2016 ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REPORT

PRESCHOOL DEVELOPMENT GRANTS

New York

Preschool Development Grants AUGUST 2017
ED 524B Page 1 of 32

State: New York Zip: 12234

U.S. Department of Education

PDG Grant Performance Report Cover Sheet

Based on ED 524B OMB No. 1894-0003 Exp. 06/30/2017

Check only one box per Program Office instructions. ✔ Annual Performance Report Final Performance Report

General Information

1. PR/Award #: s419B150021 2. Grantee Federal Information Processing Code: 84.419B

3. Project Title: Preschool Development Grant- Expansion

4. Grantee Name: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

5. Grantee Address:89 Washington Ave.

City: Albany

6. Project Director Name: Renee L. Rider

Title: Assistant Commissioner, Office of Student Support Services

Phone #: (518) 474-5807 Ext.: Fax #:(518) 473-7737

Email Address: renee.rider@nysed.gov; betsy.kenney@nysed.gov

Reporting Period Information

7. Reporting Period: From: 01/01/2016 To: 12/31/2016

8. Budget Expenditures (To be completed by your Business Office. See instructions.)

Budget Period Federal Grant Funds Non-Federal Funds (Match/Cost Share)

a. Previous Budget Period $24,596,813.00 $365,000,000.00

b. Current Budget Period $22,961,093.00 $365,000,000.00

c. Entire Project Period

(For Final Performance Reports only)

9. Indirect Cost Information (To be completed by your Business Office. See Instructions.)

a. Are you claiming indirect costs under this grant? Yes No

b. If yes, do you have an Indirect Cost Rate Agreement approved by the Federal Government? Yes No

c. If yes, provide the following information:

Period Covered by the Indirect Cost Rate Agreement: From: 04/01/2016 To: 03/31/2017

Approving Federal agency: ✔ ED Other Specify other:

Type of Rate: (Final Performance Reports only) Provisional Final Other Specify other:

d. For Restricted Rate Programs (check one) -- Are you using a restricted indirect cost rate that:

✔ Is included in your approved Indirect Cost Rate Agreement

Complies with 34 CFR 76.564(c)(2)?

10. Performance Measures Status

a. Are complete data on performance measures for the current budget period included in the

Project Status Chart?

b. If no, when will the data be available and submitted to the Department?

Yes No
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U.S. Department of Education

PDG Annual Performance Report

Executive Summary

Based on ED 524B OMB No. 1894-0003 Exp. 06/30/2017

Grantee State: NY PR/Award #: s419B150021

You are required to submit an Executive Summary of up to 3000 words with your Annual Performance

Report. This summary should relate to your approved application and summarize the goals and

objectives that have been achieved under your grant, what you learned, and any evaluation results.

Describe any unanticipated outcomes or benefits from your project and any barriers that you may have

encountered. If there have been any changes to the project from the approved application, those

should be explained as well.

New York State (NYS) continued to work with the same five districts, Watertown, Uniondale, Port

Chester-Rye, New York City, and Yonkers to serve 2,350 students through the Preschool Development

Expansion Grant (PDG) in 2016. The State of New York has a deep commitment to advancing a HighQuality and comprehensive approach to early childhood education for all of our young children.

Over the last two decades, NYS has taken steps to advance its education system by creating a birthto-3rd grade continuum that embraces both the importance of High-Quality early education for all

children and a priority to meet the specific needs of our most at-risk young learners, including English

Language Learners and those with special needs.

PDG has allowed NYS an opportunity to implement our most progressive high-quality approaches to

Prekindergarten and supplement programs with innovations to strengthen the quality and capacity of

their programs.

Focus Areas

New York uses not more than five percent of PDG funding to strengthen, pilot, and scale up innovative

strategies to improve early educational services from birth through third grade. We have focused our

resources to achieve three major objectives in implementation of PDG:

 Improve the State's capacity to support local leaders to implement High-Quality Preschool

Programs in collaboration with their partners;

 Build State-level support for High-Quality Preschool Programs through systemic linkages; and

 Build community-level support for High-Quality Preschool programs by expanding existing

school-community partnerships to assess and strategically improve early childhood program

quality.

The Key Highlights and Major Accomplishments section below will demonstrate the work done in

2016 to help achieve those goals. The subsequent section, Challenges and Lessons Learned will

discuss how we are meeting challenges identified as we strengthen our early educational services.

Key Highlights and Major Accomplishments

Leadership Meetings

NYSED's Office of Early Learning (OEL) held two grantee leadership meetings. All PDG sub-grantee

districts had representation at those meetings. In May 2016, meeting topics were generated based on
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monitoring results in districts using the NYS Prekindergarten Quality Assurance Protocol. The agenda

for this meeting included program updates, information about transition practices, the Early

Development Instrument (EDI), and a presentation about quality learning environments.

Participants at the May 2016 meeting stayed a second day to participate in a state-wide leadership forum

sponsored by NYSED in partnership with the NYS Prekindergarten-3rd Grade Administrators

Association. Additional support was provided by the Northeast Comprehensive Center and NYS 

United Teachers. District leaders across the state were invited to the forum to learn about the five focus

areas (focus on robust teaching strategies, prioritize language, create a culture that supports social and

emotional development, make practice public, own the continuum) around administrating quality

prekindergarten to third grade programs. Participants were able to participate in breakout sessions to

discuss topics from the Framework for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating PreK-3rd Grade

Approaches.

In November 2016, PDG sub-grantee districts attended a second two day leadership meeting. The

agenda included program highlights, a presentation from NYC Department of Education on the Units

of Study used in the prekindergarten program, OEL updates, teacher evaluation, and a presentation

about collaborations. The panel included members from a\ Community Based Organizations (CBO),

Head Start, and a district to discuss obstacles and best practices of collaborations. The Tip Sheet:

Community-Based Organization/Head Start/ School District Prekindergarten Collaborations was

reviewed as a tool for working through collaborations, and a representative from CEELO provided

additional information to districts about collaborations.

Documents

Several documents have been developed for prekindergarten programs that support them in providing

quality services to children.

 During the summer of 2016, staff from OEL worked to align the Administrative Review

Document and the Quality Assurance Protocol for the 2016-2017 monitoring year. These two

documents are now used across all NYS prekindergarten settings regardless of funding stream.

 The series of Developmentally Appropriate Practice Briefs has been expanded to include

additional drafts that focus on the topics of special education and social and emotional learning.

The six briefs provide research-based practical guidance to support effective early childhood

practices that help young learners gain the foundational skills necessary to reach the learning

standards.

 A team of individuals representing Head Start programs, CBOs, school districts, the NYS Head

Start Collaboration Office, CUNY, and OEL met to develop a tool called: Tip Sheet:

Community-Based Organization/Head Start/ School District Prekindergarten Collaborations

that assists programs in designing effective collaborations.

 A set of tip sheets were developed for classroom learning areas. The tip sheets include

information on what the center should offer children, the purpose of the center, and alignment

with the learning standards.

 The Preschool Planning Guide, a document developed in 1998 for prekindergarten programs in

NYS was updated and anticipated to be released to programs in the spring of 2017. It is now

called the Planning for High-Quality Prekindergarten Programs: Building a Foundation for

School Success.
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English Language Learners

NYSED's Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages', (OBEWL) Regional Bilingual

Education Resource Networks (RBERNs) have officially expanded their K-12 scope of work to include

Prekindergarten in assisting school districts to establish, provide, and sustain effective language

instruction for language diverse young learners. Additional support includes offering professional

development opportunities; an example of which was offered on November 30, 2016 in Albany, NY:

OBEWL's First Annual English Language Learners / Multilingual Learners Literacy Conference:

Developing Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students. District staff from Port Chester- Rye, NYC,

Yonkers, and Uniondale attended this event.

