April/May/June 2016

In this Traffic Report

Thank you for reading the Road Map Traffic Report - these updates build on information shared in previous Traffic Reports. Please visit the Road Map Project website to view earlier issues.

 

The Traffic Report is now issued every quarter to better provide you with helpful and thorough updates from across the Road Map Project. Please email info@ccedresults.org with any feedback.

 

Thank you!

-CCER Team
PROJECT-WIDE UPDATES

Road Map Project Strategic Refresh process
The 2015 Road Map Project Results Report , released in February 2016, highlighted the troubling and well-known reality that the Road Map Project Region is not on-track to achieve the Road Map Project 2020 Goal, and that in too many parts of the education continuum the opportunity gaps for children of color are not narrowing. Leaders of the Project serving on the Community Network Steering Committee and the Project Sponsors Group have been discussing how to make the changes necessary to dramatically improve education results and close opportunity gaps in our region. To support that outcome, CCER has engaged with consultants from the StriveTogether National Network who bring deep experience with using a Results Based Accountability approach to cradle-to-college and career efforts across the country. The StriveTogether team is helping to support a Road Map Strategic Refresh Process.  The goals of this process are to:
  • Increase the focus on racial equity and operationalize that focus throughout the Road Map Project
  • Increase parent and youth voice throughout the Road Map Project
  • Better organize advocacy at the state and local level for greater impact
  • Offer stronger support to key implementers
Information about this process, the planning team engaged in the process and the materials from the planning team meetings can be found on the Strategic Refresh Process page . There will be opportunities for broad engagement and feedback on the process in late summer and early fall. Please contact Lynda Petersen,  lpetersen@ccedresults.org , if you have any questions or would like more information.
 
Road Map Project Formative Evaluation
For the last several years, Education Northwest has been a partner of the Road Map Project in the development and implementation of the Project's formative evaluation. The 2016 report, "The Power of Partnership"  was recently completed. Thank you to the hundreds of people who completed surveys or interviews in 2015 that contributed to the report. CCER staff and Road Map Project partners will continue to discuss and plan how to incorporate the findings of the evaluation in the work happening accross the Project. The Education NW evaluators will also continue to play a role in the Strategic Refresh process, specifically helping to incorporate the findings of the evaluation and in developing system-level performance measures for the next phase of the Project.  
Celebration of Success highlights
Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2016 Celebration of Success. It was a wonderful evening honoring 30 Success Exhibitors working to close the opportunity gap and supporting racial equity throughout the Road Map region. Around 500 people attended and ranged from parent and student leaders, community organizations, elected and public officials, philanthropists and more. To view content related to the Celebration of Success,  please visit the Road Map Project website.
BIRTH TO 3RD GRADE

SOAR is hiring: Early Learning Collaboration Manager
Please help spread the word - SOAR is hiring for a new position that will support the work of the Road Map Birth to 3rd Grade Work Group and the King County Early Learning Coalition.  There is great opportunity for these two groups to leverage their collective voice and work for greater impact in the always-shifting early learning landscape.
 
Work group invites parent participation 
The Road Map Project Birth to 3rd Grade Work Group is currently seeking parents of young children to provide leadership within the group. Parents who live in the Road Map region (South Seattle/South King County), have children in 3rd  grade or younger and who do not work in the early learning or education field are invited to serve as leaders on the Birth to 3rd Grade Work Group Steering Committee and be active participants in the full work group. For Steering Committee members who are serving in parent positions, the Birth to 3rd Grade Work Group will provide stipends for child care and mileage to support participation. Please contact Lynda at lpetersen@ccedresults.org  for more information or if you can help share this opportunity with parents. 
 
Summer learning
Preventing summer learning loss is a high priority for several Road Map work groups, and as a result there is a lot of work being done! See the Youth Development for Education Results update for information about the summer learning pilot happening this summer with over a dozen organizations in South Seattle and South King County. 
 
July 14th is National Summer Learning Day! See the Aligned Funders update below for details about that day.  And visit the School's Out WA's National Summer Learning Day page for more information about ways to get involved.  
 
