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**Region 10 & Alaska Native T/TA**

**Conference Call Notes**

**January 25, 2006**

Coordinator I would like to inform parties, today's conference is being
recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.
Thank you, sir. You may begin.

G. Gousie Thank you very much. The purposes of our call today are:
number one: to introduce a graphic representation of the individualizing
cycle to stimulate our thoughts and questions; secondly, to provide some
common basis for discussion of how the elements of individualizing
connect with one an another, because it's not just one thing; and
finally, to identify some terms often used in different ways. Assessment
is a good example. People can use that term to mean some very different
things. We'll be putting forward some definitions and uses of terms that
can be used generally among everybody to mean the same kinds of things.
Then secondly as I referenced, we want to make this individualizing
cycle concrete by giving some program and child-level examples.

We've chosen a couple programs that use some different assessment tools.
That's to give you a sense of how this cycle plays out through the use
of different tools. I just want to remind you that even though those
tools are highlighted today along with what the programs say about them,
we are not promoting the use of specific tools. We do, however, promote
the use of appropriate tools for the purposes for which they have been
designed.

Let's start as a way of moving into the individualizing cycle. We'll
talk first about screening. Head Start requirements, as you all know,
call for developmental sensory and behavioral screening in collaboration
with the child's parents within 45 calendar days of the child's entry
into the program.

> Screening is a brief process. It results in a snapshot of where the
> child is developmentally at any particular time. That process can be
> repeated as appropriate and certainly with the youngest age children
> whose developmental progression is more rapid; you can look at doing
> screening more often. Screening is not used to determine if a child
> has a disability. It may indicate, however, that a child may need
> further evaluation to determine whether that child has a disability.
> So it's a short piece. It's a formal tool with formal procedures,
> which includes the background of those doing the screening; so
> screening tools have been designed for certain kinds of persons doing
> the screening. Considerations in choosing a screening instrument
> included its validity, its reliability, and the appropriateness for
> the specific population you may be working with. As ever, we always
> consider the costs, the domain coverage, the ease of use, and the
> training available.
>
> As a result of the screening, you may make a referral for further
> evaluation. So a child may be referred to the appropriate agency or
> professionals for an evaluation. A series of assessments are
> conducted, so here's the use of that word assessment in a little
> different context. This is assessment in the evaluation process that
> is conducted to identify areas of strength, need, and concern. A team
> meeting would be held to discuss the results and determine if the
> child qualifies for special services. If the child qualifies, then in
> coordination with the parents and the Head Start staff an Individual
> Family Service Plan (IFSP) or an Individual Education Plan (IEP) will
> be developed.
>
> Moving from screening then, potentially through the evaluation
> process, we move to assessment and the use of an assessment tool.
>
> Now, by assessment here we mean the ongoing procedures -- ongoing is
> an important word there -- ongoing procedures used by appropriate
> qualified personnel throughout the period of the child's eligibility
> to identify the child's strengths and needs and the services
> appropriate to meet those needs; the resources, priorities of the
> family, and the supports and services necessary to enhance the
> family's capacity to meet the developmental needs of their children.
>
> There are two aspects here. One is that programs typically perform a
> formalized assessment resulting in a report that often connects with a
> family conference of some sort two or three times a year. Then there's
> the ongoing observation, which enables continuous adjustment of goals,
> curriculum activities, and other support strategies as programs work
> with children throughout the course of their time in the program. Now,
> again, the assessment piece should include input from parents and
> others who know the children well or in situations different from what
> program staff may see.
>
> Because the assessment tool is the framework for knowing what to look
> for and what to observe, what to plan from, and what to talk to
> parents about, it's really the key tool in this individualizing
> process, so a lot of care should be taken in terms of identifying,
> settling on, and training to the assessment tool that your program
> uses. Because that provides that framework, the way you look at
> children, what you look for, what the developmental sequence is, how
> you talk to parents about it, all of those kinds of things.
>
> There are a number of assessment tools that have been cross-referenced
> with Head Start child outcomes and state level early learning
> guidelines. So that's the link -- when people ask what's the link in
> what the individualizing cycle is, what's the link to Head Start
> outcomes, what's the link to early learning guidelines in any state?
> That link can be provided by the assessment tool. So if the assessment
> tool contains those same domains, and domain subcategories, and key
> points that are contained in the outcomes and the early learning
> guidelines, then that's where you've made that link.
>
> Before we move into the curriculum piece, let's look at some of the
> links as we go from assessment. So we've done the assessment now.

So as we make the link from assessment to curriculum on the basis of
assessment results, individual learning plans for each child should be
developed. If the child has gone through the evaluation process that we
talked about earlier leading from the screening process, and if that
child has an IEP or an IFSP developed, those documents will contain
learning goals and objectives that should be incorporated in the
planning for that child. So the individual learning plans will highlight
areas of growth and development across the domains. This will help
inform the curriculum. It'll also inform efforts that the program makes
to access services in the community to help meet whatever family needs
that impact on the individualizing process for the child.

