designed a home-visiting and relationship-building model to assist teachers in developing meaningful and reciprocal relationships with families that will both strengthen their ability to work with families to increase student’s academic outcomes, but also to increase the likelihood that teachers will be able to identify and address social and emotional challenges students may face. Teachers in 12 DCPS and 9 public charter schools have volunteered to participate in training and then schedule voluntary home visits with families of all of their students. The initial visit and on-going

monthly communication with families enable teachers to draw on families’ expertise about their children in order to improve their classroom practice.

Several District elementary schools are also participating in a program, called Joe’s Champs, that is sponsored by a local philanthropic organization, Fight for Children. The program seeks to improve the quality of early childhood education in the District by providing rigorous early childhood-based professional development for elementary school leaders and by supporting ongoing school-based learning for teaching staff. The recent expansion of Pre-K seats in the District has largely been driven by additional capacity at DCPS and public charter schools. Thus, it is imperative that principals, many of whom do not have strong background in early childhood, participate in professional development that assists them in understanding best practices. The Joe’s Champs program is in its pilot year and is currently serving seven schools, including one traditional DC Public School and six public charter schools, all of which are classified as Title I and serve many Children with High-Needs.

(d) Implementing model systems of collaboration both within and between Early Learning and Development Programs and elementary schools to engage and support families and improve all transitions for children across the birth through third grade continuum.

In the District, where the public education system is Pre-K-12, transition along the birth to third grade continuum occurs primarily when children enter traditional or charter public schools for the first time at age 3, transitioning from home, family-friend-and neighbor care, family child care or community-based child care programs. Many schools have developed