And finally, if you are interested in using Let's Read! materials this year to help spread the message of the importance of reading and learning in the summer, they are all available for download from the Let's Read! website.
 
KCHA partnering to improve early grade attendance
King County Housing Authority (KCHA) is working with a number of partners on the planning and implementation of an attendance campaign during the 2016-17 school year, launching in August 2016. This project will raise KCHA families' awareness of the importance of regular school attendance and support KCHA families in reducing absences. The campaign will be implemented through the lens of family engagement, and use three levels of effort to engage families and reduce chronic absenteeism: 1) communications at public housing sites and at participating feeder schools; 2) youth and family engagement at KCHA community spaces; 3) cross-sector, school-based "attendance teams" at three or more schools within partnering districts (Highline, Kent and Bellevue).  Please contact Cara at CaraI@kcha.org for more information.   
COLLEGE & CAREER SUCCESS
 
Save the date for DiscoverU 2016 !
The fourth annual DiscoverU week will take place October 17-21! DiscoverU is an exciting week of college and career exploration for students of all ages. Through fun activities, both in school and in the community, students will have the opportunity to explore their futures. This year, DiscoverU will be amped up and have an increased focus on career awareness. We are partnering with Challenge Seattle to bring CEOs and employees from the region to schools and to support more visits to local companies. Look for information in early September when the 2016-17 school year kicks off. The DiscoverU advisory committee will begin meeting monthly August through November. If you would like to give input on DiscoverU and are interested in participating, please email Avery at kavery@ccedresults.org.
 
College & Career Success Coordinator hired
CCER is excited to welcome Alejandra P é rez to the team! She will lead DiscoverU activities and support other college and career projects. Alejandra has been a fierce advocate for undocumented students and brings with her tremendous experience in organizing for social justice, running large-scale events and providing professional development to educators. We hope that you can connect with her soon.
 
College readiness communications work
CCER is continuing the collaboration with Washington College Access Network (WCAN) to develop college readiness communications, targeted at 9th to 11th graders, that  are culturally responsive, accessible and useful for student and families. During June and early July, WCAN's College Bound regional officers are conducting student and parent focus groups throughout the state to guide the project. If you work with a group of students or parents that would like to give feedback on college readiness and messaging they receive from schools, please contact Avery at kavery@ccedresults.org.
 
College and career planning in high schools
This spring, CCER worked on developing the high school college and career planning guide. The guide is designed to guide high schools through a five-step process of inquiry that helps them analyze their college and career supports and student outcomes, and plan for future work. Each school receives data insights for their high school and takes a self-assessment that looks at five domains: academic foundation, academic behavior and life skills, advising system, career awareness and exploration, postsecondary awareness and knowledge and transitions. During May and June the guide was piloted with college and career teams at Chief Sealth High School and Rainier Beach High School. Each team held introductory, reflection and planning sessions to arrive at two key strategies for focus during the next school year. A lot was learned during the pilot and we're excited expand the work with the College and Career Planning Guide next year!

Financial Aid 101
The 2017-18 FAFSA will launch on Oct. 1, 2016, three months earlier than in previous years.  To prepare for this and other changes that impact accessing financial aid, t he Puget Sound College and Career Network will be hosting summer trainings on supporting FAFSA completion for high school seniors across the Road Map region.  The Financial Aid 101 four-hour workshop will address all the technical details of financial aid in Washington state and everything adults need to know when advising students.  The three-hour Financial Aid 201 workshop will cover tips and strategies for achieving a high level of FAFSA and WASFA completion in schools.

Project Finish Line
The first convening of the Project Finish Line Learning Community's Completion series took place on June 21, 2016.  Addressing equity and cultural competence, the event featured Ariana Cantu and Tina Young who shared Seattle Central College's Collaborative Learning Inquiry and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Survey.  Deborah Northern from the Puget Sound Educational Service District provided introductory training on the PSESD's Race Equity Tool.  Both recent and future convening presentations and resources will be archived here .