A workshop presented by Dr. Zoila Morell was dedicated to serving language diverse students in

prekindergarten. OBEWL and OEL have a strong working relationship with Dr. Morell and are

collaborating with her to develop documentation and a protocol to identify language diverse students

(tentatively to be designated for Pre-K Emergent Bilinguals) who will be enrolling in Prekindergarten

for the 2017-2018 academic year.

ProfessionalDevelopment

During the summer of 2016, four districts, Watertown, Yonkers, Port Chester-Rye, and Uniondale

sponsored summer training institutes for prekindergarten teachers, assistants, aides, and administrators

that partner with or are employed by the district to provide prekindergarten services. These institutes

were a collaborative effort among each individual district, OEL, QSNY, the City University of NY, and

New York University.

Session topics included how to set up a quality preschool environment, authentic assessment, using

data to drive program improvement, appropriate read aloud sessions, and purposeful transitions.

Topics for sessions were determined based on ECERS-R data from QSNY, professional development

plans developed between sites and QSNY, Quality Improvement Specialists and information from OEL

Quality Assurance visits. Plans are underway for similar summer institutes in each of the four districts

during the summer of 2017.

New York City

Starting in 2015-2016 and continuing in the 2016-2017 school year, all Pre-K sites were assigned to one

of four instructional tracks based on multiple data sources including CLASS, ECERS-R, field staff

recommendation and site preference. "Pre-K for All" instructional tracks support sites in meeting the

Program Quality Standards and advancing student learning based on the New York State

Prekindergarten Foundation for the Common Core (PKFCC). Each professional learning track included

four full-day sessions for teachers and three four-hour sessions for Leaders. See below for the

description of topics for each track.

2015-16

 NYC Pre-K Explore. Sites that participate in the NYC Pre-K Explore track use the Building

Blocks math curriculum together with the Pre-K for All Interdisciplinary Units of Study created

by the DECE in collaboration with outside experts. Building Blocks when integrated into the

Units of Study, provides a comprehensive learning experience for children. Building Blocks is

an evidence-based math curriculum that focuses on teaching concept development and problem

solving through developmentally appropriate practices and scaffolded learning. The DECE

research-based Interdisciplinary Units of Study support student learning in all domains using

developmentally appropriate practice

 Lane A: Advancing Social Emotional Development. Participants focus on how to support pre-K
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learners in developing social emotional skills needed to build a positive sense of self, form

positive relationships, self-regulate, and adapt to change.

 Lane B: Using Data to Inform Instruction. Participants focus on how to move each child

forward by learning new strategies to identify and meet each learner's needs using authentic

assessments and other data points.

 Lane C: Supporting Linguistically & Culturally Diverse Learners. Participants focus on how to

build on the diverse backgrounds and languages your children and families bring to the

classroom with strategies for developing learning environments where all children can thrive

and all families are strong partners.

2016-17

 NYC Pre-K Explore. See above description.

 NYC Pre-K Inspire. In this track professional learning sessions include a variety of topics that

address key early childhood instructional and family engagement practices aligned to the

Program Quality Standards (PQS).

 NYC Pre-K Thrive. This professional learning track will increase opportunities for pre-K

children to realize their potential by building a foundation of social-emotional skills during a

critical stage of development. Sites receive targeted support in implementing the DOE's Positive

Behavior Guidance by capacity building of leadership, program staff, and families.

 NYC Pre-K Create. In this track participants learn to incorporate the visual arts, dance, theater,

and music into their ongoing instruction to promote student learning in multiple PKFCC

domains.

Early Development Instrument Implementation

In NYS there is no readiness definition for students entering kindergarten. In partnership with

McMaster University, OEL and the NYS Early Childhood Professional Development Institute

collaborated in the implementation of the Early Development Instrument (EDI). The EDI is used as a

population-based measure for kindergarten children in three communities, Port Chester-Rye,

Uniondale, and Watertown and implemented by Dr. Zoila Morell from Mercy College. The instrument

is an outcome measure of children's developmental health at school entry in five domains: physical

health and well-being; social competence; emotional maturity; language and cognitive development;

and communication skills and general knowledge. Section 1(c) provides a more in depth overview 

of implementation of EDI.

Early Childhood Advisory Council

In 2016, the ECAC was codified in state law and was restructured into four focus areas including

coordinated and responsive systems, healthy children, strong families, and early learning.

These focus areas were defined in mid-2016 and solidified with the codification in the late fall. In

December 2016, the focus areas met in person for the first time at the quarterly ECAC membership

meeting to discuss their objectives, goals, and priorities as they pertain to the strategic plan. Their first

work plans are due in February of 2017 with their primary focus as follows:
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 Coordinated and Responsive Systems: Public and private sectors that serve young children and

their families are committed to collecting and utilizing data to inform decisions, developing a

sustainable infrastructure and a fully-trained, properly-compensated, and well-supported

workforce, and establishing policies for accountable approaches that promote healthy children,

strong families, and early learning.

 Healthy Children: All young children are healthy and thriving, and have access to

comprehensive health care services.

 The Strong Families: All families of young children are supported in their parenting and have

the knowledge, skills, confidence, and resources they need to raise their children in healthy and

nurturing environments.

 Early Learning: All young children will be successful in school and life.

Supporting Social and Emotional Development

New York State has become a Pyramid Model Partnership State. During the 2016 year, seventy-five

Master Cadres were trained in the modules of the Pyramid Model to assist in promoting and training

programs statewide in the use of the Pyramid Model, an evidence-based framework proven to be an

effective approach to building social and emotional competence in all early care and educational

settings. Three of the preschool development grant sites, Watertown, Uniondale, and Port Chester-Rye,

have developed a schedule of training for the implementation of the preschool modules in their program. 

In conjunction with the Pyramid Model, an additional brief has been developed titled, 

Behavior, Creating a Positive Climate to Support Social and Emotional Learning Prekindergarten

Through 3rd Grade: Building a Strong Foundation for the New York State Learning Standards which

will be released to school district and early childhood programs in NYS in the spring of 2017.

The New York City preschool development sites are able to participate in the Thrive NYC track, an

initiative to support the mental health of individuals. Participants will receive instructional and family

level tools with evidence-based strategies for supporting children's social emotional development,

behavioral regulation skills, and family engagement, as well as support from a social worker in

implementing these practices.

The Yonkers School District continues to utilize The PATHS curriculum, a comprehensive program

that supports social and emotional development of young children.

On-going Quality Improvement

Four of the participating districts, Yonkers, Watertown, Uniondale, and Port Chester-Rye are

participating in QUALITYstarsNY (QSNY). QSNY is a voluntary system for all types of regulated

early childhood programs that serve children from birth through age 5. Using research-based, culturally

responsive program standards, QSNY evaluates program quality based on the following categories:

Learning Environment, Family Engagement, Staff Qualifications & Experience and Management &

Leadership. Each program receives a rating, from 1 to 5 stars, and the resources and supports needed to

improve its star rating and quality over time.

In NYS, the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) is one of the tools used

by QSNY. During the 2016 year, Uniondale classrooms were provided blocks based on an identified

need from the ECERS-R observation. Blocks arrived in November, and classrooms have updated their

block centers to include the new materials. Additionally, the All About ECERS book has been provided

to the principal of the program who is new in her role this year. This has allowed the principal to learn
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about the scale and its use in classrooms.

