Volume 1 4, Issue 3 Summer 2005

In this issue:

• Standards for Early

Learning

• Changing the Landscape

of Early Childhood

through a MOU

• News from KDHE

• News from KSDE

o Monitoring Priorities and Indicators

o MIS 2006 Data

Dictionary

o IDEA Improvement

Act

• kits eUpdate

• Evidence-Based Primary

Coaching Initiative

Standard-based approach has been one of the most comprehensive reforms that influenced many areas of education and now it has started pro-ducing positive results: according to a longitudinal study of at-risk children in Title I schools, students' initial reading scores tended to be higher in classrooms where teachers reported they were aware of, and implement-ing, policies of standards-based re-form. In this context, it is natural to expect that emphasis on early learn-ing standards should result in a simi-lar improvement in quality of early childhood programs. However, an analysis of existing Pre-K and Kin-dergarten standards documents indi-cates that there still exists a consider-

Standards for Early Learning: What Are They: How We Can Make Them Work By Elena Bodrova 2005 KITS Summer Institute Presenter

Changing the Landscape of Early Childhood through a

Memorandum of Understanding: A Collaborative Training for

Head Start & Early Intervention/ Special Education

State leadership from Head Start, Kansas Department of Health and Environment Infant-Toddler Services (tiny-k networks), Kansas State Department of Education, State Inter-agency Coordinating Council and Kansas Inservice Training System (KITS) will gather to discuss with local partners the issues of children

KITS Newsletter is published quarterly and supported by a grant from the Kansas State Department of Education (Grant Number 26004). The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the State Department of Education, or the University of Kansas, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

Issues of the Newsletter can be downloaded from kskits.org/newsletter/newsletter.html

Newsletter Staff

Editor: Robin Bayless, M.A.

Project Director:

David P. Lindeman, Ph.D.

able amount of confusion about what the early learning standards are and how they should be used.

“Standards,” “benchmarks,” and related terms and concepts are ways of organizing the large amount of information and number of skills that children in school are expected to learn. Keeping these useful organiz-ing tools straight is sometimes diffi-cult because of the many terms that are used in almost the same way. Standards may be called “early learning standards,” “learning out-comes,” “desired results,” “expecta-tions,” “goals,” or some other terms. Benchmarks may be called “indica-tors,” or “learning expectations.” You

with disabilities and developmental delays who are served jointly in Head Start, special education and tiny-k programs. Early intervention (tiny-k) and special education (Part B) per-sonnel are encouraged to participate, along with their Head Start partners, in this opportunity. Two primary

Volume 14, Issue 3 Summer 2005

Changing the Landscape continues on page 6

Standards continues on page 4

Comments from Summer

Institute

“Great experience!”

“Awesome workshop! I’m

looking forward to coming

again next year!”

“Speakers were very

knowledgeable in their fields.”

“You guys are the best! You

know what we need. You

make us (as a profession) feel

respected!”

Summer Institute 2005

of 10 KITS Newsletter

Coordinator’s Corner

NEWS FROM KDHE Greetings from Topeka! What a busy year this has been so far! With the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 just imple-mented, many questions are being asked and KDHE is doing its best to be responsive to all of you. Guidance on the regulations has yet to be developed so please stay tuned as we begin the process of updating our procedure manual. Two statewide initiatives are currently taking place. The first is the Caring for Infant Toddlers: A

Physicians Training (CFIT) and the second is Evidence-Based Primary

Coaching (see related article on page 6). Teams will be trained in September in Primary Coaching with the intention of training more teams on this approach early next year. Vera Lynne Stroup-Rentier of KITS and Ellen Mellard of OT Infant-Toddler TA project are coordinating these training activities. Ryan Weir of KDHE is leading the CFIT initiative and is tentatively planning the first in a series of ITV trainings to be held in March of 2006. As always, please contact myself or the other members of the Infant-Toddler State Team, Joe Porting and Ryan Weir, if you have questions.

