A collaborative venture among state agencies, the Governor’s Office, and state and local organizations

Build a coordinated system of early learning and development that ensures that many more children from low-income families and disadvantaged children, from birth to age five, have access to dramatically improved early learning and development programs and are able to start kindergarten with a strong foundation for future learning.

Successful State System High-Quality Accountable Programs Promoting Early Learning and Development Outcomes for Children A Great Early Childhood Education Workforce Measuring Outcomes and Progress

A1--Demonstrate past commitment to early learning and development A2--Articulating the state’s rationale for its early learning and development reform agenda and goals A3--Aligning and coordinating early learning and development across the state A4--Developing a budget to implement and sustain the work of this grant.

B1--Developing and adopting a common, statewide TQRIS B2--Promoting participation in the states’ TQRIS B3--Rating and Monitoring early learning programs B4--Promoting access to high-quality early learning and development programs for children with high needs B5--Validating the effectiveness of the state TQRIS

Based upon a statewide set of tiered Program Standards Early learning and development standards A comprehensive Assessment System Early Childhood Educator Qualifications Family Engagement Strategies Health Promote Practices Effective data practices Standards are clear and measurable; meaningfully differentiate program quality levels; and reflect high expectations of program excellence that lead to improved learning outcomes for children Linked to the state licensing system

C1--Developing and using statewide, high-quality early learning and development standards C2--Supporting effective uses of Comprehensive Assessment Systems C3—Identifying and addressing the health, behavioral, and developmental needs of children with high needs to improve school readiness C4--Engaging and Supporting Families NOTE: C3 was not included in full in the Ks. Application.

D1--Developing a Workforce Knowledge and Competency Framework and a progression of credentials D2--Supporting Early Childhood Educators in improving their knowledge, skills and abilities NOTE: only D1 was included in the Ks. Application in full.

Understanding the status of children’s learning and development at kindergarten entry Building or enhancing on early learning data system to improve instructional practices, services, and policies

#1: Absolute Priority—Promoting School Readiness for Children with High Needs #2: Competitive Preference Priority—Including all Early Learning and Development Programs in the Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement System #3: Competitive Preference Priority—Understanding the Status of Children’s Learning and Development at Kindergarten Entry #4: Invitational Priority (no points)—Sustaining Program Effects in the Early Elementary Grades #5: Invitational Priority (no points)—Encouraging Private- Sector Support

Writing began on September 11 and was completed October 18, The writing team was composed of members representing the three state agencies with early childhood programs, the Children’s Cabinet, and The Governor’s Office. Programs represented: Head Start/Early Head Start; child care; child care licensing; Part C; Part B (Section 619); Pre-K and Parents as Teachers; Early Childhood Block Grants/ Smart Start Kansas’ application process included public comment opportunities via , electronic input, and personal presentations.

Nine States received an award for the Race to the Top—Early Learning Challenge application. Kansas did not receive an Award for this round of the Race to the Top: Early Learning Challenge. All Reviewers’ comments can be seen on the KSDE website.

Summary overview

Kansas has had a strong commitment to early childhood over the past many years Participating State Agencies have worked collaboratively across many initiatives and continued that collaboration in the development of the application. The Framework of the High Quality Plan was seen as ambitious—yet achievable. The Kansas Early Learning Standards were a strong component of the application. Family Engagement was seen as a strength—although standards need to be developed and implemented by all programs.

Focus more on Implementation than on Planning. Provide more detail in our plan—particularly around how Kansas will improve the school readiness of high needs children, including Part C, Part B, children in rural communities, and other at-risk populations. Provide more detail around the Plan for a Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement System that required re-tooling the current KQRIS model to better meet the grant requirements and the needs of the state. Develop a clear and cohesive plan for a Comprehensive Assessment System. Have letters of support that were more intentionally focused on the application requirements.

Kansas’ commitment to early childhood was clear and considered a strength of the application. The Organizational Structure (see next slide) was considered a strength by many reviewers. Again, the focus on planning rather than implementation was noted as an area needing improvement.

The current system, KQRIS, does not have all of the requirements of the TQRIS, so re-tooling was considered necessary. Participation of ALL program types Comprehensive Assessment system Child Outcomes Implementation activities were needed--too much of the application focused on planning Participation of high needs families and children need to be specifically addressed

The Kansas Early Learning Standards are a strength, but more supports for working with ELL children need to be added. A Comprehensive Assessment system needs to be clearly defined with more details around training the workforce Family Engagement standards need to be developed.

The Workforce Knowledge and Competency Framework needs to be developed. A clearer description of the Early Childhood Unified endorsement and its connection with the Framework was needed, including clarification of the role of post-secondary programs in the process of developing the framework.

More clarification and details around the development, use, and future changes of the Kansas Early Learning Inventory (KELI) and the Revised version Funding for the work and the connection with the Longitudinal Data System needed clarification. More defining and clarifying the linkages among various early childhood data systems

Promoting School Readiness for children with High need Kansas was not seen to meet this priority because of a lack of detail in the plan. More detail and description of the population of High Needs children and families was needed.

#2: Including all Early Learning and Development programs in TQRIS Details on the current KQRIS were not available. The current plan focused on planning rather than implementation. The TQRIS was described as voluntary and reviewers noted that it should be mandated to meet requirements. #3: Understanding Kindergarten entry Status The Current system using the Kansas Early Learning Inventory- Revised was not clearly described and therefore reviewers noted that not all of the selection criteria were met.

The Reviewers’ comments will help us better articulate and define a plan of implementation to achieve the goal of a comprehensive and cohesive early childhood system for improving school readiness of our high needs children.

1.Build a cohesive statewide system to support continuous quality improvement 2.Promote continuous improvement of program quality through a single sustainable TQRIS 3.Promote Improved early learning and development outcomes for young children through the systematic use of Standards and Assessments. 4.Develop a statewide Workforce Knowledge and Competency Framework 5.Implement a comprehensive longitudinal data system for data-driven decisions, connecting early learning with K-12 and beyond

GAYLE STUBER Early Childhood Coordinator, KSDE