Sixteen Yonkers schools with prekindergarten programs completed a QSNY self-study. This involved

a comprehensive reflection of all aspects of programing and identifying areas for growth and

development. Three aides at School 30 in Yonkers are attending an online program for their bachelors

in early childhood education because of support from QSNY which offers financial support for staff

for professional development.

Learning materials were purchased through Quality Improvement Plan Funds for participating Yonkers

schools to create and enhance learning centers. These materials included materials for dramatic play,

blocks, science, math and manipulatives, books, and musical instruments. Age-appropriate tables and

chairs were purchased for classrooms with an identified need for new equipment.

The CBO's in Watertown CSD identified family engagement as another area needing support. They

have attributed the challenge of engaging families to many factors such as the transient nature of

military families. Additionally, an identified area of concern was a lack of effective transition practices

from the CBO early childhood education settings to kindergarten at the public school. The district has

begun addressing the issue of transition. During the summer of 2016, the district brought together

prekindergarten and kindergarten teachers and administrators to begin discussing transition practices.

Also, the district has set up a transition committee that meets regularly.

Programs that partner with the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) are given

supports and resources from the NYC Division of Early Childhood Education (DECE) through field

offices located in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens. Located in each office

are Instructional Coordinators and Social Workers who provide support and coaching for teachers and

administrators throughout the year. During the school year, the NYCDOE provides ongoing

professional development to both leaders and teachers.

Comprehensive Services

Each of the districts has taken a unique approach to the comprehensive services they offer

families. Below are highlights of their best practices.

 Uniondale works with Malloy College and the public library to offer family engagement

workshops and offers families counseling services through Hispanic Counseling and

North Shore Family & Guidance Center. The district partners with Adelphi University

for social work services and has an on-site school nurse.

 Watertown partners with Cooperative Extension, The Urban Mission, Fidelis, The

Community Action Planning Council, Thompson Park Zoo, and the Watertown Farmers

Market to provide a variety of services. In school district buildings, families have access

to the nurse and other support staff.

 Port Chester-Rye partners with Head Start. Through this partnership families are

assigned a Family Support Advocate who assists the families with services. The district

partnered with Open Door Medical Services to provide additional services to families.

 Yonkers has Family welcome centers located in ten of the district buildings that serve

prekindergarten students. These centers are equipped with computers, literacy materials,

and staffed with an individual that can offer families assistance. Yonkers is also part of

the Yonkers Promise.

 NYC has social workers that are available to community based partners in providing

support services to families. Social workers are available in each of the NYCDOE field
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offices.

Challenges and Lessons Learned

Early Childhood Workforce in New York State

According to the Early Childhood Workforce Index 2016 from the Center for the Study of Child Care

Employment from the University of California, Berkley, there are 1,408,752 NYS children ages birth

through five years, and of those, 65% live in households where all available family members are

currently working. It is estimated that in NYS, there are more than 77,920 members of the early

childhood teaching workforce, including prekindergarten teachers.

In ranking median hourly wages across occupations, the median wage for a NYS prekindergarten

teacher is $14.95 per hour. About 59% of childcare workers' families participate in one or more public

income support program with a cost of $192.1 million. Although PDG requires districts to ensure that

teachers in partnering CBO's have a comparable salary to public school teachers, districts still struggle

with this requirement. Moreover, other NYS grant funded prekindergarten programs are not adequately

funded to support comparable salaries for teachers working in CBO partnerships with public school

districts. Each district works closely with their partner CBO's to maximize funds to support teacher

salaries.

The National Association of State School Boards of Education awarded NYS a stipend to develop work

plan for 2016-2018 which would assist in the development of a unified competency-based early

education preparation program. Working in collaboration, the ECAC and NYSED will work to increase

the knowledge and competencies of the early care and education work force. Activities of the 

work plan include evaluating and recommending changes to the current coursework required for NYS

Birth-Grade Two teacher certification, preparing the workforce to work with at risk families, and

establishing recruitment and retention strategies in NYS necessary to implement a high quality early

learning system.

Representatives from NYS (including a NYSED OEL staff member) along with representatives from

Arizona, Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Utah, and Washington participated in the National Governors

Association's Cross State Convening: Leveraging Workforce Investment Strategies to Improve the

Early Care and Education Workforce forum held on January 25-27, 2017 in National Harbor,

Maryland. During this session, state representatives discussed state plans to address the challenges in

the early care workforce. NYS set goals which included opportunities to improve the work force,

coordination of resources and opportunities across agencies within the state, exploration of new

opportunities such as AmeriCorp or unions of workers, and existing training opportunities.

P-3 Continuum Plan of Work

One of the identified areas of need in reviewing our completed NYS Quality Assurance Protocol, the

tool used to monitor prekindergarten programs in NYS, is providing instructional alignment with the

P-3 continuum. To address this need, Watertown, Port Chester-Rye, and Uniondale were selected to

pilot a project for creating a district specific plan for P-3 continuum work at the district level beginning

in May 2017. Districts will establish a team which may include: building principal(s), a

prekindergarten administrator, teacher representatives from grades P-2, and applicable curriculum

specialists.

District teams will set short and long term goals to address issues on the following topics that center on

the continuum: joint professional development; faculty meeting mixed grouping; family engagement;

transitions between each grade; learning environments; developmentally appropriate instruction; and

assessment. Each group will be assigned a mentor from NYSED OEL to assist the group in designing

their plan. Additionally, the mentor will check in with the district on an on-going basis to provide
support as activities in the plan are carried out.

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U.S. Department of Education

PDG Annual Performance Report

Grant Status Form 

Explanation of Progress (524B Section A)

Based on ED 524B OMB No. 1894-0003 Exp. 06/30/2017

Grantee State: NY PR/Award #: s419B150021

Section A: Performance Objectives Information and Related Performance Measures Data

(narrative)

1. Project Objective

1(a) GPRA Performance Measure: The number and percentage of Eligible Children served in

High-Quality Preschool Programs funded by the grant. Describe the State's progress in meeting

this Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) measure based on enrollment of Eligible

Children in High-Quality Preschool Programs funded by the grant as of December 1, 2016.

Please describe, as required in Program Requirement (k)(2) in the Notice Inviting Applicants (NIA),

how the State established policies and procedures that ensure that the percentage of Eligible Children

with disabilities served by the High-Quality Preschool Programs is not less than either the percentage

of four-year-old children served statewide through part B, section 619 of IDEA (20 U.S.C. 1400 et

seq.), or the current national average, whichever is greater.

Note: The current national percentage of four year-old-children receiving services through part B, section 619 of

IDEA is 6.4%. Source: 2012 IDEA Part B Child Count (www.ideadata.org). States should include detailed

information on ALL structural elements.

New York State Commissioner's Regulations Subpart 151-4(f) requires that children with disabilities be

integrated into prekindergarten programs and that the environment and learning activities of the

prekindergarten program shall be designed to promote and increase inclusion and integration of preschool

children with disabilities. As such, each school district sub grantee is required to comply with Commissioner's

Regulations and each prekindergarten program is required to make appropriate efforts to include children with

disabilities in each prekindergarten program. Currently, 200(8.6%) students with disabilities are served with

grant funds.

New York has a long history of providing preschool services. In recent years, preschool services have expanded

including new programs that will allocate funding to high needs three year olds. During the second year of the

Federal Grant three sub grantee communities were able to expand services to students. In each of these

communities, sub grantee districts developed new partnerships with community based organizations. Summer

institute trainings and professional development were provided to all of the sub grantee districts to ensure high

quality preschool programing.