Once individual children's plans are written, if you're working with a
group of children, those individual plans can be listed together to
create a group profile, which depicts the focus areas for the curriculum
for a group of children. That can help in the ease of moving to
curriculum planning.

Let's talk about curriculum. As you all heard any number of times I'm
sure by now, when we talk about curriculum and Head Start what we mean
is a written plan that includes the goals for children's development in
learning, what you're trying to achieve generally; the experiences
through which they'll achieve these goals; what staff and parents do to
help children achieve these goals; and the materials needed to support
the implementation of the curriculum. With children's goals,
experiences, materials, and contributions of staff, parents, and
volunteers in mind, staff can then construct their weekly and daily
lesson plans keeping in mind as well other Head Start regulations and
best practices calling for a balance of child-initiated and
teacher-directed activities, indoor and outdoor time, meal times, and
all the rest.

> Now programs often do use additional curricula not just that one,
> sometimes around specific developmental domains such as literacy, or
> to provide a focus on things like mental health, personal safety, or
> some other area. The challenge, obviously, for programs and staff is
> to make multiple curricula work for the program and child development
> purposes as well as for the staff. It's not always an easy thing.
>
> As we continue our way around this cycle, we work our way to teacher
> and child interactions. This is way the awareness, experience, and
> skills of staff in an environment of support from the program are put
> to use to individualize for children in a group setting or a home
> setting depending on the program model. So we are back to the
> assessment process. Because as teachers interact with children, as
> staff interact, they are, again, using that framework to observe, to
> make note of their observations, and to use that information to
> further refine and inform what they do with the curriculum, how they
> do their lesson planning, and how they interact with children. Notice
> that the parents are key partners in all of this by providing
> information and input. That's key to the individualizing process. They
> do it when you have home visits, when you have conferences, in the
> daily interactions when parents come and go, and some other contacts
> that you may have with them. As you go back and look at this
> individualizing cycle, there's really a place for parent input just
> about at every point. That's the outline, the model if you wish, of
> individualizing. The elements that we're talking about: the screening,
> the evaluation, the assessment, the individual goal planning, the
> group goals, the curriculum, the daily and weekly lesson plans, and
> finally the interactions with children.
>
> Now, we're going to take a look at how that looks in a couple of
> programs. We're going to ask our guests and we'll start with Carol
> Snead with the Head Start program at Lane County, Oregon.

C. Snead Thank you. I'm Carol Snead. My role in the Head Start at Lane
County program is Child Development and Disabilities Consultant. Our
consultant role is much like coordinator roles in other models. Our role
is both monitoring for compliance to Head Start and State of Oregon
standards, and also training and doing ongoing support for all of our
education staff and the regional managers who supervise those staff.
Then I monitor all of our inner-agency agreements for support services
for special education and I collaborate with some of the mental health
services for children.

We are a program that serves rural and metro families from the ocean all
the way up to the Cascade Mountains. We have almost 800 children in our
program. The models that we use, we serve only three to five year olds
in a part day model and a full day/full year. We also have Head Start
children who are placed in community childcare.

In our program, the assessment tool that you choose to use really drives
a lot of what the program does and how the program works through this
cycle that Gene has provided for us, an excellent tool. We are one of
the programs who use Assessment Technology Incorporated's Galileo
assessment tool. We went to that tool about six years ago. Our program
is one that relies a lot on technology and we have pretty high
expectations for all of our staff to use technology, because we cover
such a large geographic area.

Seven years ago, when we were looking for an assessment tool, what
appealed to me about Galileo was that it was technology-based, and it
did a lot of the writing and sorting of information work for teachers,
and in essence saves them a lot of time. The other piece that appealed
to us was that it had a built-in screening tool, so it ties to screening
and assessment together along with curriculum planning and
individualizing. That's the tool that we use. If any of you have
questions or want to talk to me about Galileo -- I'm not going to spend
a lot of time on that -- you're welcome to e-mail Gene or Renee and they
can get you in contact with me.

When children enter Head Start, we do the screening. It is one of the
things I like about Galileo's screening tool that's called AcuScreen.
It's very observation-based and we do it over a period of at least two,
sometimes three days during the child's beginning experience in our
program. Some of the screening activities involve direct teacher
questioning of children to find out about cognitive and language skills.
But also, it's very observation-based so we can observe them working
with children and observe their social skills through mealtimes and
eating and get an idea about mental health and sensory issues.