Topic Interest Groups are currently meeting to develop three additional convenings.  Upcoming meetings will be held from 11:30-4:30 at South Seattle College and the PSESD:
  • Student Self-Efficacy:  August 4, 2016
  • Measuring Effectiveness:  October 10, 2016
  • Scaling up Effective Practices:  January 23, 2017
Stipends are available for community college faculty participation. For more information on the Puget Sound Coalition for College and Career Readiness and Project Finish Line, please contact Hilary at hloeb@psesd.org.
STEM

Career Connected Learning System Planning
Career awareness and exploration has been increasing as an area of focus throughout many parts of the Road Map Project, especially with the South King County STEM Network. South King County is one of the four Washington STEM Networks selected to develop ideas for 3-5 career-connected learning experiences in which funders can invest. A planning process is underway through generous grants from JP Morgan Chase, Boeing and Pacific Education Institute. Thank you to the individuals and organizations from South King County who are taking part in the planning. By September the group will wrap up their work and produce a set of ideas that can be funded and implemented in the region.
 
Focus on Early Math
Working with Washington STEM through the 100Kin10 initiative, the South King County STEM Network is diving into a deeper focus on math in the early years-pre-K through 5 th grade. Our network has amazing partners like Zeno Math that are established in this space, and we will continue to grow relationships with districts to increase their focus. Please contact Sylvester Cann at scann@ccedresults.org if you are interested in joining these discussions.
 
STEM Legislative Policy Priorities
With the next legislative session only a few months away, many organizations are coming together to figure out how STEM will be prioritized through the state budget or stronger policy. If you have ideas about STEM priorities that can be brought to the state, we want to hear your ideas. There is a short survey that was created by Washington STEM to gather ideas. Click here to take the survey.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS (ELL)

Highline School Board supports Home Language Campaign!
As a result of combined advocacy efforts of immigrant and refugee parent advocates, ELL Work Group members and the White Center Community Development Association (WCCDA), the Highline School Board passed the Home Language Resolution to promote the importance and value of home language development and diversifying the teacher workforce through internal district pathways for bilingual classified staff. This is a huge victory and OneAmerica and the ELL work group hope to see similar movement in Road Map school districts that signify a more asset-based approach to ELL students and families.
 
Seattle School Board responds to parent advocacy
Last month, the Seattle School Board allocated $250,000 toward language access services in response to advocacy from parents who emphasized the need for stronger and consistent access to translation and interpretation services. Access to translation and interpretation services for parents is a civil right, when parents are denied access to information they need to be involved and connected to their child's education, they become pushed out of the system and this is a key contributor to the opportunity gap. The Seattle School Board has taken bold action by responding to parent advocacy and this is an important first step. The ELL Work Group will continue to support the need for stronger language access so all families can be guaranteed their civil rights to access to info regardless of the language they speak.
 
Diversifying the teacher workforce
The ELL Work Group has a key priority to diversify the teacher workforce, and the Aligned Funders through the rapid resource funded a project led by the Washington State Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB) to conduct a survey across the seven Road Map districts to capture interest level of bilingual and diverse classified staff in becoming teachers. The results demonstrated a strong supply of para professionals who are interested in becoming teachers, and also identified current barriers and policy recommendations for school districts. The ELL Work Group will delve deeper into next steps on this work during their summer retreat. For more info on the bilingual teacher work group and their recommendations, please look here: http://pathway.pesb.wa.gov/innovation/work-groups/bilingual-teacher-pipeline
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT FOR EDUCATION RESULTS

Student Success Link is open!

Youth-serving organizations who need access to real-time academic data about their students can request access to the Student Success Link, a web-based tool built by the Puget Sound ESD that helps CBO's use data to better support students. This system provides a means to securely access data from Road Map school districts using a consistent process and toolset across the region. If your organization is interested in joining, please visit the site above to get started. Important notes:

  • Access to Student Success Link is contingent upon district approval, parent consent, and other steps.
  • If you are interested, start the process now. Some steps are time consuming, like negotiating your data-sharing agreement or preparing to collect parent consent forms.
  • Parent consent forms for 2016-17 are available now if you start your intake process now or over the summer.