As of December 1, 2016, 2,350 eligible children (63,658) were served in high-quality preschool programs

funded by the grant. This is 3.4% of all Eligible children throughout the five sub grantee districts.
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Describe the State's progress in increasing the number and percentage of Eligible Children served in

High-Quality Preschool Programs funded by the grant.

1(b) GPRA Performance Measure: The number and percentage of children served overall in the

State Preschool Program. Please describe any increases or decreases in this GPRA measure

based on fall enrollment in the State Preschool Program for the 2016-17 school year.

During the 2015-16 school year, New York State served 118,560 four year old students and 1,509 three year old

students in state and federally funded prekindergarten programs, with an overall budget of $806M. For

2016-17, the State allocated an additional $10.6M to serve 1,530 more three year olds. Therefore, it is

anticipated that New York State will serve over 121,500 three and four year old children in prekindergarten

during the 2016-2017 school year.

During the 2016-2017 school year three communities funded by the federal grant expanded their program to

increase the number of eligible students served. Some of the communities will continue to expand for the

2017-2018 school year. Additionally, communities are planning to expand capacity by collaborating with

Community Based Organizations to fund high-quality preschool.
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1(c) GPRA Performance Measure: The number and percentage of children in the High-Need

Communities served by the grant that are ready for kindergarten as determined by the State's

Kindergarten Entry Assessment or, if the State does not yet have a Kindergarten Entry Assessment,

other valid and reliable means of determining school readiness.

In the Year 2 APR, grantees will provide disaggregated data on the school readiness of the children served

by the grant. This may include information collected about the children served by the grant at the end of their

2015-16 preschool year or in their 2016-17 kindergarten year. States may provide data from a sample of

children (e.g., a sample being used for any evaluation).

In the Year 2 APR, grantees must describe their progress towards identifying the measures, methods,

and data on the school readiness of children served by the Preschool Development Grant. In the

narrative below provide the following information:

• The name of the assessment tool(s) and the Essential Domains of School Readiness

measured;

• When the assessment tool(s) is/are given (e.g., in preschool and/or kindergarten);

• Whether the assessment is mandated by the State, and for which children;

• How long the State has been using the assessment tool(s);

• Whether the assessment tool(s) is/are implemented throughout the High-Need Community

and/or Statewide;

• Whether the State provides or will provide training for local staff administering the assessment.

If so, describe the requirements including processes to ensure continued reliability in the

administration of the measure;

• If school readiness data is reported to the State, describe when and how data are reported.

Also, please describe, if applicable:

• The State's definition of "school readiness;"

• Disaggregated information about children's school readiness on individual domains or

subsets of the measure;

• School readiness data for children disaggregated by subgroup (e.g., students who are

American Indian or Alaskan Native; Asian, not Pacific Islander; Native Hawaiian/other

Pacific Islander; Black or African American; Hispanic/Latino; White, not Hispanic; two or

more races; with disabilities; English learners; and from any other subgroups the state

determines appropriate; and

• How the State will continue to make progress in meeting this GPRA measure.

Assessments and Instruments

Early Development Instrument (EDI)

Port Chester-Rye, Uniondale, and Watertown are utilizing the EDI tool in their respective communities.

The EDI serves as a population based measure for interpreting outcomes for groups of children and is

completed by kindergarten teachers after several months of observation. The districts are currently

collecting information on students enrolled in kindergarten therefore; data will include students in the

PDG grant for school year 2015-2016.

The EDI assess children's school readiness across the domains of physical health and well-being; social

competence; emotional maturity; language and cognitive development; and communication skills and

general knowledge. Results from the EDI allow communities to mobilize and make plans to improve

children's outcomes. The EDI data included 63 teachers completing assessment information on 1,116 

students.
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Training and Test Quality

Collecting the EDI surveys requires collaboration between parents, teachers, administrators, clerical

staff, IT staff, and the evaluation team. In order to gather these groups and organize the data collection,

a number of in-person meetings were held at each of the participating districts. The time-line below

illustrates the schedule of meetings and tasks conducted in 2016

Initial Tasks

Introduction to the EDI - Federal Grantee Meeting - All Participating Districts-May 4

Meeting with the Administrative Team:

Port Chester-Rye - August 30; Uniondale- August 31; Watertown-August 24

Training on school readiness for teachers:

Port Chester-Rye -This group has collected in the past

Uniondale- November 9

Watertown-September 20

Meetings with data personnel (working from student databases):

Port Chester-Rye- September 27; Uniondale- November 9; Watertown-September 2

In addition to in-person meetings, conference calls were held and memorandum were distributed to

organize various elements of the collection, such as: the parent opt-out process, creating a dataset, and

disseminating support materials for teachers. In collaboration with the Offord Centre, the creator of the

EDI, complete datasets were submitted at the end of December for review.

Data and Usage

The EDI is a rating survey of 104 questions that Kindergarten teachers complete on each of their

students in the spring of the Kindergarten year that measures school readiness before Grade One. Scores

on the EDI enable comparisons between population groups and differing conditions such as 

whether or not a child attended Pre-Kindergarten. Since the actual EDI survey is completed by

Kindergarten teachers on the entire Kindergarten cohort of any community, it is possible to explore any

impact associated with attendance in a Pre-Kindergarten program.

Implementation of the EDI offers a rare opportunity to look at early childhood programming in a

community. There may be specific variables that a school may want to introduce to the EDI data

collection to analyze later. Additional variables may include scores on an early assessment,

participation on a specific program, etc. The Principle Investigator (PI) can work with a school to

include additional variables for analysis. This step may prove to be an incentive for school districts to

participate in implementing the EDI.

All the activities leading up to data collection are included in this category. These activities include:

• Organizing the parent opt-out and teacher consent processes;

• Working with the IT personnel at a school district to gather student data linked to the EDI

survey;

• Collaborating with the School Representative to understand any additional variables collected

and what they may mean in an analysis;
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• Ensuring that an accurate, useful student dataset is created to link to the EDI surveys;

• Interfacing with the Offord Centre where the licensing for the EDI originates;

• Supporting a reliable, valid collection of EDI surveys.

Plans for Reporting

The EDI surveys were completed in February 2017. The data was processed by the Offord Centre.

They returned a de-identified EXCEL spreadsheet that includes scores across developmental domains

and percentile rankings, all linked to the original socio-economic characteristics and other variables.

The consultant working on this project is preparing reports that will be available to districts in June of

2017.

At this point the PI conducts statistical analyses to explore associations between any of the following:

• Student characteristics and scores on each of the domains;

• Participation in Pre-Kindergarten programs and scores on each of the domains;

• Associations between scores on the domains and other variables identified by the school district.

Since this analysis is largely exploratory, it will be unique for each community. It is strength of the

EDI that enables analyses that are both unique to the conditions or circumstances of a community, but

still relate back to a norm-referenced framework of school readiness. While the EDI is designed to

galvanize communities to make improvements on behalf of their young children, it is possible to

assume a strengths-based approach that identifies the areas where children are faring well and

demonstrating strengths. The PI will explore associations in each collection from a strengths-based

perspective. .

In reporting findings on the EDI collection, it is most effective to present them in reference to what is

important and meaningful to a community. Statistical jargon is likely to be off-putting, so it is

important to frame findings in everyday language with logical connections to real conditions or

situations in the community. At this stage of the EDI implementation, the PI will produce a written

report of all findings and their implications in a manner that will be accessible to all stakeholders in the

process. Community maps will be produced separately but linked to the report of findings.