> There is a checklist that goes with that. The teachers enter that
> information into the database. The nice thing about this screening
> tool is that it will generate a score that is norm referenced and
> indicates by the score whether the child is moderately at risk,
> slightly at risk, or typically developing. Although, we don't always
> base our decisions for referral to evaluation on that, it certainly
> does help us to kind of gauge where the children are and make more
> than just subjective decisions about whether to refer a child. Parents
> are involved at the screening level. They fill out parts of the tool
> to give us information about how the child functions in settings
> outside of the classroom.
>
> When there is a decision to refer a child for evaluation based on the
> screening, the parents are involved from the get go. We do
> parent/teacher conferences, talk to them about the scores, what our
> areas of concerns are. We compare it to what they're seeing at home
> based on that and the parents would sign off a permission form. Then
> the child is referred to our LEA for evaluation. Ninety-nine percent
> of the time those evaluations are done within our classroom. One of
> their staff people comes to our classroom, observes the child, and
> conducts the evaluation. Even though that evaluation process is going
> on, our teachers immediately move into the assessment process. This
> tool that Gene developed really depicts in a visual way what actually
> goes on in our program. So that even though the screening is going off
> to the right, if you're looking at your diagram, referral to
> evaluation, that little dotted line, and maybe the development of an
> IEP or IFSP, the teacher is still proceeding on with assessment.
>
> In Galileo, what we do is observe the children for a period of time
> and make some general observations, which is the key function of any
> good assessment tool observation, and determine what's the child's
> baseline or general skill level in the eight domains, because Galileo
> follows and matches exactly the Head Start performance standards for
> domains of development. Once the baseline is set then the teachers
> begin the cycle of observing, planning curriculum, and assessment.
>
> I wanted to describe how the parents are involved in that, because
> it's a huge piece of what we do for individualizing. When we have a
> parent/teacher conference we ask the parents to share with us what are
> their child's strengths and interests. In other words, based on their
> experience with their child, and we consider them to be the expert,
> what are the things your child does well and what are the things your
> child really likes to do? What are their interests? We also ask them
> about what do you and your child like to do together. Then at the same
> time, we interview them about their family's culture. We firmly
> believe that finding out about a family's culture is a huge piece in
> individualizing. We ask them to talk to us about the kinds of
> celebrations they do, their routines at home, the kinds of foods they
> like to eat, what hobbies they have, and their extended family
> support. Those kinds of things help us to understand what their
> family's cultural values are and also help us to kind of get an idea
> about how they would like to share some of their family cultural
> experiences with our classroom. That helps the teachers then to
> individualize not only the activities, but the environment within our
> classroom to be reflective of their culture.
>
> At the same time, we were doing that for all of the children. Parents
> are involved in what we call curriculum webbing. They give us ideas
> about activities or field trips, things they'd like to see the
> children doing in the classroom. Then based on the assessment tool,
> Galileo, which tells us then what the children are ready to learn
> skill-wise in all eight domains, we like to incorporate the parents'
> ideas from their child's interest, their family culture, and
> activities they'd like to see their children do at Head Start so that
> they form the basis of how the children begin to do activities to work
> on those goals.
>
> Back to this child whom we referred for an evaluation. Once that
> evaluation is completed, and let's say it's a child who was found to
> be eligible for special ed services, the special ed coordinator then
> will share with us and our team participates in the IFSP meeting to
> develop the goals for the child that they need to work on in the areas
> that they're not typically developing. So immediately those goals are
> taken off the IFSP and added to our individualizing tool in Galileo so
> that we, on a regular basis, are incorporating those IFSPs into the
> plan for the week and daily plans. Much of the time about 30% of our
> children are special ed eligible. They all get their services within
> the classroom. All the accommodations that we need, which is another
> form of individualizing, are conducted within the classroom. There are
> a few exceptions. Sometimes the child with some specific articulation
> goals needs to go out of the classroom for a brief period of time with
> a speech path to work on some of those sounds that are really hard to
> hear in a hustling, bustling classroom.
>
> The teachers then follow the exact cycle that Gene was talking about
> where they plan a weekly curriculum filled with all kinds of
> activities based on parent input and child input and using the
> prescribed curriculums that we have so that we know we're meeting the
> performance standards. It is quite a few balls to juggle in the air.
> We develop a curriculum plan and implement that on a weekly basis,
> evaluate at the end of the week: how did that go, what was the
> interest level like, what was the skill level like as the children
> participated in these activities, what needs to be repeated and what
> do we need to move on? And the cycle begins again.
>
> One of the things I did want to talk about even though we use an
> electronic system for assessment in individualizing, we have child and
> family portfolios that we build on throughout the year where we
> collect samples of the children's work and we document each of the
> eight domains. So some of those documentations are actually photos of
> children and things they've made or activities that they're involved
> in. We share those portfolios with the parents at each one of our
> assessment update periods where we monitor child progress and share
> with the parent the progress that we've seen so far in the eight
> domains and samples of their work. Parents really enjoy looking at
> those things and seeing things like block structures and how they've
> changed from the beginning of the year to the end or writing and
> drawing skills and so forth. That's a very hands-on way to get parents
> involved in their child's progress.
>
> Another piece that we like about Galileo is that it does have a parent
> library. Many of our parents have access or have a computer in their
> home and they can get into Galileo's online parent library and work on
> skills at home with their children doing activities that are just
> really easy to do at home with materials that most any home would
> have. So the parents are working in concert with us on the assessment
> process and sharing information on what they see their child doing at
> home.

