News from the Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center

Momentum: A Newsletter of the ARCC

January 2016

In This Issue

KDE Delivery Unit

Dropout Prevention in Rural Schools

Redlands eAcademy

SEA Use of Evidence

Resources & Opportunities

Looking for an introduction to the ESSA? The Alliance for Excellent Education offers print/video materials on several key areas. The Fordham Institute offers an archived webinar.

Want to mingle with innovative thinkers and dedicated practitioners? The annual Carnegie Foundation Summit on Improvement in Education, March 22-24, is dedicated to transformation of teaching & learning. Register at this link.

Interested in using data to enhance education for all students? The Pennsylvania Department of Education and REL Mid-Atlantic are co-sponsoring the 2016 PDE Data Summit May 22-25. Visit the registration website.

Seeking information about assessments of early learning, development, and well-being? The Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes has published a policy brief, Measuring Child Outcomes in the Early Years.

Quick Links

Our Website

Request Assistance

Editor: Kimberly Hambrick

Kimberly.Hambrick@icfi.com

Changes
The advent of the "Every Student Succeeds Act" promises SEAs broad new authority to set policy and determine strategies for standards, teacher evaluation, accountability, and much, much more. The ARCC team stands ready to work alongside agency staff to turn these new responsibilities into better outcomes for students across the region.

ICF Insights Profiles KDE Delivery Unit

A new ICF Insights features Karen Dodd and Dale Winkler of the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), interviewed by the ARCC's Tony Marchese about KDE's Delivery Unit and its approach to setting and tracking progress.

Headed by Ms. Dodd, KDE's Chief Performance Officer, the Commissioner's Delivery Unit is tasked with building capacity in project management, robust analysis, and data-driven decision making processes across KDE. Ms. Dodd noted that KDE has implemented three strategic delivery plans: Next Generation Learners Delivery Plan; Next Generation Professionals Delivery Plan; and Next Generation Support Systems Delivery Plan. One impact of the delivery approach is that it has established a new way of working across different offices, breaking down the "siloed" culture typical of many SEAs. The teams emphasize metrics, identifying sources of information and data that will confirm whether their strategies are having real impact on students.

Associate Commissioner Dale Winkler, who leads the college and career readiness and persistence to graduation goals, also talked about the process of working across the agency. He discussed how KDE has sought to graduate more students from Kentucky high schools who are college and/or career ready, and doubled that rate, from 34 percent in 2010 to 64.2 percent in 2014.

Exploring Dropout Prevention in Rural Schools

Caitlin Howley

REL Midwest and its Rural Research Alliance hosted a public television special with WFYI Indianapolis, titled "Making Connections: Dropout Prevention in Rural Schools." Presenters included John Hill, Executive Director, National Rural Education Association; Caitlin Howley, Director, ARCC; and Terry Sargent, Superintendent, Jennings County Schools. Jenny Scala of American Institutes for Research moderated. Participants examined the challenges that rural districts face in supporting students at risk of dropping out of high school. Dr. Howley reviewed recent research concerning promising dropout prevention efforts in rural communities. Dr. Hill considered the challenges that rural districts face--decreasing student enrollment, staff capacity, and limited funding--as well as dropout prevention in rural areas. Dr. Sargent described how his district responded to low graduation rates. The public television special aired October 3, 2015, as part of WFYI's American Graduate Day programming. To view the show, visit this link.

Redlands eAcademy Profiled in Case Report

John Ross

The ARCC's John Ross has authored a case report for the Center for Innovative Learning: Redlands eAcademy : A Blended Learning Success Story. The Redlands USD has avoided some of the common pitfalls of online learning by creating an eAcademy that blends online learning with real time interactions with teachers and other students on a physical student campus. Instead of an entirely online school, the Redlands eAcademy offers an enriched virtual model of blended learning. The district is benefitting by retaining students likely to drop out or go elsewhere. This field report is the sixth in a series, produced by the Center on Innovations in Learning's League of Innovators, which concerns policies and practices that enable personalization in education.

CC Directors Discuss SEA Use of Evidence

The ARCC was featured in the Building State Capacity and Productivity Center's latest SEA of the Future, Building Agency Capacity for Evidence-Based Policymaking. The November 2015 issue features a discussion among the directors of three comprehensive centers, including Caitlin Howley, Director, ARCC, as well as Kathleen Dempsey and Paul Kohler, directors of the North Central Regional Comprehensive Center and West Regional Comprehensive Center, respectively. The conversation considered the value of evidence-building in SEA policy-making, the challenges that SEAs may face in using research to inform their work and their support for districts and schools, and ways that SEAs are addressing these challenges. Howley offered several examples of ARCC assistance around analytical needs. The ARCC team has helped one state plan, administer, and analyze results from a survey to inform the state's decision about which teacher performance assessment to use. The team has helped another state plan, implement, and assess outcomes from a pilot of formative assessment instructional practices, and use the findings to plan for scaling up.