A report of the findings will also be presented to the schools and community in person. This step

allows for greater understanding, questioning, and exchange of ideas that ultimately promotes action

within the community. A full day will be set aside for presenting findings at each community where

the EDI will be implemented.

Common Metric

Four PDG districts are participating in the Common Metric Project. Through a subcontract with

CUNY, NYU has designed the Common Metric, a system that unites the data from authentic

assessment tools which will enable agencies and policy makers to analyze data across geographic and

programmatic parameters.

The districts have identified the tools as follows:

• Yonkers - the Work Sampling System

• Uniondale- the Work Sampling System

• Port Chester-Rye:-Teaching Strategies GOLD

• Watertown- Teaching Strategies GOLD
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The primary goal of the Common Metric Project is to improve the skills that teachers have to assess the

children in their classrooms so they can make effective decisions about curriculum design and

implementation, while making it possible to compare findings across these most commonly used online

preschool authentic assessment tools.

After completing the cycle of assessment, data from districts is de-identified and transferred to NYU 

for analysis. Connecting these tools will enable stakeholders, preschool educators and directors, as well

as local and state agencies, to strategically inform curriculum and instruction, and will serve to inform

the professional development of educators.

Training and Test Quality

During the 2016 Summer Training Institutes, teams of trainers from the NYU Steinhardt Child &

Family Policy Center provided trainings to district and CBO teachers and administrators as outlined in

the charts that follow. Yonkers City Schools had an additional session in the fall of 2016 for teachers

and administrators.

Watertown

 Communicating Data With Families 8/23- 9 Participants

 Overview of Authentic Assessment for New Teachers 8/23- 15 Participants

 Teaching Strategies GOLD Training for New Teachers 8/23-16 Participants

Yonkers

 Overview of Authentic Assessment for New Teachers 8/29-23 Participants

 Introduction to Work Sampling 9/1- 29 Participants

 Strengthening Work Sample Skills 10/25 - 29 Participants

Uniondale

 Overview of Authentic Assessment for New Teachers 8/30 - 26 Participants

 Communicating Data With Families 8/30-24 Participants

Port Chester-Rye

 Communicating Data With Families 8/30- 11 Participants

 Overview of Authentic Assessment for New Teachers 8/30- 24 Participants

 Teaching Strategies GOLD Training for New Teachers 8/31-15 Part

Data and Usage

Authentic assessment is used to monitor students' progress across the Pre-K year in a variety of

developmental domains. Pre-K teachers use one authentic assessment tool (i.e., Teaching Strategies

GOLD, Work Sampling System, or COR Advantage) to observe their students, collect evidence on

their skills, and rate the students' performance three times a year on a developmental checklist. As part

of the data quality assurance project, NYU collected authentic assessment data from 4 PDG districts.

Authentic Assessment Hotline specialists created instructions detailing how to download the raw data

from programs' respective authentic assessment tools, and how to de-identify the data. Programs then

shared the data between July 2016 and September 2016. Ultimately, NYU analyzed demographic
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information and ratings assigned to each Pre-K student for the fall, winter, and spring checkpoints for

the 2015-2016 school year.

NYU performed a data quality check by assessing and analyzing the ratings supplied to them by the

programs. The definition of “good quality” ratings should be: (1) have high variability, (2) be

consistent with developmental guidelines, (3) increase over time, (4) accurately represent skills for a

particular developmental period, and (5) have minimal missing data.

High variability is ideal in a Pre-K classroom, as low variability would indicate that many students

have received the same ratings and for multiple items. This would not reflect the wide array of skills

seen in a Pre-K class. Additionally, good quality ratings should be generally consistent with the

developmental guidelines (unless the students are genuinely all over- or under-performing), and the

ratings should increase throughout the year as students build on their skills.

According to developmental research, older children in the class should receive higher scores than their

younger peers. Lastly, good quality data should not have a large percentage of missing ratings.

First, NYU assessed the scores for variability by examining the ranges and standard deviations (SDs)

for each item in each program. Then, staff also looked at the means and medians of each item to

ascertain whether they were consistent with the developmental guidelines, as well as to see if they

increased from the first to the last checkpoint of the year.

Next, NYU calculated the mean differences in the ratings given to older and younger children. Finally,

NYU found the percentages of missing data and ran analyses using data from the Port Chester-Rye,

Watertown PK, Watertown Family YMCA, Watertown Benchmark Family Services, and Uniondale.

The Port Chester-Rye, Watertown PK, and Watertown Family YMCA programs use Teaching

Strategies GOLD (TSG), and the Watertown Benchmark and Uniondale programs use Work Sampling

System (WSS). Findings were described for both groups to programs. Basic demographics were

provided to NYU, including information given regarding the total number of students, race, ethnicity,

gender, primary language, and IEP (special education status).

Plans for Year 3 Reporting

NYU faced challenges that impeded work across all program-sites, and have developed

recommendations to effectively implement authentic assessment:

(1) Host informational session with leaders to increase their engagement in the authentic assessment

process;

(2) Continue teacher-level sessions at the Summer Institute;

(3) In addition to an administrator-level training, include leaders in teacher-level sessions at the

Summer Institute because both and teachers and leaders should be familiar with the purpose, value,

and features of the tools;

(4) Check-in with site leaders on a monthly basis to discuss progress and coordinate coaching calls;

(5) Regularly and consistently collaborate with Quality Stars representatives who we understand

have more regular in-person interaction with educators and leaders; this collaboration with Quality

Stars representatives is necessary in order to share information, as well as to advertise and increase

engagement in the hot-line; and

(6) Each educator should be required to take part in a minimum of two coaching calls using online

screen sharing software (as necessary) during the project year.
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For Preschool Development Grants - Development Grants States ONLY:

1(d) GPRA Performance Measure: The number of States that collect and analyze data on State

Preschool Program quality, including the structural elements of quality specified in the

definition of High-Quality Preschool Programs.

N/A
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Section A: Part B - Selection Criteria

In this section of the APR, States will report on their progress addressing the Preschool Development Grant's

selection criteria. The State should read the questions carefully and report in the narrative fields directly below the

questions. Please include any data, data notes or formulas to help the readers understand the State's narrative

responses.

1. Ensuring Quality in Preschool Programs (Selection Criteria “C” of the application)

Describe the State's use of funds received over the grant period for State Preschool Program

infrastructure and quality improvements, including the State's efforts to implement a system of

monitoring and support at the State level toward activities such as those described in Section (C)(1)(ak) of the NIA.

Note: States will report amounts and percentage of funds for State Preschool Program infrastructure

and High-Quality Preschool Programs in the Competitive Preference Priority 3 Chart.

Investment in the Structural Elements of Quality

Monitoring Program Quality

Staff assigned to the PDG project in NYS visit classrooms once a year and complete the NYS

Prekindergarten Program Quality Assurance Protocol. This protocol is aligned with NYS Universal

Prekindergarten Regulations. The purpose of the tool is to engage program providers in creating a

high-quality program. The tool looks at indicators of compliance in the areas of facilities; curriculum;

learning environments, materials and supplies family engagement and support; staffing patterns,

teacher education, and experience; physical well-being and health; partnerships with non-profit,

community and educational institutions; program oversight and fiscal management; and screening and

assessment. For further information, see pages 23 and 24.

Early Learning and Development Standards

NYS in response to the provisions of the Every Student Succeed Act has formed work groups to revise

and develop appropriate learning standards that span prekindergarten students through grade twelve.

Representatives from NYSED's OEL participated in content area standard work groups for science,

math, and English language arts.