G. Gousie Let me ask one question and make a few observations about what
you've said. First, thank you, Carol, that was very clear. Some of the
important things I heard in there that I perhaps didn't stress as much
as I might have: one is the use of that screening tool was one piece of
information that informed the decisions that follow from the screening
process. And very importantly is that parent input became critical at
that point. The second thing, when you talk about the special services
and the evaluation process and the services in the classroom, what
you're referencing is an important relationship with the local education
agency that is the envy of many programs, I'm sure. But what I want to
point out here is that this whole process is indeed affected by factors
beyond what we've highlighted here. One of the important ones is the
quality of that relationship with your local education agency.

You also did a very nice job of highlighting the link to family culture
and how that gets incorporated in the curriculum and referencing of the
individualizing of the environment, which is a piece really that I'll
have to add to this paper and haven't included yet. Finally, my
question, Carol, the Galileo system that you use -- or not that system
itself, but how is it that the process for using that plays out in your
program. So here's my question: all the teachers use the same tool. Do
they all do the same amount of and kinds of observations at the same
times? How much is everybody doing the same thing all the time?

C. Snead Okay. That's a good question. Our teachers, if they were here,
would be talking about we do have some basic, minimum requirements that
teachers individualize a goal in language and literacy every week, plus
one of the other domains. So each week they are choosing for every child
one goal in two different domains that they're going to observe and
collect data on. Now they're doing lots of other activities in the
classroom and in every center of the classroom. They're doing art
activities and large motor and all of that. But we have designed a
system so that within the eight to nine-week period of time where we're
collecting observational data in an ongoing way, we want to make sure
that they're cycling through all eight domains and looking at the
complete child's development and not just one particular area like
language and literacy. So there is a minimum of individualizing for a
language and literacy and one other domain goal every week for all
children.

The beauty of the Galileo system is when you have 18 to 20 children in
your classroom it's really hard to manage all that data in your head:
who's ready for what goal and what skill are they working on. And based
on the assessment information that the teacher puts in the system, it
will create -- there are two individualizing reports. Two different
kinds that it will create to show the teacher, based on this language
and literacy goal, these are all the children that are ready for this
goal. So that's the goal they select, put on their curriculum plan, and
then they choose an activity, a fun kind of activity based on the
child's interests and family culture and all those other inputs, to
embed that goal or skill in.

> We have three data collection periods where we collect data on the
> children. Then we have a time, a certain date -- there are three dates
> within our program year -- that all their data needs to be in for all
> children into Galileo. So we can print our outcomes report from the
> system and check in and see are we on track? Are the kids that are
> transitioning to kindergarten working at the level at a trajectory of
> a development that's going to make them ready for kindergarten? We
> look at it as a group. We look at reports for the kids on an IFSP. We
> look at our English language children and compare their progress. So
> that throughout the year periodically then, we can say hold the phone
> here, Martha; we need to go back and start working more in this area
> or really are the children not learning anything in science and math
> or is it just you didn't put your data in the system? That's kind of
> our checkpoint way that we do that and that's why we do have the
> minimum requirements and then these timelines where they have to get
> their data in. The nice thing about Galileo is it's instant. The
> minute they put their information in about assessment for a particular
> child then we can look at a report on that particular child or that
> class and compare and see how they're doing. Did I answer your
> question?

G. Gousie Yes. Thank you, Carol. In fact, what you were saying right
there highlights two things that are very important, something for
programs to think about. One is how they manage this whole assessment
piece: the observation, what they require of staff, how often, how does
it get aggregated, and all of that. Then secondly, what came through in
part of your talking about the baseline requirement of that literacy and
language observation, is this is where program values and vision and the
link to the particular needs of your population of children and families
comes through; that programs will focus in on one area more particularly
because that's a particular need. So, Carol, we want to thank you very
much.

C. Sneed You're welcome.

G. Gousie Now, we're going to turn to Jon Whelan with Neighborhood House
here in Seattle.

J. Whelan I want to thank Carol, because she set up a nice framework for
people to consider what I'm about to say, which is similar in many ways,
but also different in many ways. First of all, my name is Jon Whelan. I
am the Education Supervisor at our program. I work primarily with the
teachers overseeing the daily program in each of the classrooms, not to
micromanage, but just supporting and meeting with the teachers weekly.

Our program is based in the Seattle Housing Authority's garden community
where there is low income housing. Most of our families are either new
immigrants or immigrants and English language learners. Many of them are
refuges from East Africa, Southeast Asia, South and Central America, and
one or two Eastern European, though that's not a primary element of our
population. Needless to say, our program is heavily literacy based, so
that's a primary focus of much of our curriculum.

One of the overriding assumptions in our program is that the parents are
the primary educators of their children. We here at Head Start and
eventually in schools will be secondary to that. So part of our program
through our family support workers as well as our teachers is to engage
the parents in that way to help them see themselves as the child's
primary educator. For many of our people their culture, as Carol was
speaking, bringing in cultural issues is very important, because for a
lot of our families their culture has been that the child is turned over
to an educator. The parent actually steps out of that process and the
teacher has eminent domain over the education of that child as well as
discipline issues, etc. We have to work against that by engaging the
parents as a team member, part of this team that educates their
children.