SEL Symposium

Our workgroup has received a small grant from the Road Map Rapid response fund to host a Social Emotional Learning Symposium this fall! Focused on understanding the interrelated initiatives, practices and assessment practices at play in the region in both school and out-of-school time, this will be an opportunity to better align and share promising practices with key implementers of SEL in the region. Anne Powell (anne@sparkconsultingseattle.com) will be leading a planning group over the summer to shape the symposium. More information to come or let her know if you're interested in being involved. 

 

State K-12 Social Emotional Learning Benchmarks now being reviewed!

YDEKC will host a benchmark review over lunch on June 28th, 12 - 2:00, location TBD. RSVP to jwerner@ydekc.orgYou can also complete an online survey here

 

Road Map Summer Learning Exploratory Study

Fourteen sites providing summer learning (comprehensive programming for young people  - 4+ weeks, 4 days/week, academic growth focus) in the Road Map region are participating in an 18 month project focused on improving Summer Learning Program Quality and collecting parallel data to share the story of summer learning. In the fall we will convene to look at site level dashboards, then work to improve program offerings for 2017. This work is a result of our combined YDER forces with the Road Map Project's P3 workgroup focused on summer. School's Out Washington is another lead partner on the project and the Gates Foundation is providing funding for the exploratory study.

 

Summer Learning Day 

On July 14, join summer programs across Washington State and thousands across the country in a nationwide celebration of summer learning.National Summer Learning Day is an opportunity to showcase your summer program and help spread awareness and enthusiasm around summer learning. Help us show policymakers, parents, and the public how summer programs prevent learning loss and give kids the opportunity to have exciting and fun learning opportunities all year round! Interested in hosting a celebration? School's Out Washington has printable Summer Learning Day guide with tips on social media promotion and more info on our Summer Learning Day page.

 

Best Starts for Kids Implementation Plan available

The Implementation Plan for Best Starts for Kids was released last week and can be found hereAs referenced above, there is also a great deal of language about (and likely funding for) high quality out-of-school time - this really might help us get to the "More and Better" expanded learning programs that we've been working towards! Pages 55 - 68 are of particular interest to our shared workgroup's work.

 

Your input is needed about afterschool programs 

The Expanded Learning Opportunities Council would like your input on Expanded Learning Opportunities in Washington state including before and after school opportunities for students and school year calendar modifications. The Council will use data from this survey to inform their recommendations to the Governor, the Legislature, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Please allow approx. 10-20 minutes for this survey; this Survey will close at 5:00 PM on June 30. 

Click the link to begin the survey: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2757245/b4dead261dcd

OPPORTUNITY YOUTH 
 
Boots on the Ground
Reconnect to Opportunity (aka ReOpp) is a regional effort to connect opportunity youth with a "best-fit" education/employment program. As of early June, the ReOpp team had received over 240 referrals and has re-enrolled 107 young people in local education/employment pathways. With funding from United Way, the ReOpp team will be expanding to include peer outreach workers who will be employed by neighborhood-based CBOs. To get reconnected, young people can submit a simple online form at the new ReOpp web site or call the hotline at 206-263-8244.
 
Back-on-Track model anchors improvement strategy
Reengagement programs from across the region will be participating in a quality improvement process beginning this summer with support from Jobs for the Future (JFF) that is based on their Back-on-Track model. This research-based best practice model guides the design of pathways to credentials for 16-24 year old youth who are off-track to graduation or disconnected from education and work. JFF staff will conduct site visits to six programs this summer and offer a combination of cross-site and site-based training and coaching starting in the fall.
 
National Employer Coalition touches down locally
On May 5 over 1,500 young people, including hundreds of youth involved in our region's reengagement programs, participated in the 100K Opportunity Fair at CenturyLink Field Event Center. There they had opportunities to participate in practice interviews, create resumes, initiate juvenile record sealing, get help re-enrolling in high school or college, learn about career pathways, and interview on spot with 19 different national and local companies. Numerous Road Map Project partners were involved in planning and the event itself. This June, Darius Mensah joined the staff at Educurious to lead ongoing efforts to link 100K Coalition employers with opportunity youth, with a focus on creating education-friendly jobs so that young people are not forced to pick between school and work.
 