Deanna Peterson [email protected]

785-296-2245

Joe Porting [email protected]

Ryan Weir rweir@kdhe. state.ks.us

—submitted by Deanna Peterson, Part C

Coordinator, KDHE Infant-Toddler

Services

NEWS FROM KSDE

Brochures Available

Three early childhood bro-chures are available by request through KSDE Student Support Services:

1. Quality Early Learning Expe-

riences describes the compo-nents of a quality early child-hood program and includes a list of additional resources.

2. Kansas Early Learning Guide-

lines: A Developmental

Sequence provides information on why the guidelines were developed and what they include.

3. Building the Foundation for

Successful Children includes the Kansas vision for school readiness, guiding principles, and goals.

If you want copies of any or all

of these colorful, informative bro-chures, contact Beccy Strohm at [email protected] and include which brochures you are request-ing and the quantity you need. Monitoring Priorities and

Indicators

Congress is requesting sys-tematic data about the effects of programs on children and their families. They want to know whether children have progressed and whether families are more capable.

In 1993, Congress enacted the Government Performance and

News from KSDE continues on page 8

Mark your calendar for

Summer Institute 2006

in Manhattan on June

20th through 23rd

DATE EVENT CONTACT PERSON

9/8/05, 9/30/05, 11/1/05 or 11/9/05

Changing the Landscape of Early Childhood through a

Memorandum of Understanding: A Collaborative Training

for Head Start & Early Intervention/Special Education, 9/8 in Great Bend; 9/30 in Topeka; 11/1 in Salina; or 11/9 in Augusta

Mary Baskett, [email protected] or 913-422-1700 or Vera Stroup-Rentier 620-421-6550 ext. 1768 [email protected]

Various dates Kansas Home Visitation Training: Preparing Kansas Home

Visitors for Success, 9/27-30 & 10/5-7/05 in Wellington; 10/3-5 & 10/12-14/05 in Dodge City; 11/2-4 & 11/16-18/05 in Salina

Mary Baskett [email protected] 913-422-1700

9/28-29/05 2005 Vision Professional Institute: Communication,

Literacy, and Speaking the Language of the Hands, Wichita

Anne Nielson [email protected]

9/29-10/1/05 Families Together Trainer of Trainers [email protected]

9/30-10/1/05 2005 Fall Parent/Family Workshop: Communication,

Literacy, and Speaking the Language of the Hands, KC

Anne Nielson [email protected]

10/13-14/05 Kansas CEC Conference, Wichita Annette Gaitan, 913-334-6708, [email protected]

10/27-28/05 Service/Care Coordination: What Do We Know & How Can

We Do it Better? St. Thomas U.S. Virgin Islands

Melissa Van Buren 860-679-1586

11/2-4/05 29th Annual Governor’s Conference for the Prevention of

Child Abuse and Neglect, Topeka Vicky Roper 316-942-4261 ext. 251

11/3-4/05 4th Midwest Faculty Institute, Natural Allies in Early

Education, Kansas City, KS Janet or Kim 402-597-4820

11/4-5/05 Parent Leadership Conference, Topeka Tammy Aguilar, 785-368-6350, [email protected]

11/17-18/05 Kansas Head Start Association Annual Conference, Wichita Mary Baskett, 913-422-1700

12/3/05 Families Together Statewide Conference, Wichita [email protected]

2/11/06 Families Together Statewide Conference, Kansas City [email protected]

3/2-3/06 Kansas Division for Early Childhood Conf, Overland Park Dale Walker, [email protected]

4/26-28/06 KSDE Annual Conference/TDAP Conf, Wichita www.ksde.org/annualconference

6/20-23/06 KITS Summer Institute, Manhattan Misty Goosen, 785-864-0725, [email protected]

Other Training Calendars: • KCCTO child care or CDA advisor trainings: http://www.kccto.org/training.htm

• Families Together Family Enrichment Weekends, Parent Networking Conferences and Mini-Conferences: www.familiestogetherinc.com

• HeadsUp Network distance training for Head Start and early childhood: www.heads-up.org

• Children’s Alliance Training Team: www.childally.org/training/training.html • KACCRRA: www.kaccrra.org • Capper Foundation: www.capper.org

• Council for Exceptional Children: www.cec.sped-org/pd • KSDE Student Support Services: online.ksde.org/calendar.asp

The Collaborative Calendar of Events (kskits.org/ktc)


Standards continues from page 1

No Matter What by

Debi Gliori is the book

chosen for Kansas

Reads to Preschoolers

—One State, One Book

project for 2005!