The first step in our processes is our enrollment process where one of
our family support workers meets with the parents and fills out basic
paperwork as well as what we refer to as our family partnership goals.
They begin to look at that. So it's not only the goals for the children,
but it's the goals for the family as a whole. That can also be around
issues of economics and work and housing, but definitely includes a
large portion of seeing themselves as educators and part of the team
with their children. Then the children enter our program in September.
Within the 45 days, obviously, we fulfill our screening, both our health
as well as our cognitive and behavior screenings.

> Now, we have two options. We used to use a tool that was the ASQ. It's
> a questionnaire that was done with the families as well as via
> observation by the teachers. We have moved away from that to what is
> now called the Early Screening inventory (ESI) and that is a formal
> sit down, one-on-one with either a teacher or another facilitator from
> our staff to do some basic questions, fine motor/gross motor skill
> assessment. Then there is the Connors Behavioral Scale, which is done
> by the teachers in each classroom. That is supposed to be an objective
> snapshot -- one of the terms that Gene uses -- of where that child is
> as they enter the program.
>
> Now, as I speak I'm going to touch upon some of the qualities of our
> teachers in this process. Because training the teachers to see that as
> simply a snapshot has been very important. A number of our teachers
> are concerned about some of these screenings that we do, because
> they're concerned that the children will be labeled. Part of our role
> is to emphasize that there's -- hopefully no labeling is done -- but
> that the child is just taken a brief look at their behavior in the
> classroom. These are generalities; they're only happening today. They
> may not have happened yesterday, but we just want to get a real brief
> glimpse to find out where that child is behaviorally. Then that
> continues to be part of our assessment program from not only the
> teachers, but our mental health special needs mangers as well, and
> then also the initial parent home visit where the teachers meet the
> parents and begin to build that relationship with the parents within
> the classroom.
>
> Now, again, we go back to issues of language. Many of our families do
> not speak English very well, so our family support workers serve as
> translators not only of the actual language, but of the cultural
> aspects of our program and from the families to the people in our
> program to help us understand better who they are and what their view
> of children's education is.
>
> The initial home visit is a very basic interview. It's an introduction
> to what will happen in the classroom, and that piggybacks on with our
> initial parent meetings to invite the parents in and see the
> classrooms, get a sense of what the setup looks like, what the daily
> schedule will be like. But also to explain or just sort of build the
> relationship and explain to the parent what the teachers do with the
> kids, why play is so important to them, as well as the reading and the
> writing, and learning how to spell their name, and count, and things
> to this extent, which is a huge emphasis for our parents. Many of our
> parents are wondering why their children aren't writing their names at
> four years old and such. So we explain that's a process of getting to
> that place.
>
> The home visits and conferences that occur after that will include a
> little bit more reflective data that we have a form, which is the
> summary of the child's development, which looks at their physical
> development, fine and gross motor, their cognitive development, their
> language and literacy development, and then their social development.
> Those are ongoing just observations that are shared with the families
> as well as photographs and other portfolio elements: samples of the
> children's work throughout the year.
>
> The child comes to the classroom; the parents have a meeting with the
> teachers. That relationship has begun. The children attend regularly
> and ongoing observation begins right away. So the teachers are writing
> down observations, they're taking photographs, they're talking with
> me, they're talking together: the lead teacher and assistant teacher.
> They begin to consider the individual learning plan, the ILP, which
> are classroom-based goals that are built up for the child. The initial
> ones are making friends, learning to recognize their name, following
> some rules, getting a handle on the daily schedule. Those will be more
> specific to that individual child's needs and progress as the year
> progresses.
>
> We have four conferences total including the initial, so there will be
> three of these ILP sheets that are put together. Within that sheet,
> it's discussed with the family of what the family would like to have,
> like to see their child working on, what the teachers see in the
> classroom as a logical next step for the child. Then they develop
> strategies together: what will happen in the classroom and what will
> happen at home.
>
> Now we've established goals and a role for the family not only in
> getting the child to school on time, attending parent meetings, but
> also activities that they can do at home that parallel or piggyback
> and support the activities that are happening at school. Again, this
> develops this relationship and this intention that the parents are the
> primary caregivers and educators of their children.
>
> Then throughout the next few months, through the lesson planning --
> and I'll talk a little bit about our curriculum in a moment -- through
> their lesson planning the teachers utilize the goals and the
> strategies, specifically the strategies, that have been developed with
> the family in the planning of what will be happening in their large
> and small group activities. What will be happening, what will be
> brought in materials-wise to the manipulative area, the sensory area,
> the block area, etc., the art and writing centers. There's a record
> kept of the individual goals, what activities related to those goals
> and the strategies for each child. That is separate documentation
> either kept directly on the lesson plan or what we refer to loosely as
> a class picture tracking sheet, which just tracks the numbers of
> opportunities and activities that were provided to that child
> throughout the weeks between the ILP goal process with the parents.
>
> Again, these continuing ongoing observations as well as staffing,
> which are meeting more regularly with myself and the teaching staff in
> the classroom. We try to meet two to three times per year, talking
> specifically about each child. That process relates directly to what
> happens in the classroom. We also do a broader staffing process where
> we bring in the family support people, our health and mental health
> special needs coordinators, and look at the child as well as the
> family as a whole and what successes, what struggles they're having
> and how those can be addressed and supported by each member of our
> team. Then the process begins again by meeting with the parents,
> talking about progress, looking at photographs and other portfolio
> items, discussing their developments, etc. So the parent is given a
> regular opportunity, obviously daily, when they arrive and drop off
> their children. But also a more intensive opportunity four times
> throughout the year to sit down and really focus on what their child
> is doing.