Open Doors Legislative Priorities
Members of the Opportunity Youth Advisory Group, King County Reengagement Provider Network and statewide Open Doors Steering Committee developed three priorities for the 2017 legislative session and are now working to encourage adoption of the priorities by a range of agencies and advocacy organizations. The priorities include allowing for 12 rather than 10 months of funding for Open Doors reengagement programs , many of which operate year-round; allocating flexible dollars for barrier reduction; and increasing centralized staffing at the state level to support implementation. 
FAMILY & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Family Engagement Institute
Road Map Project Family Engagement Institute will take place this August 16-18 at Crowne Plaza in SeaTac. Our planning committee has identified racial equity and the Dual Capacity Framework as the overarching themes of this year's institute. We will have national and local leaders providing space for courageous conversations and learn about best practices. This institute has been designed in collaboration with Road Map Project districts' family engagement leadership, community-based organization partners, parents and community leaders. Each district will have teams. If you have any questions, please contact Carlina Brown-Banks at  cbbanks@ccedresults.org .
ADVOCACY

Cradle Through College Coalition revival
The C2C Coalition was a successful coalition that came to life leading up to the 2015 legislative session, with a goal of banding together to make sure lawmakers consider education as a continuum. The need to protect the continuum is even greater going into 2017. There is a lot of work currently underway to revise the statement of core principles that guided the coalition in 2015, but adding a more current 2017 context. Many partners originally involved in C2C are providing initial feedback and helping with planning, but the document will be shared very widely for input in July and August. Please contact Sylvester Cann at scann@ccedresults.org if you have questions.
 
Still "Following the Money"
CCER has re-engaged 3SI, the consulting company, to continue the "Follow the Money" presentations and also produce a memo describing how the state's education funding and allocation system takes poverty into account. The presentations of the Follow the Money study were very popular and the demand for more has stretched into the summer. Our goal is to share the information with more audiences, especially parents and community members. Through this new contract we will also produce a webinar version of the presentation that can be shared widely. Please contact Sylvester Cann at scann@ccedresults.org if you are interested in hosting a presentation or have a willing audience. The documents from the Follow the Money study can be found here on the Road Map Project website. 
ALIGNED FUNDING

Funders to celebrate summer learning
The next Road Map Aligned Funders meeting is on July 14th, which is also National Summer Learning Day.  To celebrate the day and to learn about opportunities to build a strong system to support learning in the summer, members of the Aligned Funders group are invited to join a tour of high quality summer learning programs in South Seattle.  School's Out Washington is leading the planning of this fun and engaging event that will showcase the possibility of fun and enriching summer learning opportunities. For more information or to sign up for the Summer Learning Day tour on July 14th, please contact Lynda at  lpetersen@ccedresults.org . Also, information about the group and materials from past meetings can be found on the Road Map Project Aligned Funders webpage .
 
Contribute to the Rapid Resource Fund 
Members of the Aligned Funders group are invited to contribute to the Road Map Rapid Resource Fund. The third year of the fund will begin this summer. At the next Aligned Funders meeting on July 14th, participants in the fund will meet from 10am-11am to discuss the process and impact of the fund and finalize the guidelines and schedule for the upcoming year for the fund. Any funder interested in learning more are welcome to attend! Please contact Leslie at  lsilverman@philanthropynw.org  for more information.  
DATA

Research and special projects
CCER's Data Team is hard at work supporting the Road Map Project strategic planning effort with key data and information on student outcome indicators.

The Data Team is also working on a Black Student Project, in collaboration with local community efforts and using a racial equity lens.  The purpose of this project is to develop a report informed by community and district leaders, focused on Black students in the Road Map Project region with the goal of contributing to current and future work of community members, organizations and districts to address the needs of our region's Black children and families. This is one part of a longer iterative process of promoting data disaggregation, understanding student perspectives and needs, as well as strengthening the pipeline between data and community action. 

2016 Data Planning Process
Every year, CCER updates the indicators of student success using new data from the early learning, K-12, and postsecondary sectors. This year, the team is working on better understanding and supporting college access and readiness issues through supporting work on the College and Career Planning Guide and facilitating conversations around the region on the College Access Distribution Requirements-the minimum standards required for a student to apply to a Washington State Four-Year University.