Governor Kathleen

Sebelius, Honorary

Chair, helps the State

Library of Kansas

highlight the

importance of reading

to preschoolers the

week of November 14-

20, 2005!

Scholastic Books (1-

800-SCHOLAS) has

5,000 paperback copies

of NO MATTER WHAT

at $4.95 each.

Check out the website:

kansasreadstokids.org

For more information

contact Vikki Jo

Stewart, Special

Projects Director,

Kansas State Library,

620-331-8218,

[email protected]


may have to figure out what specific terms mean by looking at the way they are used, and their relationship to other terms.

A content standard (sometimes simply called “standards”) is a sum-mary description regarding what it is that students should know and/or be able to do. There might be several content standards within mathemat-ics, social studies, music, health, lan-guage and literacy, science, or other important areas of learning. For ex-ample, mathematics might have separate content standards for ge-ometry and spatial sense, patterns and relationships, number sense and nu-meration, measurement, estimation, fractions, and other important aspects of mathematics. Together, they would add up to what children were ex-pected to know and be able to do in mathematics. In most standards documents, the language used to write a content standard represents what older students are expected to learn and may not be directly appli-cable to younger children who are still developing the prerequisites for a given academic competency.

A benchmark is an age, grade, or developmentally appropriate expres-sion of a knowledge or skill that is more broadly stated in the standard to which it refers. Benchmarks translate the standard into what a child should understand or be able to do at a spe-cific level.

For example, the standard stu-

dents demonstrate competence in the

general skills and strategies of the

reading process describes what is expected from primary or upper ele-mentary students. However, this stan-dard can be broken down into a series

of benchmarks such as know the dif-

ference between print and pictures or know the names of the letters of the

alphabet to specify what is realistic to expect at the end of pre-k or kinder-garten.

Performance standards specify the level of achievement that is ex-pected in relation to a given standard or benchmark. They try to specify “how good is good enough?” For example, for the same benchmark children know

the names of the letters of the alpha-

bet, there would be different expecta-tions for a preschooler who might only know the letters of her own name and for a first grader who is expected not only to know all capital and lower case letters but also to identify them across various fonts.

In early childhood community, the use of term “standard” to describe child outcomes is relatively new. This term was used in the past primarily to de-scribe program standards. This may present an additional source of confu-sion. Remember, program standards

describe the resources, activities, and instruction programs offer to help chil-dren learn. Program standards incor-porate classroom standards that iden-tify classroom characteristics and teaching and curriculum standards (sometimes described as opportunities to learn or activities.) While program standards may influence what teachers do, they are generally intended to guide administrators.

Whether you are involved in writ-ing standards or are trying to figure out what standards mean for your class-room teaching there are several char-acteristics of successful standards to keep in mind: Standards continues on page 5

1. Child outcomes need to be written in terms of what children should

know and be able to do. For example, children will be

exposed to age-appropriate literature

about the senses is not a good way to state a child outcome since it does not describe what is a new knowledge or skill a child is supposed to learn but instead what are the learning opportunities the teacher should make available to this child. A child knows

the proper way to handle books (e.g.,

hold the book upright; turn pages

from front to back, one at a time) is a better way to describe one of the competencies a young child is expected to develop in the area of early literacy. Another example of the way not to write standard is to include a statement of what children have not yet developed such as children feel if something is shared

for a brief period, it is gone forever.

2. Child outcomes need to be research-based with research identifying a specific competence as a) necessary for later development and b) realistically attainable by young children.

