Resource - High/scope In The Elementary Classroom

More documents

Recommendations

Info

READY SCHooL ASSESSMENT Teacher Supports; Effective Curricula; Engaging Environments; Family, School, and Community Partnerships; Respecting Diversity; and Assessing Progress. Each dimension has 11 to 21 indicators — policies and practices that support and promote best practices of ready schools. For example, another trait on the NEgP’s list of ready school characteristics is that “ready schools have strong leadership” (Shore, 1998, p. 5). in the Leaders and Leadership dimension of the RSA, measurable aspects of strong leadership are defined (e.g., whether or not the school principal has academic training or classroom experience in early childhood education). The primary focus of the RSA is to help elementary schools think critically about their policies and practices. in particular, users of the tool are challenged to look at evidence to see how they are and are not ready to educate all children. The focus is not on whether or not children are ready for school, nor is it on the degree to which preschools conform to the expectations of K–12 systems. The goal of the RSA is to help forge a connection between preschool and elementary school that is grounded in early childhood education best practice. Data Analysis in Context As with any initiative to improve a program or school, responsible reform is driven by data. More importantly, that data must represent valid and reliable information about the children, families, teachers, and communities from which it is drawn. in addition to achieving established psychometric properties of validity and reliability, the RSA helps ensure the use of data that is a full reflection of the specific circumstances and characteristics of a school. it requires a process of group evidence-gathering, analysis, and consensus scoring. An RSA team consists of representatives from the field of early childhood, parents, community partners, teachers, and school administrators. By bringing together these varied points of view, the RSA encourages the full inclusion of data needed to comprehensively evaluate the strengths and challenges of a school’s policies and practices. The online Ready School Profiler shows a school’s relative strength in each of the dimensions and subdimensions of school readiness as measured by the RSA. Profile graphs show comparison bars indicating how a school has scored relative to the average of a sample of schools that have completed the RSA. An essential part of comprehensive measurement is to gather multiple types of evidence from multiple sources. A common way that policymakers and parents evaluate whether or not an elementary school is successful is by looking at children’s test scores. Using child outcomes as one measure of school performance is a reasonable expectation. The goal of the RSA is to help forge a connection between preschool and elementary school that is grounded in early childhood education best practice. However, expecting children to flourish in learning environments that are illequipped to support them is not. The degree to which there is continuity between children’s early childhood and elementary experiences can be viewed as an important indicator of a successful school. This type of understanding of school accountability to include a preschool to elementary continuum does not exclude a role for child assessment data — but it does encourage analysis of that data in context. Just as best practice encourages authentic assessment of children’s full range of development, so too is it important to understand schools not just by sets of scores on tests, but by information about the context in which those scores were produced. Putting a Plan in Place Beyond gathering good data, there must also be a plan in place for how that data will be used to draw conclusions about a school and how that analysis will translate into school improvement goals. A high-quality data-gathering www.highscope.org ReSource Fall/Winter 2008 18
READY SCHooL ASSESSMENT and analysis process should lead to easily understood conclusions and the creation of clear, measurable, and achievable goals. For example, among schools that pilot-tested the RSA (a mix of 71 urban, suburban, and rural schools from 17 states), many believed that their preschool to kindergarten transition practices were adequate. The process of documenting actual rather than assumed practices revealed that most of those As schools identify the areas in which they excel in supporting young learners, they must also use data to reveal where improvements are needed. same schools were not doing all that they could in this ready school dimension. Schools used this data to put in place specific programs geared toward better outreach to parents and support for children, for example, making home visits, providing school supplies, meeting with preschool teachers to learn about incoming students, and using a mix of outreach strategies (e.g., radio announcements; distribution of easy- to-read, colorful school calendars; com- Through a simple link in eTools, research project participants can log on and complete surveys with confidence that their information is secure. municating with parents in their native language). importantly, these schools evaluated the success of their new initiatives through evidence-gathering both pre- and post-program implementation. Strong preschool–to–elementary continuums of content and practice can help ensure positive outcomes for children. As schools identify the areas in which they excel in supporting young learners, they must also use data to reveal where improvements are needed. A simultaneous focus on preparing children for school and preparing schools to educate all children is well served by ongoing data collection, analysis, and the imple- Ready School Assessment (RSA) RSA is a planning tool designed to provide school improvement teams with a developmental profile of the strength of readiness features in their school setting. The RSA centers on eight dimensions of school readiness critical to the success of children as they enter and begin their elementary school careers. Visit readyschoolassessment.org on the Web for more information. mentation of policies and practices based upon the conclusions drawn from the data. References Foundation for Child Development. PreK-3rd.: A new beginning for American education. Retrieved July 30, 2008, from http://www.fcd-us. org/initiatives/ Shore, R. Ready schools: A report of the Goal 1 Ready Schools Research Group. Washington, DC: National Education goals Panel. W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids (SPARK). Retrieved July 30, 2008, from http://www.wkkf.org/SPARK Marijata Daniel-Echols is High/ Scope’s Chair of Research. For more on High/Scope’s Ready School Assessment, go to our Web site. www.highscope.org ReSource Fall/Winter 2008 19
Page 1 and 2: HIGH/SCOPE ReSource FALL/WINTER 200
Page 3 and 4: HIGH/SCOPE FALL/WINTER 2008 Re So u
Page 5 and 6: What’s New News NEW! Real Science
Page 7 and 8: iNTERviEW: DAviD KiRP DK: There’s
Page 9 and 10: iNTERviEW: DAviD KiRP the original
Page 11 and 12: HigH/SCoPE ELEMENTARY school-age se
Page 13 and 14: HigH/SCoPE ELEMENTARY rooms, with a
Page 15 and 16: HigH/SCoPE ELEMENTARY When adopting
Page 17: HigH/SCoPE’S READY SCHooL ASSESSM
Page 21 and 22: REAL SCiENCE iN PRESCHooL and the t
Page 23 and 24: HigH/SCoPE FEEDBACK FQA Recording A
Page 25 and 26: HigH/SCoPE PRoFESSioNAL DEvELoPMENT
Page 27 and 28: HigH/SCoPE PRoFESSioNAL DEvELoPMENT
Page 29 and 30: HigH/SCoPE CATALog New Products Tak
Page 31 and 32: HigH/SCoPE CATALog: NEW PRoDUCTS 4.

Resource - High/scope In The Elementary Classroom

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?