Building a Birth-to-College Model: Professional Learning Communities

The newest in a planned series of case studies on building a birth-to-college model of education released by the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute (UEI) and the Ounce of Prevention Fund this case study outlines how to create professional learning communities (PLCs) of teachers, administrators and family support staff spanning the early childhood to K-12 spectrum. The intent of the PLCs is to create environments where practitioners take the lead in collaboratively studying and piloting effective, developmentally informed practices that prepare children for college, beginning at birth.This teaching case study is intended to illustrate the evolutionary process of PLC development by UEI and the Ounce and inform the work of others interested in building similar birth-to-college systems to benefit children and families. It is based on interviews of 25 participants in the Birth-to-College Partnership, observations of PLC and other Birth to-College Partnership meetings over the six-month period between January 2012 and June 2012, and a review of Birth-to-College meeting notes and other documents dating back to June 2010

Working Together to Build a Birth-to-College Approach to Public Education

In 2009, the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute (UEI) and the Ounce of Prevention Fund (the Ounce) embarked on an effort to form a partnership whose vision is to "...build a model of public education for children and their families that begins at birth and creates success in school, and life." UEI designed and operates four public charter school campuses offering families a pathway to college for their children that begins with prekindergarten (preK) and continues through high school. The Ounce created and operates the Educare School, which prepares at risk children from birth to age five for success in school. The partnership will initially demonstrate what it means when children begin their education early with Educare, enter UEI's charter campuses for elementary, middle and high school, advance to college, and persist to graduation. Ultimately, the partnership plans to harness and share the academic expertise and real-world experience of members of both organizations. The goal is to collaboratively and continuously align and create instructional practices, and academic and social supports, to demonstrate a new model of public education that seamlessly and successfully prepares children for college, beginning at birth. In the United States, early childhood education (ECE) is not publicly mandated. All children in the U.S. receive public schooling that generally begins with kindergarten. As a result, many children do not have access to sufficient learning opportunities early in life, and may start kindergarten at a disadvantage. Given that K-12 attempts at closing the achievement gap are costly and generally ineffective, calls are being made to prevent the achievement gap from ever occurring. This requires intervention at a very young age, since differences in achievement based on income level can be seen as young as nine months and become larger by kindergarten. Even children who have been exposed to high quality ECE can experience a "fade" of those benefits upon entering K-12, depending on the quality of elementary school. For many children, the achievement gap begins to widen once again. In the city of Chicago, high school graduation rates hover around 50 percent. Of those students who graduate, only 35 percent go on to attend four-year colleges and universities. The numbers grow even smaller for children who are African American, Latino, or low-income. The achievement gap that opens in early childhood tends to widen throughout K-12, and many children who start with a disadvantage at kindergarten never graduate from high school. If they do, they are unlikely to attend and graduate from college. Higher education levels are related to higher incomes, lower levels of unemployment, and other positive outcomes. In order to be competitive in a world where a college degree is increasingly important, the United States must ensure that children graduate high school and are prepared to graduate from college. Preventing an achievement gap and ensuring that the fade of benefits from high-quality ECE does not occur in elementary school, while at the same time raising the bar to "college for all," requires collaboration between the worlds of ECE and K-12. In the United States, however, there exists a structural divide between the two fields. Despite the fact that they share similar goals for educating children, policies, standards, and funding streams contribute to a "disconnect." The partnership's goals are to effect change in public education by creating a demonstration model of birth-to-grade 12 education that prepares students for success in college and life. In order to accomplish this, the two organizations will work together to share expertise, and align and co-create practices, to ensure the best possible chance for success for students. The partnership first needed to be established, strengthened, and trusted by key players from each organization -- this was not a simple task. UEI and the Ounce began this effort by developing a roadmap that includes a shared vision and mission, core values, and goals and activities of the partnership. We focus here on the formation of the shared vision and mission, a document that represents the goals and aspirations of the partnership between the two organizations. In the service of creating this document, a working group comprised of educators, administrators, researchers, and teacher leaders from each organization was formed. The working group used an iterative process, where they revised, questioned, and adjusted the roadmap during a series of ten three-hour meetings that took place over the course of nine months and were facilitated by a specialist. Working group members' testimonies about their experiences participating in the group are referenced in this study. We will also review iterations of the shared vision and mission as they changed over time

Neuroeducation: Learning, Arts, and the Brain

Excerpts presentations and discussions from a May 2009 conference on the intersection of cognitive neuroscience, the arts, and learning -- the effects of early arts education on other aspects of cognition and implications for policy and practice