Examples of child outcomes that are not based on a solid research foundation include statements of unrealistically high expectations such as [preschool] children explain basic

economic concepts of needs, wants,

scarcity, choice, money and division

of labor or [preschool] children

identify the characteristics that

differentiate living from non-living

things.

3. Child outcomes have to be written in a language that is clear enough for the teachers to be able to make sure that they a) address

Preschool: America’s

Best Investment

Can investing in high

quality early education reduce the demand for

high-cost special

education, social

welfare and criminal justice systems? A

new video from the

National Institute for Early Education

Research (NIEER)

features children in preschool, parents

and researchers who

weigh in on this issue.

The seven-minute film is available in both

VHS and DVD

formats.

To request a free

copy, please email [email protected]

or go to

nieer.org/resources/vi

deo/ for more

information.


these standards in their teaching and b) can assess their students’ progress towards attaining these standards.

For example, such statements as children sort things into subgroups

by different characteristics or children use tools for investigation

are too vague for a teacher to meaningfully use them in the classroom. By contrast, statements such as children order objects by

measurable attribute (e.g., smallest

to largest, lightest to heaviest,

shortest to longest) are specific enough for teachers to use in their instruction and assessment.

Finally, standards that specify knowledge and skills—content standards—do not identify all aspects of development and learning, especially for young children. Some areas of development, such as physical development, are extremely important in early years but usually do not get similar attention from the teachers of higher grades. Other important outcomes cut across all disciplines and involve such things as self-confidence, the ability to work with others, problem-solving, decision-making, self-regulation, planning, reasoning, and critical thinking. These habits of mind and action are sometimes called “life-long learning standards”. In particular, the emotional and social competencies so important to young children’s de-velopment and learning are difficult to categorize into discrete knowledge and skills but these areas need to be represented in early learning standards at the same level of detail as the content areas that are more closely aligned with the K-12 standards.

—submitted by Elena Bodrova

Standards continues from page 4

goals for this day include sharing of resources and practices across local and state programs and the develop-ment or continuation of a shared Memorandum of Understanding. Participants will enhance their under-standing of what should be included in a well-written memorandum of un-derstanding. Lastly, state panelists will be available to answer questions from local partners.

Four regional sites across the state are hosting this opportunity (see side bar for places and addresses). The KITS project will pay $15 of your $25 registration fee if you are tiny-k network provider, special education provider or family. Make your $10.00 check payable to Kansas Head Start Association and mail to:

KHSA 22521 W. 53rd Terrace Shawnee, KS 66226

Changing the Landscape continues from page 1

Many programs attended the May 23rd training in Salina entitled Promoting Evidence Based

Practices in Early Intervention and Early Child-

hood in Kansas. There was an overwhelming re-quest to do continued training in our state. Based on these requests, the Occupational Therapy Infant-Toddler Technical Assistance project, the KITS project and KDHE Infant-Toddler Services have collaborated to bring M’Lisa Shelden and Dathan Rush of the Puckett Institute in Ashville, North Carolina to Kansas. Shelden and Rush will provide a training on Evidence-Based Primary

Coaching on September 12th through 14th to five Part C networks who were chosen through an application process.

Evidenced-Based Primary Coaching Initiative


Indicate which training you will be attending. Registration forms can be downloaded from

kskits.org/conferences/headstart/ Index.html

Questions about these trainings

should be directed to Vera Lynne Stroup-Rentier at [email protected] or 620-421-6550 ext. 1768. Participants are encouraged to bring families who receive services from both Head Start as well as early intervention and spe-cial education. See you there!

—submitted by Vera Lynne Stroup-

Rentier, KITS

The overall goal of this initiative is to support these networks in building the capacity of practitioners/family service coordinators to use evidence-based practices in supporting families and their young children with disabilities in natural learning environments (per Part C of IDEA). Teams will be trained and supported as they go forward in their implementation of this initiative.

Efforts are underway to continue this initiative beyond the first five teams. Please stay tuned for more details in future newsletters!

