Welcome to the Office of System and School Improvement Newsletter!
April 2021
Equal Opportunity Schools is working to support academic acceleration in schools in Washington. Learn more...
By Sasha Rabkin, Ed.D
Chief Strategy Officer
Equal Opportunity Schools
Over the last 8 years, we’ve earned a reputation as the go-to solution for the desegregation of high school advanced academic pathways, with particular focus on AP and IB courses. Since 2013, we’ve supported schools and districts to add over 50,000 students of color and low-income students to AP and IB courses. This year, we have partnerships with over 400 schools across the country.
Through our partnership, schools and districts receive real-time, actionable data and insights that they use. We support schools to extract themselves from the post-mortem data of the past by transporting them into the bright light of real time insights. Together, we use the data to craft school-specific action plans to aggressively tackle the problem of inequitable access. As we reconstitute a fully functioning school system, our tools are uniquely positioned to humanize students, center racial equity, and provide reliable data and analysis.
Our Action for Equity (A4E) Framework provides three foundational supports to operationalize school and district commitments to equity: Dynamic, real time data analytics to propel equity and excellence; Student identification methodologies to ensure student placement in the most advanced academic pathway possible; Professional learning and coaching structures to build the skill, capacity and possibility of school and district leaders. Continue reading this article here...
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Instructional Partners work shoulder to shoulder with educators to support great teaching and accelerate student learning. They work to ensure equitable access to great instruction for students in poverty, students of color, students learning English, and students with disabilities.
Restorative Approaches to Recovering Lost Learning Time: Expanded and Enriched Learning Time
A School Year Like No Other Demands a New Learning Day: A Blueprint for How Afterschool Programs & Community Partners Can Help (Afterschool Alliance). This blueprint offers building blocks for school–community partnerships to address equity and co-construct the learning day in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Getting to Work on Summer Learning: Recommended Practices for Success, 2nd Ed. (RAND Corporation). Based on thousands of hours of observations, interviews, and surveys, this report provides guidance for district leaders and their partners for launching, improving, and sustaining effective summer learning programs.
Preventing a Lost School Year: The Crucial Importance of Motivating Students & Engaging Families (Stand for Children Leadership Center). This guide identifies essentials for motivating and supporting students and for strong partnerships with families, including advisors for all, staff teaming, and virtual home visits, accompanied by tools and resources.
The Whole Child: Building Systems of Integrated Student Support During and After COVID-19 (Center for Optimized Student Support at Boston College). This action guide offers practical steps for schools to develop a system of integrated support.
Keeping Pace: Strategies for Ensuring Equitable Continuity of Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Six Steps to Helping Students Overcome Learning Loss: Key Takeaways for Returning to the Classroom
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Join us for the April GATE Equity Webinars and hear from Washington's Teacher of the Year, Brooke Brown, and leaders from Puget Sound ESD, Tacoma Public Schools, and Rogers High School on Academic Press and Rigor.
Clock hours available. Click here to register on OSPI's GATE Equity webpage.
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The Department of Health posted their Graduation and Commencement Ceremony guidelines for universities and K–12 education.
The main takeaways are:
- Decisions to host graduation ceremonies remain at the discretion of local school district leaders, as long as they don’t conflict with prohibitions outlined in the Healthy Washington Roadmap to Recovery Plan.
- Ceremonies must follow the guidelines for miscellaneous venues and outdoor spectator events when planning for in-person graduation ceremonies.
- Students who are graduating or moving up do not count towards capacity restrictions.
- K–12 schools should consider multiple, smaller events that do not overlap if capacity requirements are a limiting factor.
Find the official DOH guidance here.
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Providing opportunities for students to define their educational pathways and have input on their coursework is vital in creating a learning environment that promotes high expectations.
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Teacher Talk: Expectations for All
Students live up (or down) to our expectations of them. In this talk blending spoken word and story-telling, James O'Neal tells how one teacher's expectation changed his life, and how that experience now impacts his students today. James teaches math at Piedmont IB Middle School in Charlotte, NC.
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Culturally Responsive Education in the Classroom, Dr. Adeyemi Stembridge is what Sue Anderson, Director of Teaching and Learning at OSPI recommends.
"This exciting book helps educators translate the concept of equity into the context of pedagogy in the K-12 classroom. Providing a practice-oriented framework for understanding what equity entails for both teachers and learners, this book clarifies the theoretical context for equity and shares rich teaching strategies across a range of content areas and age groups."
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All Students Must Thrive, Transforming Schools to Combat Toxic Stressors and Cultivate Critical Wellness Tyrone C. Howard and The Howard Group
Creating a College-Going Culture, Jonli D. Tunstall (Page 106/122)
“Although individuals experiences and home environments influence student achievement, research shoes that school environments play an increasingly vital role in preparedness for college and career attainment. So how do we begin to create a stronger pipeline from kindergarten to twelfth grade, and beyond into higher education? How do we increase the level of access that historically marginalized populations have to institutions of higher learning? How do we create a school-wide college going culture?”
“We have expanded the way we think about “college ready” to accommodate the notation that we want all students to have that option if they so choose. It is really about providing all students with the opportunity and the resources for them to make that decision”.
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Leading Through the Master Schedule from OSPI and Always be Learning
Learn about
- The three most important factors that predict college and career readiness.
- Current ALE initiatives and practices around CCR.
- Ideas and opportunities for improving ALE programs, including identifying key barriers that may block success.
- ALE scenarios that show a range of possibilities for improving ALE schools within existing resources.
Session 3: Exploring Innovative ALE School Designs and Possibilities: Monday, May 24, 2021, 9:00 am-10:30 am
Register Here -Leading Through the Master Schedule registration
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What do we mean when we say “Academic Press”?
Academic Press is grounded in the belief and the related expectation that parents, staff and students are capable and are involved in doing the work.
"Powerless to Powerful – Leadership for School Change", Salina, Girtz and Eppinga
Want to see if the Botvin LifeSkills Middle School Substance Abuse Prevention Curriculum is right for your middle school?
Apply for this grant, Form Package 962 in iGrants, and find out.
Career Preparation: Find an Apprenticeship Program
Do you have seniors looking to prepare for a career in a trade or technical field who aren't interested in going to college? Apprenticeships combine classroom studies with on-the-job training supervised by a trade professional. Much like a college education, it can take a few years to graduate.
But unlike college, starting an apprenticeship is like getting a job. Students must decide on a program they’re interested in, apply for the apprenticeship, interview with the program staff, and be accepted into the program. And best of all, as an apprentice, your students will earn while they learn!
Use these links to learn more about becoming an apprentice and where to find an apprenticeship program in Washington. Check out the King, Tacoma, Snohomish County 2020 Apprenticeship Guidebook for more information about pre-apprenticeship programs, a one-pager contrasting college and apprenticeship costs, and more!
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