The P-2 math group met during the summer of 2016 for standards review, where teachers,

administrators, Math Content Advisory Panel representatives, and parents chose to keep, revise, or

remove standards and provide a rationale and impact for all changes. After the review over the

summer, there was a public comment period during the fall of 2016.

The Math Content Advisory Panel met on December 1st and 2nd to review the public comments. The

OEL staff representative worked with the P-2 group on taking into consideration the comments and

ensuring the standards were mathematically sound. They separated examples (which really address

instruction) from the standards. The standards will be reviewed by developmental specialists before

being presented to the NYS Board of Regents.

The OEL team has worked in collaboration with the SED Curriculum office to develop the new NYS

P-12 science standards. The new standards were adopted by the Board of Regents in December 2016.

Members of the OEL team meet with the science curriculum team on a monthly basis to discuss the

states strategic plan for implementation of the new standards.
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The OEL team will work with the Science curriculum team in the coming year to develop guidance and

support for implementing adopted standards. Members of the Science curriculum team are scheduled

to present during the spring leadership meeting for the PDG sub-grantees.

The English Language Arts Standards revision group met during the week of July 11 - 15, 2016, at the

Capital Region BOCES. This group included teachers, administrators, parents and curriculum

specialists from across the State. They worked to revise, remove, simplify and clarify ELA learning

standards for PreK through grade 12. As there was more work to be completed, some members of the

group also met at the beginning of January, to complete the task of revision.

An out-growth of this ELA standards work was the Early Learning Standards Task Force which just

recently met for the first time on February 6 and 7. The Task Force was formed to address the concerns

coming from the P -2 ELA standards revision group. These concerns included the need for more

discussion about developmentally appropriate instruction, and the role of play based learning.

Once content area standards are formerly approved by the Board of Regents, NYSOEL will begin to

revise the NYS Prekindergarten Foundation for the Common Core to ensure the document is in

alignment with the most up to date set of learning standards.

High Quality Program Standards

Four of the five participating districts are working with QSNY which has developed a set of Standards

for each modality of early childhood programs (Centers, Public Schools, Family/Home providers). The

Standards were created to define best practice in early childhood settings and guide programs/providers

in ensuring the quality of children's daily experiences and promoting positive child outcomes.

There are four categories of standards. The categories are: Learning Environment; Family

Engagement; Qualifications & Experience; and Leadership & Management.

Teacher Education

The Early Learning work group of the ECAC has been charged with the following action items which

help support the education, professional development and retention of quality teachers on NYS.

 Promoting the use of the NY's Early Learning Frameworks (Core Body of Knowledge, Early

Learning Guidelines, and the Prekindergarten Foundation for the Common Core) in all settings

serving children birth to age 8 and at all levels of the system (i.e. professional teacher

preparation, professional, development, service, delivery, et.) to ensure high quality.

 Developing a unified competency- based professional development system for the early care

and education workforce.

 Establishing recruitment and retention strategies to ensure NY has the early childhood

workforce necessary to implement a high quality early learning system.

ProfessionalDevelopment

On-going professional development which includes administrators and teachers is an important

component of NYSED's PDG. In 2017 grant funds will be used to support the following activities:

 Leadership meetings for PDG administrators in the spring and fall of 2017. The spring forum

is planned for May of 2017 and will focus on the P-3 continuum and standards update. Guest

speakers from CEELO will support this meeting. The fall meeting has not been planned.

 Printing of the special education developmentally appropriate practices brief that is currently

being reviewed by the NYS Office of Preschool Special Education. The anticipated release date
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for this brief is the summer of 2017.

 Continued training for participating districts in the Pyramid Model (Port Chester-Rye,

Uniondale,Watertown).

 QSNY expanded work in districts as follows: Port Chester-Rye in an expansion site,in

Watertown with new CBO partners, and in additional Yonkers buildings.

 Funds to support QSNY,to raise program quality, in participating districts and district CBO

partners.

 Opportunities for districts to use their grant funds to send participants to professional

conferences such as the annual New York State Association for the Education of Young

Children Conference and the Long Island Pre-K Initiative professional development sessions.

 Distribution of the Planning for High-Quality Prekindergarten Programs: Building a

Foundation for School Success guide to PDG district administrators and staff.

Engaging Parents in Educational Decisions

NYSED has formed an Early Learning Standards Task Force which includes educators and parents from

across New York State. The Offices of Curriculum and Instruction and Early Learning will work

together to oversee the implementation of the Task Force. Additionally, researchers with expertise in

early learning and child development will be involved in the Task Force to share research and guide the

discussions.

The main goal for the Task Force will be to discuss concerns about how learning standards affect our

earliest learners, specifically students in Prekindergarten through Grade 2. The Task Force will begin

by discussing concerns in English Language Arts/Literacy, but will also include the other New York

State Learning Standard areas in future discussions.

To address ongoing concerns with New York State's early learners, the Task Force will focus on, but

not be limited to, the following questions:

• What is developmentally appropriate practice and what does the research show about how students

learn in the early grades?

• Should learning standards in P-2 be grade-specific or structured in a different way (ex: grade-bands or

a continuum) to account for developmental concerns?

• What does the research say about how standards are structured in the early grades?

• Should standards in the early grades include “with guidance and support”?

• Are there too many standards/expectations in the early grades?

• How can play and curiosity/inquiry be included as an approach to learning? Does this guidance

belong in the standards or as supplementary guidance?

• What is the best approach to teach the “whole child,” keeping in mind both the academic and social/

emotional needs?

Helping Families Build Protective Factors

As part of the NYS Pyramid Model roll out, Master Cadre Trainers were trained on the Positive

Solutions for Families modules. The six session series for families provides information on how to

promote children's social and emotional skills, understanding children's challenging behaviors, and

using positive approaches to help children learn appropriate behavior.
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Building State and Community Level Support

Funds from PDG support a Preschool Expansion Grant Coordinator who is employed by CUNY. The

coordinator is responsible for the following grant activities

• Managing and coordinating the support components of the Preschool Expansion Grant, including

developing scope, sequence of deliverables, and ensuring components progress as well as

completion

• Generating and overseeing contracts and other agreements for each grant subcontractor

• Working with sub-grantees in efforts of quality assurance, assessment, and compliance as defined

by the grant

• Executing high-quality reports in a timely fashion for federal government and various state

agencies

• Establishing and maintaining relationships within and outside of project offices and departments

• Supporting the NYS Governor's Early Childhood Advisory Council co-chairs and the steering

committee

• Collaborating with the NYS Office of Early Learning and the Office of College and University

Evaluation to manage the National Association of State Boards of Education Grant

2. Expanding High-Quality Preschool Programs in Each High-Need Community (Selection

Criteria D of application)

Describe the progress the State has made during the reporting year to implement and sustain

voluntary high quality preschool programs for eligible children in two or more High-Need Communities

(Selection Criteria D(4) of the application) that include ALL structural elements listed below that are

included in the definition of High-Quality Preschool Programs. States should include detailed

information on ALL structural elements.