—submitted by Vera Lynne Stroup-Rentier, KITS

Collaborative Training Dates Sept. 8 – Great Bend

Front Door Facility,

Lecture Hall, 1615

10th St, Great Bend Sept. 30 – SRS

Learning Center,

Room B, 2600 SW

East Circle Drive

South, Topeka

Nov. 1 - Heartland

Programs, 700

Jupiter, Salina

Nov. 9 - Augusta

Head Start, 730 Cliff Dr., Augusta

In an effort to provide our list service subscribers with topical in-formation, KITS has developed kits

eUpdate. This service highlights multiple information sources in one email thereby reducing the number of email messages you receive from our list services. When possible we will group messages with a common theme or topic, but realize this will not always be possible in order to provide information in a timely man-ner.

If you are subscribed to a KITS list service (list serv), then you will

• Sleep Like a Baby: What Every Parent Needs to Know About Babies &

Sleep • Enhancing Early Attachments: Theory, Research, Intervention, and Policy • Blended Practices for Teaching Young Children in Inclusive Settings • Families, Schools, and Communities: Together for Young Children

• Sensory Profile • Health and Injury Prevention • Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales II

New Materials Available for Check-out from the KITS Early

Childhood Resource Center

Contact ECRC:

620-421-6550 ext. 1651

800-362-0390 ext. 1651

Email:

[email protected]

web: kskits.org/ecrc

fax:

620-421-6550 ext. 1791

Mailing address:

2601 Gabriel

Parsons, KS 67357


automatically receive eUpdates. If you are not receiving email and would like to, please check the KITS website at kskits.org/html/listserv/listservices or contact Tammie Benham at [email protected] or 620-421-6550 ext. 1638. Additionally, back issues of kits eUpdate are available on our website at kskits.org/eupdate

We hope that this new effort will be of benefit and not duplicate other information that you receive. As al-ways, KITS staff welcomes feedback regarding our program. —submitted by Tammie Benham, KITS Early Childhood Resource Center

Save the Date! Nurturing Successful Children

KAEYC Conference

October 15, 2005 at Manhattan, Kansas

Visit kaeyc.org for registration information and to view

the preliminary program.

will no longer continue to receive funds. (Issues in Designing State

Accountability Systems, August 2004)

The need for effectiveness data to submit to Congress has resulted in a new EC indicator. This indicator is the percent of preschool children with IEPs who demonstrate improved positive social-emotional skills (in-cluding social relationships); acquisi-tion and use of knowledge and skills (including early language/communi-cation and early literacy); and use of appropriate behaviors to meet their needs. For new indicators, states must develop a plan to collect and a plan to report baseline data by 12/2/05. There will be multiple opportunities for stakeholders to provide input into this plan. MIS 2006 Data Dictionary

Changes in OSEP’s data reporting requirements have resulted in changes in how early childhood (EC) placement data is reported in Kansas. EC (age 3-5) data is reported on two tiers—children who attend a regular preschool program measured as a percentage of time and children who do not attend a regular preschool program. This requirement has resulted in changes in the 2006 data dictionary. There is additional clarification on several settings and two new settings have been added. K (definition code related to MIS) is the amount of time in a regular preschool program, (without SPED or related services), and W is a reverse mainstream program. The MIS 2006 data dictionary is on line at

News from KSDE continues from page 2

Results Act (GPRA), which man-dated each federal agency to identify goals and indicators for all of its programs and to report progress toward those goals to Congress on an annual basis. Thus, GPRA created a government-wide focus on results designed to enhance decision-making by Congress. GPRA has generated the need for data concerning aspects of the services system (e.g., number of children served in inclusive settings) as well as child assessment data that can be aggregated for reporting at the state and federal levels.

In an accountability initiative spear-headed by another governmen-tal agency, the Office of Management and Budget in 2002 developed the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) to provide a link between GPRA and the budget development process. The first PART assessments of the Infant/Toddler and Preschool programs of IDEA have been com-pleted at this point in time. Unfortu-nately, the rating of the assessments was “Results Not Demonstrated” for both programs, adding a sense of ur-gency to the need for large-scale as-sessment information from the states on the progress of young children with disabilities and their families.