That process is, as I've alluded to, there are challenges created not
only by language and culture, parent perspective about education in
school, what their role is, what our role is. But also by engaging the
parents and drawing out of them the willingness to be interested and to
really truly see themselves as a partner in this process. We work on
training our staff to ask the questions to draw people out. Very often,
the parents say they have no concerns, which that's not the first thing
we're looking for. We're not looking for concerns; we're looking for
maybe hope and dreams and goals and aspirations, etc. But talking with
the parents, asking the right questions, engaging them about their own
feelings about school: what did they do when they were children, how do
they see their children in relationship to where they were when they
were children, how did they play, what did they learn, etc.? So really,
really bringing that out is a skill that is developed with our teaching
staff as well as our family support staff.

Our curriculum that we use is the Creative Curriculum that's put out by
Teaching Strategies Publishers. The Creative Curriculum focus is
primarily on the room environment: creating spaces for the different
areas of learning that would happen in sensory activities and block play
and manipulative puzzles; creating quiet spaces for looking at books,
large group areas, small group areas that would happen at tables or on
the floor, etc., and then building your curriculum from there.

> We have two planning sheets that are modeled after the Creative
> Curriculum. One is an environmental sheet that includes comments by
> the teachers about the focus of their study at that point; skills and
> concepts that they're working to emphasize for all the children and
> any new vocabulary as well that's happening. Then they would record
> the changes or the additions to the environment in the dramatic play
> area, the art area, block and accessories for blocks, manipulatives
> and other games, bulletin boards that they put up for the children as
> well as for parent information.
>
> And most importantly, the language and literacy materials that are
> available and used throughout the classroom: There is a discovery
> science area, library books that are available to the children to
> choose, as well as what will be used in large group activities, and
> then computer software and other various sensory materials. We do have
> computers in our classroom that are used on a regular basis. Then that
> is looked at and changed anywhere from two to four weeks depending on
> what the weekly plan and process is that needs to support it.
>
> Then we have a weekly plan that is filled out every week by each
> classroom that includes small group activities, large group
> activities, the books, finger plays, and songs that they'll be using
> in their large and small group activities. The outside time is also
> planned for what we would call large motor activities and that does
> happen mostly outside. We see that as part of the plan; that it's not
> just something that you let the kids go out and then the teachers lean
> up against the fence and talk or have a glass of water or whatever.
> That is a very planned and intentional moment in the day. Also, any
> visitors or events: we have guest readers that come in. I'm in the
> classrooms regularly and I sometimes take over an activity.
>
> We also have sections for family communication activities and that may
> be the weekly parent meeting or some other kind of celebration that's
> happening, our RIF book distributions. Then also the emphasis on
> handwashing, personal hygiene, dental health, safe play, what are the
> ways the kids utilize the room or the rules in the room that help
> everybody stay safe, health examinations that might be happening; and
> those do happen on a twice if not three time-yearly basis. Then
> nutrition issues, when we sit at the table and share meals.
>
> Then there are three other areas: poison prevention, health and
> safety, and mental health and social and emotional learning. Those
> are, although I think mostly intrinsic and part of the teaching and
> the teachers' behaviors with the children, we want those to be
> emphasized so that the lesson plan not only serves as a guideline for
> the teachers, but also as a method of communicating to the families
> what their children are doing in the classroom each day. What they're
> being exposed to and what concepts in vocabulary are being emphasized.
> Along with that communication, we include parent letters that are on a
> weekly basis as well as vocabulary lists that are being emphasized.
>
> One thing that's a little bit different this year is that throughout
> -- I've been with the program almost two years now. But in the past,
> they had rooms that were primarily three's and four's and then rooms
> that were four's and five's. Because of the change of our demographics
