All Children’s Education June 2014 Opening Comments. Introduce Team: Rhonda Skillern-Jones – Houston; Barbara Kelly – Corsicana; Stacie Gooch – Wylie; Pete Rodriquez – Taft; Calvin Hill - Anahuac

What does it mean to educate all children? Ask everyone this question. Tell personal story.

Educating All Children What does it look like? What are we missing to get there? How will the board need to change to get there? To know where we want to go, we must know where we are at. To do this , we must ask ourselves these questions.

What does it look like? Answer: State Programs English Language Learners ELL Gifted and Talented GT Special Education SPE ED 504 504 General Education GEN ED Career and Technology CATE Dual Credit Courses DCC The tools we have from the state level. 504 – A mandate/Law

What does it look like? Answer: Federal Programs Idea Federal funding focused toward educating students with special needs in a way that addresses their individual differences and needs. Title 1 Federal funding focused toward students of poverty additional assistance to close the achievement gap. Federal Law (no funds) that guarantee certain rights to students with disability. The tools we have from the federal level.

What does it look like? Answer: Federal Programs Title 3 Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient students GT State funding for special practices, procedures, and theories used in the education of children who have been identified as Gifted or Talented. The tools we have from the federal level.

Education Foundations What does it look like? Answer: Local Programs School District Colleges Service Clubs Adopt a School Program Churches Alpha Best Head Start Boys & Girls Club YMCA Chambers Education Foundations Local Businesses

What are we missing to get there? Answer: Differentiation How does each school district differ? How does each community differ? How does each student differ? Now we know where we are at, what do we need to get there. How does each campus differ? What problems or positive things going on in the students education? Community differences and cultural differences? 1st. Realizing that every school district is different, with different problems to solve.   Personal Stories How each child differs in social, language, learning ability, and comprehension. Know your community. Demographics, culture, social differences, and employment opportunities.

Collaborative Communication What are we missing to get there? Answer: Collaborative Communication Communication must exist between the community, parents, students, teachers, school district staff and school board members.   2nd. Communication is a must. Both ways, not one way. Be responsive, willing to listen and adjust if necessary. Constant gather reliable information that is important, to determine if your programs are working. How many school districts keep up with their students after graduation? Do we know if we are successful without this data?

School District Changes What are we missing to get there? Answer: Reliable Data Local Demograhics School District Changes Community Changes 3rd. Know your school district. Keep up to date info. Demographics is based on a 10 yr census data. However, changes in How the district population movement can be gathered in a much closer time period,

How will the board need to change to get there? Answer: Build hope, well-being and relationships with our students, district staff, parents, and community. Knowing this data, how do we as board members change? One area that we all agree hasn’t been addressed in legislation is the idea of educating the whole child. Research tells us that students full of hope, with a good sense of well being and have positive relationship with teachers are more likely to succeed. Our programs must: Build hope in every child. Develop well-being in every child. We must have an open and understanding relationship with our students, staff, parents, and community.

The importance of hope, engagement and well-being The ideas and energy we have for the future. Hope drives attendance, credits earned, and GPA of high school students. Hope scores are more robust predictors of college success than are high school GPA, SAT and ACT scores. Engagement The involvement in and enthusiasm for school. Engagement distinguishes between high-performing and low-performing schools. Well-Being How we think about and experience our lives. Hope - The ideas and energy a student has for the future. This will drive your attendance, credits earned, and GPA of every student. Engagement (relationship) - Will be a decisive factor your students will get involved in and have enthusiasm for school. The difference between high-performing and low-performing schools. Well-being of a child is how they think of their life and what they think of their experiences in life.

How will the board need to change to get there? Answer: Focus on individual strengths; find their plan and purpose. Develop a pathway for life in school with the end in mind of a degree or certificate that matches their passion. How do we build hope? Currently, we focus on student’s weaknesses, what if we flipped that and approached school using their strengths? Examples: Craft Training Center of the Coastal Bend & Harold T. Branch Academy By learning these strengths, we could find a student’s pathway that would give them a plan and purpose in school? What drives them? What do they want? Gallup also says that kids with a specific plan for school are much more likely to graduate….and succeed. Through House Bill 5, the Texas legislature is attempting to move in this direction.

Plan, Purpose and Pathways Instead of adding more to the plate, our new plan is to remove required courses and add courses that could be pathways to student success. The 4x4 is gone, so are courses like speech and health. Added are endorsements in areas that may interest students.