Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge: 2014 Annual Performance Report. New Mexico
Author: Department of Education (ED)
Date: 2015-06-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Legislation,Federal Aid,Federal Programs,Federal Legislation,Early Childhood Education,State Programs,Educational Quality,Accountability,Program Evaluation,Program Effectiveness,Child Development,Academic Standards,Health Promotion,Labor Force Development,Outcome Measures,Progress Monitoring,Preschool Teachers,Teacher Competencies,Student Characteristics,Preschool Children,Budgets,Expenditures,Tables (Data)

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2014 describes New Mexico's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies New Mexico will implement to address those challenges. New Mexico implemented a coordinated governance model that places authority and accountability across the three participating agencies--Children, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD), Department of Health (DOH) and Public Education Department (PED). PED is the lead State agency. New Mexico added an Executive Level Team with high level managers from each State agency, in order to make decisions on cross agency issues to move the grant work forward. Given this model, in 2014, the Leadership Team created a Governance Manual which was implemented with the approval of the Executive Team. The Governance Manual provides a structure for all of the RTT-ELC work being done in New Mexico. The Manual identifies the core values, State agencies, Advisory Councils, Stakeholders, decision-making processes, communication processes, reporting systems, and more. In September 2014, an interim Project Manager was brought in to oversee the overall management of the RTTELC grant, including coordination with the Executive Team, Leadership Team, and Project Leads; monitoring expenditures; communications plans, and ensuring timely federal reporting. The Project Manager is also on the Communications Team that plans and implements communications and marketing strategies. The position is housed at PED, the lead agency. At the end of the grant year, the Project Manager position was posted and applications were received to fill it with a dedicated full-time person who can focus their entire work day on RTT-ELC work. This position is expected to be filled in early 2015. In addition, CYFD hired a full-time Project Coordinator to work in partnership with the Project Manager and to coordinate the grant work at CYFD, where a significant portion of the RTT-ELC work is taking place. The Project Coordinator is also on the Communications Team. The Coordinator and Manager work together on organizing meetings, providing meeting summaries and reports, working with Project Leads to gather their Project Summary and GRADS360 reports, and other duties as needed. The Project Coordinator created a calendar schedule that identifies important due dates each month for the Project Leads and Sub-Leads, Project Manager and Coordinator, and the Leadership Team. With the addition of the Manager and Coordinator, regular meetings are occurring and are productive. These meetings include the monthly Executive Team meeting, and within that meeting, the Data Governance Committee meeting; the Leadership Team meeting, held twice a month; and a meeting every other month that includes the Executive and Leadership Teams, Project Leads, Project Manager, and Project Coordinator. New Mexico recognized the need to improve communication and marketing regarding the RTT-ELC work. This includes communications to both internal State staff and external Stakeholders, including: early learning providers, funders, advocates and families. In order to address these communication needs, New Mexico did a national search to develop a communications and marketing plan and in November 2014 contracted with Tracy Zimmerman, Director of Strategic Communications, from the North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation. Work began on the communications and marketing plan in December 2014 with Executive and Leadership Teams participating in a strategic planning session. Once the plan is developed, New Mexico will use the Request for Proposal (RFP) process to hire a contractor to carry it out. The New Mexico RTT-ELC team developed a contract with Desert Element Designs in Santa Fe to develop the EarlylearningNM website. The conceptual design and plan for the site map for the website was conducted over a period of months. Information was included on the overall RTT-ELC grant and progress made as well as specific information and resources on each of the RTT-ELC projects. A decision was made to also include information regarding the work of the Early Learning Advisory Council (ELAC) and information regarding the early learning programs in New Mexico in order for parents to know how to access these services. The RTT-ELC team developed the copy narrative and content (documents, links and photos) and organized it for the web developers. The launch of the website is slated for the end of February 2015. In December 2014, New Mexico attended the Strategic Communications Peer Learning Exchange in Kansas City. The New Mexico attendees were two members of the Leadership Team, the Project Manager, and the Project Coordinator. The purpose was to learn from peers with significant experience and lessons learned; work in small groups with peers who have similar strategic communications interests and goals; and access and contribute to an ELC TA supported virtual strategic communications resource library in real-time. Toward the end of 2014, the Project Coordinator began to collect and organize the bi-monthly Project Summary Reports created by the Project Leads. The Summary Reports were used to create the New Mexico Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge 2014 Progress Report. The 2014 Progress Report is a separate document that was used to help build the 2014 Annual Performance Report. It helps with monitoring, follow up, and any consultation reflective practice. The 2014 Progress Report will be posted to the Early Learning New Mexico website in early 2015 and distributed to Stakeholders. RTT-ELC progress is discussed with the Early Learning Advisory Council (ELAC) quarterly as part of their standing agenda. There is at least one Sub-Committee to address each one of their Priority Goals: accessibility to high quality early childhood programs; improved school readiness (now and at 3rd grade); and a high quality early childhood workforce. The sub-committees of ELAC work with the Race to the Top State Implementation Team and Project Leads in the local implementation of RTT-ELC Projects and Tasks. Several positions were filled on the various projects on an interim basis or permanently. PED hired a Data Project Manager and Data Base Administrator for the Data Project and a Coordinator for the KEA Project. Also, CYFD hired a Project Coordinator and DOH hired a Tiered Quality &amp; Rating &amp; Improvement (TQRIS) Manager. [For &quot;At a Glance: The Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge Year 2014 Progress Report,&quot; see ED583096.]