> that's no longer possible and our rooms, almost all of them, include
> some three-year-olds all the way up to nearly five when they enroll.
> So the teachers are being challenged to expand their curriculum to
> create developmentally appropriate practice and activities for all of
> the children in their rooms.
>
> We are lucky that the Seattle Public School supports us in our special
> needs assessment, so we do our ESI behavioral screenings. The score
> relates those to okay, re-screen, or refer. Now, one of the things is
> that the ESI is only developed for English language and Spanish
> language, so many of our children -- we have families from the East
> African languages to Vietnamese, Cambodian, Mung, Laotian, a few
> Chinese speaking families, as well as Spanish speaking families.
> Oftentimes, the ESI will register as a re-screen or referral when it's
> primarily due to the child not responding because they don't
> understand the questions.
>
> This is part of the expertise of our mental health special needs
> program managers to assess where that child is at and to make that
> determination if it's a language issue or if it is an actual
> developmental concern for the child. That's where we also incorporate
> the families, particularly if they show a referral or re-screen in
> speech, we check with the families and find out do they have any
> concerns about their child's ability to speak their home language,
> their pronunciation, etc. If the parents don't have a concern we take
> that into account. Then pay attention: maybe there is some stuttering
> that the parent has just gotten used to, but our teachers pickup on it
> because it stands out when they're in a group of children.
>
> The use of photos particularly as well as portfolios is also very key.
> Sometimes it's difficult to relate the concepts of children playing
> together in the dramatic play area. What good is water play and
> sensory activities? Photographs help the parents see the fine motor
> development, the social skills that they're developing. When they come
> into the classroom they hear the language that's being created and
> developed between the children and their peers as well as the adults
> in the classroom as well and the children.
>
> Carol touched upon those questions that we asked the families. What do
> you do with your child? What does your child like to do? What
> opportunities do you have as a family to do things together? What toys
> and games -- which is another huge issue, obviously. Head Start
> families are fairly low income, so resources in the home are few and
> far between for many of them. So finding used books and distributing
> those to our families, finding resources for games and other kinds of
> activities, teaching parents how to turn kitchen utensils and daily
> activities into learning experiences with their children are all very,
> very important to that process.
>
> If a child does receive -- we do see a referral as necessary -- we
> speak to the Seattle Public Schools and they have their special ed
> teams that setup these assessments with the kids and the families. We
> have to sign all the appropriate releases for sharing of information.
> Usually our special needs coordinator will attend and occasionally the
> teacher and the family support worker to support the family and
> understanding and feeling comfortable with the process. Then a
> determination is made whether the child will receive onsite services
> at our program.
>
> As Carol described, there are two options. One is that the provider
> comes into the classroom and works in tandem with the teachers, but
> also may pull them out to a separate room where they can work more
> closely one-on-one to hear some of the finer points of speech. Then
> occasionally, I would say maybe one child that we initially enrolled
> either goes to a self-contained program all day long or attends our
> program at one point of the day and then is transported to a
> self-contained program with the Seattle School District.
>
> There's a variety of players and partners involved. I think our
> program -- we've been in action for a good number of years and have a
> real strong partnership with the community in creating the best model
> possible for each of our children and families. I think I've gotten
> most of them.
>
> One thing that we do and we try to make happen so that there's not too
> many pieces of paper that are being brought to the families is if a
> family does have an IEP or an IFSP developed for them, we incorporate
> as much of the goals around those IEPs or IFSPs as part of our goal
> sheets, the ILPs that we create, and then develop strategies based
> upon what is described in the IEP or IFSP. That just helps us limit
> the amount of information that a parent is trying to keep straight as
> to what's affecting their children and what's happening with their
> child in a classroom. I think I've touched upon all the details there.
> It's a very involved and broad-based process.

