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Resources & Opportunities
Looking for resources to build leadership? The Reform Support Network's Great State Leadership: A Competency Framework for Growing Talent in a State Education Agency offers resources to increase the effectiveness of leaders and prepare them for greater leadership responsibility.
Curious about ways to improve educator effectiveness? REL Mid-Atlantic plans eight
webinars to explore recent developments in educator effectiveness and promote productive discussions among expert presenters and educators. The August 27 webinar considers "Engaging Families in Partnership Programs to Promote Student Success," at 3-5 p.m. (ET). Register at this link.
Wondering about legislative actions in the past year throughout the South? The Southern Regional Education Board published its SREB Legislative Report #4 in June 2015. It covers final legislative and budget actions in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
In search of evidenced-based information about social and emotional learning?
Published by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, the 2015 CASEL Guide: Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs (Middle and High School Edition) defines a systematic framework for evaluating the quality of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs and applies the framework to rate well-designed, evidence-based SEL programs.
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Editor: Kimberly Hambrick
Kimberly.Hambrick@icfi.com
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Greetings!
The Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center (ARCC) has much news and many new resources to share with you this month. Happy reading!
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State Boards of Kentucky and West Virginia Meet on June 2
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| | President Gayle C. Manchin |
The state boards of education of Kentucky and West Virginia met together on the evening of June 2 in Frankfort, Kentucky, for a discussion facilitated by ARCC state coordinator Dr. Anthony Marchese. Attendees engaged in an exchange of ideas and suggestions about issues of interest to both state boards, including assessment and accountability, communication, student achievement, standards review and implementation, and interaction with local boards.
Interviewed several days later on West Virginia Morning, West Virginia State Board of Education President Gayle Manchin noted the shared concerns of the two boards: "At the end of the day, state boards are interested in raising student achievement in their state. So we are constantly looking at the policies that we have developed--are they working as they are being implemented through the department of education and then down to the local districts, are we accomplishing what we hoped to accomplish." |
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Explore the Simulated Workplace During This June 25 Webinar
The first in a series of four webinars co-sponsored by the ARCC with the National Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education Consortium will take place on Thursday, June 25 from 2-3 p.m. ET. Please join us to explore how West Virginia's Simulated Workplace is reinventing career technical education by bringing the workplace inside the four walls of a classroom for a student-centered simulated experience. Launched in 2013 as a pilot, the Simulated Workplace is poised for statewide implementation in the 2016-2017 school year. Register for the webinar at this link.
This free webinar will discuss the road to implementation -- from concept to pilot to statewide enactment -- as well as the results and lessons learned along the way. With its demonstrated success and media attention, neighboring states as well as West Virginia's academic classrooms are adopting the Simulated Workplace framework.
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ARCC Chats About State Education Agency Role in School Turnaround
The ARCC, in collaboration with the Center on School Turnaround (CST), recently hosted a series of three online "chats" with contributors to CST's The State Role in School Turnaround: Emerging Best Practices. Each chat focused on a particular area in which state education agencies (SEAs) could support school turnaround efforts: assist local educational agencies to manage relationships with external school improvement providers, develop and maintain talent pipelines, and establish internal SEA structures to coordinate and align school turnaround supports. 
More information about each chat and links to associated slide decks are below.
During chats, participants had an opportunity to talk informally with chapter authors about national trends, promising practices, and progress in their own states.
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Reflections on Conversations with Innovators
The Center on Innovations in Learning (CIL) convened its "Conversations with Innovators" on June 9, 2015 at Temple University in Philadelphia. The meeting brought together regional comprehensive center staff and League of  Innovators members (state education agency staff) to engage in conversation with experts who authored chapters in the upcoming volume Handbook on Personalized Learning for States, Districts, and Schools. Each innovator provided an advance reading and gave a five-minute overview of concepts, with the rest of the time devoted to facilitated, exploratory conversation. Among the themes that emerged: the need for more attention to interpersonal relationships and humaneness in schools; the peril of reducing big issues to narrow policy debates; the possibility that in changing times dialog may need to include, but extend beyond, what is currently known from research.
CIL works with the U.S. Department of Education's regional comprehensive center staff and state education agencies to assist them in making informed choices about the wealth of innovative products and services in the educational field. It focuses on four priority areas: personalized learning, learning technology, learning in and out of school, and innovation for students with disabilities.
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ARCC Advisory Board Meets on June 2
Members of the ARCC Advisory Board convened on June 2 for their annual meeting to advise the ARCC on strategies for serving state education agency (SEA) needs in the region. Representing an array of roles--including SEA staff, district leaders, teachers, parents, community and business representatives, and higher education faculty--the Advisory Board discussed regional education trends, progress, challenges, and possible strategies to overcome challenges. Board members also shared information about their own work, including lessons learned that could be of assistance to ARCC staff.
Notably, the June 2 meeting was the first conducted entirely online. Web conferencing permitted Advisory Board members and ARCC staff to engage in discussion, view information as a group, and participate in online chats, but without the cost and time required for travel onsite.
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Terry Holliday Announces Resignation
After serving as Kentucky's Commissioner of Education since July 2009, Terry Holliday announced his resignation effective August 31. Among the reforms implemented during his
tenure were Senate Bill 1 (2009), mandating new academic standards, aligned assessments, and a balanced accountability system. Other changes include the implementation of the Professional Growth and Effectiveness System for teachers, principals, and superintendents, and a comprehensive system of school and district improvement planning and support. Dr. Holliday served as president of the Council of Chief State School Officers from 2013 to 2014 and currently serves on the Board of Overseers of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program.
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