The identification of standards, outcomes, and their accompanying measurement processes is critical to the ability of state agencies to provide effectiveness data for the programs serving young children with disabili-ties and their families. The message is becoming clear: if agencies can’t tell Congress just how this funding is making a difference in the lives of children and their families, agencies


News from KSDE continues on page 9

New Technical

Assistance Packets

KITS has developed two new technical

assistance packets:

Positive Behavior Support in Early

Childhood Settings

and Functional Behavioral

Assessment. These

packets will be mailed

to all Special Education Directors

and Part C Network

Contacts and can be downloaded from

kskits.org/html/ta/tapa

ckets

Single copies of the

packets can be

requested by contacting Robin

Bayless at

[email protected] or 620-421-6550 ext.

1618.

See kskits.org for a list of the other 20

packets that are available from KITS.

http://www.kansped.org. Check it for changes. Individuals with Disabilities

Education Improvement Act of

2004

The following is taken from the Federal Register, Vol. 70, No. 118, Tuesday, June 21, 2005, Proposed Rules:

On December 3, 2004, the Individuals with Disabilities Edu-cation Improvement Act of 2004 was enacted into law as Pub L. 108-446. The statute, as passed by Congress and signed by the Presi-dent, reauthorizes and makes sig-nificant changes to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

The Individuals with Disabili-ties Education Act, as amended by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (Act or IDEA), is intended to help children with disabilities achieve to high standards—by promoting accountability for results, enhancing parental in-volvement, and using proven prac-tices and materials; and reducing paperwork burdens for teachers, States, and local school districts. Enactment of the new law provides an opportunity to consider improvements in the current regulations that would strengthen the Federal effort to ensure every child with a disability has available a free appropriate public education that—(1) is of

high quality, and (2) is designed to achieve the high standards re-flected in the Elementary and Sec-ondary Education Act of 1965, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and its implementing regulations.

These regulations will affect you! Take time to read them. —submitted by Margy Hornback,

EC Program Consultant and Kansas

619 Coordinator, Kansas State

Department of Education, Student

Support Services

Editors note: Margy Hornback

joined the Kansas State

Department of Education Student

Support Services team in July. You

may contact her at 785-296-1944

or [email protected]


News from KSDE continues from page 8

Evidence-Based Practice Course The University of Kansas Occupational

Therapy Education

Department is teaching an online

interdisciplinary

graduate level course, Evidence Based

Practice Update for

Practitioners. For more

information contact Susan Knuth at

[email protected] or

785-863-2991.

Premature and Medically Fragile Children: Linking Hospital and Community

The Infant-Toddler Occupational Therapy

Technical Assistance

Program will sponsor a

workshop, Premature and Medically Fragile

Children: Linking

Hospital and Community. Details

about this workshop

may be obtained from Susan Knuth at

[email protected] or

785-863-2991.

Contact KITS by…

…Phone:

620-421-6550 ext. 1618

800-362-0390 ext. 1618

…Fax:

620-421-6550 ext. 1702

…E-Mail:

[email protected]

We’re on the Web!

See us at:

kskits.org

Training for Early Childhood

Professionals and Families

Kansas Inservice Training System

Life Span Institute at Parsons

2601 Gabriel Parsons, KS 67357

NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION US POSTAGE PAID

PERMIT NO. 56 PARSONS KS 67357

Information on: • Play and Young

Children • Reading to Young

Children • Language

Development and Young Children

• Writing and Young Children

• Learning to Read • Math and Young

Children • Frequently Asked

Questions • Resources

Posters, magnets and bookmarks are available for distribution to organizations, schools, conferences, etc. by contacting Robin Bayless at 620-421-6550 ext. 1618 or [email protected]

Volume 1 4, Issue 3 Summer 2005

Documents

Transcript of Volume 1 4, Issue 3 Summer 2005