G. Gousie Great, John. That's very helpful. Certainly, several themes:
the connection and the communication with families, the focus on
language, the importance of the environment, and planning all comes
through loud and clear.

When we had talked earlier it seemed like it might be possible to have
someone from your program on the line with you to talk just for a few
minutes about how this process differs a little bit for children ages
zero to three. Is that something you're able to do now?

J. Wayland I am able to. I was unable to get one of our home visitors
from our early Head Start program and I apologize for not including
that. Yes. Neighborhood House does also have an early Head Start program
for prenatal to three. Their process does look a little bit different.
Although it incorporates many of the same personnel, their process is
different.

> Most of you are probably familiar with Early Head Start. It's a
> home-based support and education program for pregnant mothers and new
> parents with young children. The process that we have is similar in
> that there are meetings with the families, there are discussions about
> what the family's goals are. This is where the parent observation of
> their child becomes most key to the process. We use what's called the
> AEPS, the Assessment Evaluation Programming System for infants and
> children. It's put out by Paul H. Brookes Publishing. It is a
> measurement and a flow system, a continuum that occurs -- actually, I
> just got reminded of another thing, but I'll go back to that in a
> moment -- of looking at all the different domains of physical and
> social and cognitive development with children. Again, these are
> continuums of a beginning process to an ending process with a goal
> involved for each one.
>
> I apologize if I sound a little vague; this one I'm less familiar
> with. But what was described to me was that a form is filled out by
> the home visitor. It's a home visit planning and feedback form. On
> there it has -- the goal is that the home visitor will meet with the
> family at their home once a week. At that time, they talk with family
> and talk about what happened at the last visit, the previous visit,
> any plans that had been made, any goals that the parent had set for
> themselves, and where they are in that.
>
> There will be an activity. Generally, it's a literacy-based activity,
> but often it's, again, how to either use toys or home materials and
> activities to focus on the child's learning and engagement. They look
> at the activity for that day, do the activity with the child and the
> family, and then get some feedback. What did the parent think about
> it? Will they be able to continue using this kind of an activity? Do
> they see it as worthwhile? Then they plan for the next visit.
>
> Usually, they set goals for the child. On here they have two goals:
> child goal one and child goal two. Again, that's something where that
> is an engagement between the parents themselves and the child where
> the home visitor then steps back from the process and coaches the
> parent on how to be with their child. What's a way that you can look
> at a book? How do you give children appropriate material and take the
> time? What are you describing to them in words that they can utilize
> and learn using descriptive words, descriptive language, and the tone
> of voice even.
>
> Then there's a documentation form of what happened. Who was there,
> what the environment was like, were they at home, were they in the
> bedroom, were they in the kitchen or the living room, did they
> actually meet somewhere else, which happens with many families.
> They're not comfortable bringing a stranger into their home. But they
> do want to meet with them, so they'll meet at a neutral place. There's
> a description of the parent/child interaction. There's a description
> of the activities that happened, and there's a description of any
> discussions or teachable moments that occurred, anything that emerged
> out of that meeting that day.
>
> They talk about the length of visit. They talk about what kinds of
> things were accomplished and if the family showed up, obviously, if
> they were unable to make the visit for some reason. They look at the
> different curriculum areas: health, safety, nutrition, dental health,
> pre and postnatal issues, education and disabilities, mental health,
> family partnerships, community partnerships, literacy, any
> transitions. What has become more of a specific focus in Head Start in
> the last couple of years is father involvement. What are the roles of
> the men in the home? Then an individual child plan is made up with the
> input of the family.
>
> Again, this is sort of a goal sheet and it looks at the child's
> strengths as observed by the home visitor and the parent, the child's
> interests, and the emerging skills or needs that the child may have.
> The wants and goals of the parents, and then routines that are
> developed and discussed that would help support those goals. The
> parent and the staff person sign off on this and it's sort of an
> agreement that these are the things we're going to be looking at. Then
> they look at the goals and create an outcome, a very tangible outcome
> for the goals and create a plan that says these are the steps, this is
> what we're hoping to accomplish by this step by this activity, which
> then leads to that parent. Oftentimes, it's finding a job, so they
> would look at what skills the parent has, what do they want to do, how
> much money do they need to make, how much time do they have to spend?
>
> Then they would also look at for my child I want to spend more time
> interacting with my child in an appropriate way, but I also have to
> clean the house, we have to go get groceries, so sometimes I put my
> child in front of the TV set or something. So what are alternatives to
> that? They create strategies and routines to support that. What's very
> important for this process as well as for our process is if you set a
> goal, did you meet that goal, when did that happen, a date, what was
> the observation oftentimes? What's the observation that says yes, I
> met that goal?
>
> Then there's -- it looks like a journal of -- it's an assessment I
> guess. It's called the Family Report. It looks at questions like does
> your child bring both hands to the middle of the body at the same
> time; did it happen, yes, and what date; does your child use the index
> finger to activate toys or objects; does your child put together
> simple toys; and things like that. There are a number of questions in
> here that deal with the different areas of development.
>
> This last thing that I'm discussing, the Family Report, relates
> directly to the curriculum in our three to five program also -- and I
> failed to discuss this -- which is called the Developmental Continuum.
> That is an observation-based assessment that is done three times
> throughout the year for the children in our three to five Head Start
> program that looks at the different areas of development -- this is a
> published portion of the Creative Curriculum that we use -- that looks
> at social/emotional development, physical development, cognitive
> development, and language development. There are fore-runner examples
> of behaviors that would -- like enjoys and values reading. What would
> be a fore-runner example? That gets filled in.
>
> The child asks to be read to, the child seeks out a book, and the
> child will sit and look at books for a long period of time. Then it
> says and the extensions of that are listens to stories being read,
> participates in story time interactively, and finally, chooses to read
> on their own, seeks information in books, and sees themselves as a
> reader. This is filled out, as I said, three times during the year.
> The data from that is entered into a computer program, which then
> tracks our program and the successes of our program of children's
> development -- or not necessarily the successes, but just the
> development of the children throughout the year. That's the only real
> technology piece, but it creates a nice little graph so the teachers
> can see how as a percentage of their classroom is developing through
> each of the areas of development in the class. There you go, Gene.

G. Gousie Thank you very much, Jon.

J. Wayland It's a lot of information.

G. Gousie It is a lot of information. But it's a lot of useful info as
well. We've about run out of our time here. I want one, to tell you the
next steps here or remind you of the ones that I posted earlier. We will
be putting up on the Web this conference call, a transcript and a
recording in the next couple weeks, as well as the, hopefully, revised
document that was sent out with the announcement, and any additional
resources -- the document contains references to some resources. If any
of you have found that certain resources are of particular value to you
and maybe to others, by all means send that information in to us so that
we can include it in the information that follows up with this call
today. Again, if you have any questions about this whole process, feel
free to send them in and we'll route them to Jon and Carol and myself as
well and include the responses to those up on the Web. So we want to
thank Carol and Jon in particular for their participation today. We want
to thank all of you for tuning in and we look forward to those materials
being up on the Web and an announcement about next month's call. So
we'll sign off here. Thank you all very much. Bye-bye.