Traces of motion: making the learning visible in creative dance education

What is the learning that happens in creative dance in an elementary school setting? Can pedagogical documentation, inspired by the educators of Reggio Emilia, make this learning visible to the various stakeholders in education? This research project investigated the learning for both teachers and students in four elementary school settings in the Province of Ontario, Canada. Four expert dance educators, who were also generalist classroom teachers, were videotaped and photographed while teaching creative dance classes. Afterwards, these teachers were interviewed while watching the video documentation. From these interviews, the researcher's observations, field notes, and photographs, moments of perceived learning were proposed via pedagogical documentation panels. The words and pictures of students and teachers were placed on panels and these were used to provoke further dialogue in the form of one-on-one interviews, small group, or whole class discussions. All of the interviews and specific moments from the video documentation were transcribed and, along with the photographs and students' work samples, comprised a data collection. The data set from each setting was analyzed against itself and against the data from other settings in a constant comparative method. Meanings emerged through an ongoing process of coding and identifying and classifying the data into themes (and subthemes). The findings suggest that in creative dance classes students are learning to develop an awareness of their dancing selves, an intersubjectivity as they engage in collaborative creative processes and discover the interconnectedness of dance as a language of learning. Teachers are learning their unique role as facilitators in creative dance classes and are acquiring an ability to witness thinking bodies. The methodology of pedagogical documentation is able to make the learning visible in creative dance classes because it provokes students and teachers to revisit and reflect on their learning and to confront issues that arose in the creative process. Although creative dance offers a unique form of learning, that is, learning with the body, it must confront the hidden curriculum in education with respect to the body, and overcome its own status as a null curriculum in education

Teacher decision making and the implementation of an integrated arts curriculum

This study examines the impact of teacher decision making upon implementing an integrated arts curriculum. Qualitative research methods, including interviews, lesson plan document analysis, and teacher discussion of student artwork comprise the research data from eight elementary classroom teachers. This study is designed to add to the descriptive data on teacher perceptions, especially with regard to their professional autonomy, and ultimately, the decisions within their sphere of influence---the classroom arts curriculum. The implications of this study reveal insight into teacher decision making. The research provides knowledge that contributes to professional development initiatives, acquisition of instructional and curricular resources, and student achievement. Ultimately, this knowledge will assist policy makers, administrators, the public, and teachers themselves, in understanding the enigma surrounding how and why teachers decide on their students\u27 instructional course. Every stakeholder in the educational community benefits from a deeper understanding of a teacher\u27s role in curricular design and implementation. What commands teachers\u27 attention when making their instructional decisions

Advancing Literacy Through the Arts: Lessons from Settlement House After School Programs

The report opens with brief profiles of the seven arts/literacy projects supported by the E.H.A. Foundation grant. In the second section, the report describes some of the challenges involved in operating these kinds of projects and best practices used to make them as appealing and meaningful as possible to children. That discussion is followed by a section that offers insights from staff and program managers of the seven projects who reflect on how the projects have contributed to the education of children. The report ends with brief conclusions. The report draws on information gathered through site visits to the seven projects, observations made at UNH-sponsored discussion meetings of project managers, and interviews with selected staff and managers

Developing capabilities for social inclusion: engaging diversity through inclusive school communities

The effort to make schools more inclusive, together with the pressure to retain students until the end of secondary school, has greatly increased both the number and educational requirements of students enrolling in their local school. Of critical concern, despite years of research and improvements in policy, pedagogy and educational knowledge, is the enduring categorisation and marginalization of students with diverse abilities. Research has shown that it can be difficult for schools to negotiate away from the pressure to categorise or diagnose such students, particularly those with challenging behaviour. In this paper, we highlight instances where some schools have responded to increasing diversity by developing new cultural practices to engage both staff and students; in some cases, decreasing suspension while improving retention, behaviour and performance

A review of the evidence on the use of ICT in the Early Years Foundation Stage

This report reviewed existing evidence on the potential of technology to support the development of educational policy and practice in the context of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Reference is made to the use of ICT by young children from aged birth to five years and its potential impacts, positive and negative on their cognitive, social, emotional educational, visual and physical development

K-1 Teachers’ Visual Arts Beliefs and Their Role in the Early Childhood Classroom

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and describe the visual arts beliefs and practices of eight K-1 teachers in four schools and in two different school districts in a southern state. Using a phenomenological framework (Creswell, 2007; Leedy & Ormrod, 2005), the research revealed the teachers’ understandings of beliefs and how they applied them to their early childhood classrooms. Data were collected consisting of formal and informal interviews with the eight teachers. Interview data were analyzed using triangulation in phenomenological reflection suggested by van Manen (1990). The analysis yielded three major themes and three sub-themes. The first major theme, development of visual arts beliefs, was supported by the subtheme of academic training. The second major theme, demands of curriculum, was supported by two subthemes of professional development and administrative support. The third major theme, classroom practices, did not yield a subtheme. From analysis of data, descriptions of the teachers’ individual understanding of their visual arts beliefs and practices were generated. Recommendations for future research included the present study to be extended with participants to be in another geographical region. In addition, more research to be conducted of male teachers’ beliefs in K-1 was recommended