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Update: Pennsylvania's CCDGB Draft Plan
The public comment period for Pennsylvania's draft plan for implementing the new requirements for the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) ended January 8, 2016. Over 670 comments were received with the majority of comments focused on improving equal access for children receiving funding by increasing payment rates for providers serving those children. Other comments included:
- Establishing friendly policies for payment practices, such as number of child absences permitted per year;
- Establishing friendly policies for eligibility such as higher income ceilings to participate in the program;
- Allowing merit awards to be spent on core operating expenses;
- Mandating participation in quality to receive subsidy.
OCDEL used your public comments to inform our state plan that will be submitted to the Federal Office of Child Care in March. We will continue to use your feedback to make subsequent amendments to our state plan. OCDEL is preparing its response to your comments and will be sharing those with the public within the next few weeks.
OCDEL remains on target to submit the plan to the Federal Office of Child Care by the deadline.
Apply now to participate with the Kindergarten Entry Inventory - Cohort 3
Deadline May 30, 2016
Applications are open now for elementary schools that wish to implement Pennsylvania's Kindergarten Entry Inventory on a voluntary basis beginning in the 2016-2017 school year. The Kindergarten Entry Inventory is available to all school districts at no cost.
Pennsylvania's Kindergarten Entry Inventory (KEI) is a reliable reporting tool that offers teachers an instructional strategy for understanding and tracking a student's proficiency at kindergarten entry. The tool collects information on a consistent set of standards-based indicators across the commonwealth. The KEI is based on Pennsylvania's Learning Standards for Early Childhood and the Pennsylvania Core Standards. KEI includes 30 indicators and provides a comprehensive profile that includes the domains of: Social and Emotional Development; English Language Arts; Mathematics; Approaches to Learning; and Health, Wellness and Physical Development. KEI is intended to be used by kindergarten teachers to record a student's demonstration of skills within the first 45 calendar days of the kindergarten year. It is a snapshot of skills upon entry into kindergarten. Skills levels will be determined by multiple sources of evidence. For more information about the Kindergarten Entry Inventory, please click here. All focus and priority schools are required to implement the Kindergarten Entry Inventory as part of their school improvement efforts. Intermediate unit curriculum coordinators and academic recovery liaisons (priority schools) are ready to assist in the KEI implementation process.
In order to implement the Kindergarten Entry Inventory, a Kindergarten Entry Inventory Point of Contact (KEI-POC) is required. The KEI-POC will act as the liaison between local education agency (LEA) administrative staff, implementing kindergarten teachers, and OCDEL and data systems staff. Having a dedicated KEI-POC will ensure that effective communication and implementation occurs throughout the KEI process. Please send the KEI-POC name, email address and phone number to RA-PWOCDELKEI@pa.gov by May 30, 2016. Receipt of this information will initiate participation in Cohort 3: 2016 Kindergarten Entry Inventory. All kindergarten teachers who have not previously participated must complete a required professional development on-line course and obtain a certificate of completion in order to gain access to the web-based data system. Teachers with a proficient user certificate of completion do not need to repeat the professional development protocol. The tentative training schedule is as follows: - March - June: Face-to-face skills and scoring practice professional development available/ dependent on number of teachers and availability of OCDEL staff
- March -September: Required professional development on-line course available. ALL implementing kindergarten teachers without a proficient user certificate of completion MUST complete either face-to-face training or a required professional development on-line course.
- August-September: KEI systems professional development opportunities available
- By the start of school: Implementing kindergarten teachers must have a required professional development on-line course certificate of completion on file in order to gain systems access
- 45 calendar days from start of school: Observation and evidence collection/scoring completed
- 60 calendar days from start of school: Data submissions (student outcomes) finalized within data system
Questions about this communication may be sent to RA-PWOCDELKEI@pa.gov.
Keystone STARS Think Tank
OCDEL has launched a significant process to re-vision Pennsylvania's quality rating system, Keystone STARS. Thank you to the more than 500 people who signed up to join the process. Participants for the first opportunity, the STARS Think Tank, were chosen in early February by an
OCDEL selection team based on a rigorous criteria intended to reflect Pennsylvania's geographic, racial, gender, and professional diversity. Please click here to see a breakdown of Think Tank invitees. The goal of re-visioning is to develop a system that better reflects what is meaningful and powerful for a child in a high-quality early learning classroom. The Think Tank is the first of many steps that will allow for stakeholder input. Following the STARS Think Tank, OCDEL will offer two webinars in March to learn about the STARS framework drafted at the Think Tank and provide feedback.
In April, OCDEL will offer more opportunities to have your voice heard and continue the conversation by working directly to host events with the Regional Keys, early learning programs, and individual stakeholders. OCDEL welcomes stakeholder knowledge in this process, and looks forward to successful re-visioning process that achieves what's best for children, families, and early learning professionals. For more information, visit the PA Keys website.
Take the PD Registry Survey
Deadline March 4, 2016
Early learning professionals are invited to participate in a brief survey about the Professional Development (PD) Registry. Your responses to this survey will help OCDEL and the PA Key evaluate
the effectiveness of the site and will help ensure that the information on the website meets your needs. Your participation in the survey is completely voluntary and all responses will be kept confidential. This survey takes approximately 5 minutes to complete and will be available until March 4. Thank you in advance for your participation. Click here to take the survey.
Early Childhood Education Degree Coursework Mini-Grant Opportunity
Deadline March 16
Now available is a second round mini-grant opportunity, made possible by Pennsylvania's Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) award!
A major priority of RTT-ELC is promoting school readiness for children with high needs, with one focused investment area being "A Great Early Childhood Workforce." In support of this, Pennsylvania has developed a mini-grant program to provide institutions of higher education with financial resources to align their Early Childhood Education coursework with the revised Core Knowledge Competencies (CKC).
First round mini grants were issued to 18 higher education institutions to align over 300 early childhood education courses with the Pennsylvania Core Knowledge Competencies for Early Childhood and School-Age Professionals.
All accredited Pennsylvania colleges and universities that offer Early Childhood Education or Child Development degrees, certificates, and/or diplomas are invited to submit an application for this competitive grant opportunity. Awards will be in the range of $7,500 - $15,000, with a total of approximately $72,000 awarded this year. Subsequent mini-grant rounds will occur in 2017. Application deadline is March 16.
Click for the Cover Letter and the Request for Application. We hope that you will consider participating! Application questions due: 5:00 PM on February 24, 2016; submit questions to highereducation@berksiu.org.
What Parents and Providers Need to Know about Zika Virus
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