High staff qualifications, including a teacher with a bachelor's degree in early childhood

education or a bachelor's degree in any field with a State-approved alternative pathway, ✔ which may include coursework, clinical practice, and evidence of knowledge of content and

pedagogy relating to early childhood, and teaching assistants with appropriate credentials;

✔ High-quality professional development for all staff;

✔ A child-to-instructional staff ratio of no more than 10 to 1;

✔ A class size of no more than 20 with, at a minimum, one teacher with high staff qualifications;

✔ A Full-Day program;
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Inclusion of children with disabilities to ensure access to and full participation in all

✔

opportunities;

Developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically responsive instruction and evidence-

✔ based curricula, and learning environments that are aligned with the State Early Learning and

Development Standards, for at least the year prior to kindergarten entry;

Individualized accommodations and supports so that all children can access and participate

✔

fully in learning activities;

✔ Instructional staff salaries that are comparable to the salaries of local K-12 instructional staff;

✔ Program evaluation to ensure continuous improvement;

On-site or accessible Comprehensive Services for children and community partnerships that

✔ promote families access to services that support their children's learning and development;

and

✔ Evidence-based health and safety standards.
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Please describe the progress the State has made in establishing High-Quality Preschool Programs

that include ALL structural elements listed above that are evidence-based and nationally recognized

as important for ensuring program quality.

Description of Progress

NYS streamlined in 2016 the process for monitoring districts across all NYS prekindergarten funding

streams by updating the NYS Prekindergarten Program Quality Assurance Protocol. This protocol has

been developed to help ensure comprehensive and consistent monitoring of program quality in

providers of prekindergarten programs pursuant to New York State Education Law Section 3602-e and

3602-ee.

While this document is intended for use by program monitors, it may be used by school districts and

individual entities as a self-assessment tool and to assist in preparing for a smooth monitoring visit. The

purpose of the Quality Assurance Protocol is to engage prekindergarten program providers in creating

and maintaining a high-quality prekindergarten program, and to be used as an ongoing tool by the

Department for technical assistance and support.

The `Indicators of Compliance' column outlines the indicator to be evaluated. The indicators of quality

areas are: Facility Quality; Curriculum; Learning Environment, Materials, and Supplies; Family

Engagement and Support; Staffing Patterns, Teacher Education and Experience; Physical Well-being

and Health; Partnerships with Non-Profit, Community and Educational Institutions (including

transitions in and out of program); Program Oversight and Fiscal Management; and Screening and

Assessment.

The `Supporting Documents' column lists documents that may be used to support successful

implementation of the applicable indicator. At the end of each Quality Standard Section there is a list

of observable practices that indicate quality. These lists, while not totally inclusive, may assist an

observer evaluating a program's quality.

Districts are assigned a program performance score for items indicated in the tool. The definitions for

program performance are as follows.

0: Non-compliant Evidence shows negligible effort in adhering to and meeting compliance

indicators and no effort through observable and documented efforts.

1: Minimal:Evidence shows inconsistent effort in adhering to and meeting compliance indicators and

little effort to be compliant through observable and documented efforts.

2: Acceptable: Evidence shows consistent effort in adhering to and meeting compliance indicators and

some effort to go beyond minimum compliance through observable and documented efforts.

3: Enhanced:Evidence shows strong effort in adhering to and meeting compliance indicators and strong

effort to go beyond acceptable compliance through intentional observable and documented efforts.

4: Excels:Evidence shows outstanding effort in adhering to and meeting compliance indicators and

outstanding effort to go beyond enhanced compliance through intentional observable and documented

efforts.

During the 2016 year, NYS OEL staff provided on-site monitoring and technical assistance visits for

PDG sites as follows:
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(which included assistance at summer institutes which were highlighted in the executive summary)

Monitoring Visit DistrictTechnical Assistance Visit(s)

NYC 12/12 3/22-3/23

Watertown 8/22-8/24,11/30 5/24-5/26, 11/29-11/30

Uniondale 8/30, 8/31, 9/1, 10/5, 11/8 1/20-1/21

Port Chester-Rye 8/30, 8/31, 10/6 1/21-1/22

Yonkers 8/23, 8/29, 9/1, 9/2, 10/7 4/12-4/13

After completing the on-site monitoring visit, districts were provided with a completed NYS

Prekindergarten Program Quality Assurance Protocol which outlined for them promising practices the

district engages in, required corrective actions for program compliance, and recommendations for 

program quality improvement. For any items that require corrective action, an action plan with a

timeline is developed. The NYS Prekindergarten Program Quality Assurance Protocol has been

attached to demonstrate the breath of information that is monitored during an on-site visit.

Based on the monitoring results, NYSED works with collaborative partners to plan professional

development Summer Institutes. For the Summer of 2017 plans are underway to include sessions in

play-based practices vertically aligned with kindergarten in Watertown, techniques in behavioral

support in Yonkers, supporting students with Special Needs in Uniondale, and intentional planning in

Port Chester.

Evidenced Based Health & Safety Standards

NYSED's OEL has developed a health and safety checklist that all school districts use to evaluate

CBO partners annually and then keep these reports on file in their district offices. This measure is to

ensure that children enrolled in NYS funded prekindergarten programs are in environments that meet

rigorous health and safety standards. During visits to districts with CBO partners, OEL staff monitors

districts to ensure they have completed the checklist (see attached New York State Education

Department Office of Early Learning Health & Safety Checklist for Prekindergarten Program)

Selection Criteria (D)(4) from NIA

Describe the number and percent of Eligible Children served and the cost per slot.

The cost for high-quality prekindergarten program for this grant is $10,000 per child per school year.

This amount considers the cost of a certified teacher, a paraprofessional, a curriculum that is aligned

with the New York State Prekindergarten Foundation for the Common Core, professional development,

administrative overhead costs, and other incidental programming requirements. In programs where the
slots are improvement slots the rate is $6,538 per student. There are currently 948 improvement slots

all in the Yonkers Public Schools.

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3. Collaborating with Each Subgrantee and Ensuring Strong Partnerships (Selection Criteria E

of the application)

Describe the extent to which the State has collaborated with each Subgrantee to ensure that each

Subgrantee is effectively implementing High-Quality Preschool Programs (Selection Criteria E

(1-9) of the application) and how the State ensures strong partnerships between each Subgrantee

and LEAs or other Early Learning Providers, as appropriate.

Overview

NYSED continues to provide extensive technical assistance and monitoring of each sub-grantee. Each

sub-grantee has participated in bi-annual leadership meetings and monthly sub-grantee calls. In an

effort to improve program quality, members of the OEL team visited each program at the beginning of

the 2016-17 school year to provide technical assistance. Each sub-grantee has been scheduled for a

review visit during the 2016-17 school year. During these visits members of the NYSED OEL team

reviews the program using the NYS Quality Assurance Protocol (QAP). The results from the QAP

visit are reviewed to determine individual technical assistance visits during the summer institute. In

addition NYSED continues to collaborate with QUALITYstarsNY to provide additional support to

each sub-grantee.

1. Establish roles and responsibilities of the State and Sub-grantee toward implementing the State's

plan;

CUNY/SED:

In collaboration with New York State Education (SED), CUNY's New York Early Childhood

Professional Development Institute (PDI) has hired a staff person who is dedicated to the following: 1.

Manage any and all subcontracts pursuant to the grant funds; 2. Coordinate communication and efforts

with the Early Childhood Advisory Council, PDI, and SED; 3. Assist in the development, organization,

and implementation of the project orientations for each sub-grantee community; 4. In collaboration

with SED, provide assistance to the school district sub-grantees;

NYU:

In working with New York University's Child and Family Policy Center the “New York State UPK

Expansion: Authentic Assessment Professional Development Project” is designed to provide

professional development support related to the Authentic Assessment to educators at the sub-grantee

districts. The project aims to increase overall fidelity of authentic assessment implementation at the

participating sites.

2. Increasing organizational capacity;

Each sub-grantee is slotted to build capacity throughout the life of the grant. NYS has increased

capacity this year by adding additional funds to high-needs districts for 3 -year-olds.

3. Ensuring that each Sub grantee minimizes local administrative costs;

By utilizing the Core Body of Knowledge and having the opportunity to partner with QualityStarsNY,

each sub-grantee is able to minimize local administrative costs. When partnering with QualityStarsNY,

each participating sub-grantee is assigned a quality improvement specialist who aids in professional

development planning and needs.
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4. Monitoring early learning providers;

See section 2 for a thorough review of the monitoring process

5. Coordination of plans related to assessment, data sharing, instructional tools, family engagement,

cross-sector and comprehensive services efforts, professional development, and workforce and

leadership development;

From January 1 - December 30, 2016, New York University was responsible for the following:

ProfessionalDevelopment:

Encompasses the professional development and continued support measures related to authentic

assessment for educators in Uniondale, Yonkers, Port Chester-Rye, and Watertown.

 Align basic implementation plan, improve fidelity, and communicate with families using preexisting materials.

 Participants received continued coaching sessions via phone organized around three checkpoint

dates.

 The Authentic Assessment Hotline was available for a minimum of 20 hours per week, was

advertised for, and utilized by educators for questions pertaining to using the assessment tools.

 Four Summer Institutes took place during the summer which included break-out group work to

energize educators and to communicate the importance of the authentic assessment as part of 

teaching and learning.

 Participants attending a one, full-day on-site session which focused on the schools' chosen

authentic assessment tool to reinforce strategies for collecting observations/documentation,

writing anecdotes, scoring anecdotes, finalizing checklists, interpreting reports, and navigating

the on-line tool.

Data Quality Check:

 NYU guided affiliated programs and schools on how to transfer de-identified data to NYU.

 NYU cleaned the data for statistical analysis for data quality.

 NYU was to produce a meaningful report that can be shared with the affiliated programs and

schools to gain insight into the quality of the data produced.

6. Coordination and delivery of High-Quality Preschool programs with state funded programs;

New York state has a substantial investment in High Quality Prekindergarten programs. Currently

three of the five sub-grantees coordinate with state funded prekindergarten programs. In addition two

sub grantees coordinate services with Head Start funds.

7. Integration of High-Quality Preschool Programs;

Currently only two sub grantees are able to provide classrooms serving students from economically

diverse backgrounds. One of the struggles for the sub-grantees that do not have additional state dollars

to support full day programing for students who do not meet the income guidelines for the PDG
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program is to support economically diverse classrooms.

4. Alignment Within a Birth Through Third Grade Continuum (Section F of the application)

Describe progress the State has made for alignment within a birth through third grade continuum in

activities for birth through age five programs ((F)(1)(a-b) in the NIA) and kindergarten through third

grade ((F)(2)(a-d) in the NIA).

The Early Childhood Advisory council (ECAC) continues to serve as the hub for collaboration

between a wide range of public agencies and private organizations that are invested in child and family

development and well-being.

State-wide forums and bi-annual grantee meetings continue to provide professional development of the

Prekindergarten to grade three continuum. NYSED OEL has begun to develop its P-3 strategic plan to

be implemented with sub-grantees during the spring of 2017. The goals of the plan include, alignment

with a clear path to embrace P-3 work, connection of systems to include federal sub-grantee sites, and

collaboration (all levels of leadership; state, local, political, funding) to develop P-3 plan.

The state plan includes the development of an initial cohort group of federal sub-grantees to:

1. Select a district based team that will develop a P-3 plan with long and short term goals to

address the following:

a. Joint professional development P-3

b. Professional learning groups, faculty meeting mixed grouping

c. Family engagement focus, open houses collaboration with CBO partners

d. Transitions between each grade

e. Learning environments

f. Developmentally appropriate practice / instruction

g. Assessments

h. Teaching quality / leadership quality

2. The NYSED OEL team will provide support by:

a. Leadership meetings for cohort group including PDG sub grantees bi-annually.

b. On-site TA visit to set-up team in each community

c. Web resources including;

i. Quality Classroom environments at K-2 levels; clear message of what does

this look like.

ii. Project based learning

iii. Instructionalstrategies

d. Webinars

i. Leadership in early childhood- the principals role

ii. Curriculum alignment

iii. Family engagement

e. Guidance Documents

f. Follow-up with districts

i. Screening and assessment, purpose and how it guides instruction

ii. Curriculum alignment and instruction

iii. Social emotional components and classroom environment

g. CommunityPartnerships

i. Look at EDI reports for PDG
I I

ED 5248 Page 30 of 32
ED 524B Page 31 of 32

Section A: Part C - Competitive Preference Priorities

Competitive Preference Priority 1: Contributing Matching Funds (if included in the State's

approved application.

Describe the progress the State has made on its credible plan for obtaining and using non-Federal

matching funds to support the implementation of its ambitious and achievable plan during the grant

period. For progress not made in this area, please describe the State's strategies to ensure that

measurable progress will be made by the end of the grant period. Please describe any changes made

to the data reported in Table 7(a); explain if your Year 2 Target differs from the Year 2 Actual.

Competitive Preference Priority 2: Supporting the Continuum of Early Learning and

Development (if included in the State's approved application).

Describe progress made in creating a more seamless progression of supports and interventions from

birth through third grade, such as high-quality infant and toddler care, home visitation, full-day

kindergarten, and before and after care services for, at a minimum, a defined cohort of eligible children

and their families within each high need community served by each Subgrantee. For progress not

made in these areas, please describe the State's strategies to ensure that measurable progress will be

made by the end of the grant period.

Competitive Preference Priority 3: Creating New High Quality State Preschool Slots (if included

in the State's approved application).

Describe progress made in using at least 50% of the State's federal grant award to create new State

Preschool Program slots that will increase the overall number of new slots in State Preschool

Programs that meet the definition of High-Quality Preschool Programs. For progress not made in this

area, please describe the State's strategies to ensure that measurable progress will be made by the

end of the grant period.

N/A

N/A

N/A
ED 524B Page 32 of 32

Section B: Budget Information

Budget and Sustainability (Section G in the application)

1. Please provide a brief explanation of any discrepancies between the State's approved budget and

its total expenditures for the reporting year. Explain carry-over funds that have not been expended or

obligated from January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016.

2. Please describe any substantive changes that you anticipate to the State's Preschool Development

Grant budget in the upcoming fiscal year (January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017).

3. Describe the State's progress on its plan for sustainability at the end of the grant period to ensure

that the number and percentage of Eligible Children with access to High-Quality Preschool Programs

in the State will be maintained or expanded, including to additional High-Need Communities.

4. Please provide a brief explanation of any discrepancies, if any, between the Subrecipients'

approved budgets and their total expenditures for the reporting year. Explain carry-over funds that

have not been expended or obligated from January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016.

The actual number of children served in a few districts was less that anticipated for program year 2016-2017. All

funds from FY 2016 have been obligated and final payments are in process.

New York State remains committed to implementing truly universal prekindergarten. Recent enacted

budgets have resulted in total preschool appropriation of over $800M. It is anticipated that at the end

of this grant, the federal program will be absorbed into the State's preschool program infrastructure, to

be continues in each school district's preschool allocation.

There are no anticipated changes at this time.

The actual number of children served in a few districts was less than anticipated for program year 2016-2017.

All appropriate funds for FY 2016 funds have been obligated and final payments are in process. NYSED is

working to re-allocate slots that are not being filled in some sub-grantee school districts to another sub-grantee.

NYSED is also considering partnering with an additional school district in the 2017-2018 school year.