1. Division for Early Childhood Recommended Practices: Implementing and Building Effective Systems

2. Session Presenters
Mary Beth Bruder, Director, Early Childhood Personnel Center
Betsy Sutherland, Utah Section 619 Coordinator
Chelsea Guillen, EI Ombudsman for Illinois, EITP
Lisa Backer, Supervisor, Minnesota Department of Education

3. Framework for High-Quality EI/ECSE Systems
Data
System
Quality
Standards
Accountability & Quality Improvement
Personnel / Workforce
Finance
Governance
High-Quality
State Systems

4. Early Childhood Personnel Center
Mary Beth Bruder, PhD, Director
University of Connecticut A.J. Pappanikou   Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities   Education, Research, and Service 263 Farmington Avenue, MC6222 Farmington, CT Phone: (860) Fax: (860) Website:

5. Early Childhood Personnel Center
to facilitate the implementation of integrated and comprehensive early childhood systems of personnel development (CSPD) for all disciplines serving infants and young children with disabilities

6. Outputs of the Center Knowledge Development Technical Assistance
Leadership and Coordination

7. Subcomponents of a CSPD

8. Comprehensive System of Personnel Development Quality Indicators
Leadership, Coordination, & Sustainability
Quality Indicator 1: A cross sector leadership team is in place that can set priorities and make policy, governance, and financial decisions.
Quality Indicator 2: There is a written multi-year plan in place to address all sub-components of the CSPD.
State Personnel Standards
Quality Indicator 3: State personnel standards across disciplines are aligned to national professional organization personnel standards.
Quality Indicator 4: The criteria for state certification, licensure, credentialing and/or endorsement are aligned to state personnel standards and national professional organization personnel standards across disciplines.
Preservice Personnel Development
Quality Indicator 5: Institution of higher education (IHE) programs and curricula across disciplines are aligned with both national professional organization personnel standards and state personnel standards.
Quality Indicator 6: Institution of higher education programs and curricula address early childhood development and discipline specific pedagogy.
Inservice Personnel Development
Quality Indicator 7: A statewide system for inservice personnel development and technical assistance is in place for personnel across disciplines
Quality Indicator 8: A statewide system for inservice personnel development and technical assistance is aligned and coordinated with higher education program and curricula across disciplines
Recruitment and Retention
Quality Indicator 9: Comprehensive recruitment and retention strategies are based on multiple data sources, and revised as necessary.
Quality Indicator 10: Comprehensive recruitment and retention strategies are being implemented across disciplines
Evaluation
Quality Indicator 11: The evaluation plan for the CSPD includes processes and mechanisms to collect, store, and analyze data across all subcomponents
Quality Indicator 12: The evaluation plan is implemented, continuously monitored, and revised as necessary based on multiple data sources

9. Recruitment and Retention
Information about vacancies
and qualified personnel
across systems
by discipline and region

10. CSPD Quality Indicators Across 25 States

11. Quality Indicator 9: Comprehensive Recruitment and Retention Strategies are based on multiple data sources, and revised as necessary
Elements of Quality (3 total)
Number of States Fully Implementing
Number of States Partially Implementing
Number of States Not Implementing
A) Strategies are based on data, current research, and stakeholder input 2 6 17
B) Strategies target discipline-specific shortages
C) The effectiveness of strategies is tracked, reviewed annually, and updated as appropriate based on data, current research, and stakeholder input 5 20

12. Quality Indicator 10: Comprehensive recruitment and retention strategies are being implemented across disciplines
Element of Quality (5 total)
Number of States Fully Implementing
Number of States Partially Implementing
Number of States Not Implementing
A) Strategies include opportunities for advancement through a variety of processes such as articulation between two and four year institutions of higher education and access to career pathways/ladders 3 8 14
B) Strategies focus on induction, improving administrative supports, and using a variety of mentoring models to support and retain personnel 17

13. Quality Indicator 10: (continued) Comprehensive recruitment and retention strategies are being implemented across disciplines
Element of Quality (5 total)
Number of States Fully Implementing
Number of States Partially Implementing
Number of States Not Implementing
C) Strategies include incentives and recognition programs such as financial compensation, scholarships, service obligations, loan reimbursement and/or tuition reimbursement 2 11 12
D) Strategies address alternative routes to certification 4 9
E) Strategies address the usefulness of designing and/or participating in online recruitment systems 1 20

14. ISSUES Career Paths Compensation Qualifications
Personnel Standards and Credential Systems
Career Ladders

15. RP2: Reaching Potential through Recommended Practices
Utah
RP2: Reaching Potential through Recommended Practices

16. RP2: Reaching Potential through Recommended Practices
In 2014, the ECTA Center offered states technical assistance and professional development in:
Increasing access to inclusive classrooms for preschoolers with disabilities
Two day workshop on improving LRE
Effective instruction in preschool classrooms, specifically in student engagement
Based on the DEC Recommended Practices
Implementation Science provides structure

17. State Leadership Team
With assistance of Dr. Barbara Smith (ECTA Center), convened and trained the SLT
Comprised of:
State Special Education Coordinator
State 619 Coordinator
State Title 1 Preschool Specialist
State Teaching and Learning Preschool Specialist (Gen Ed)
Private Provider Representative (Early Childhood Utah Director, Utah Department of Health)
Higher Education Representative (Utah State University)
Community Organization Representative (YMCA Early Childhood)
Community Organization Representative (United Way)
Preschool Coordinator from LEA
Preschool Teacher from LEA
As a result, now have at least an Early Childhood Team at the Utah State Board of Education. Would like to see that carry forward into an Early Childhood Department
Hands on, committed, involved, instrumental in making this work.
Initial trainings regarding RP2 done by Barbara Smith. Phil Strain also provided some pre-work with SLT and preschool coordinators who signed up for the initial training.

18. RP2 Implementation Components
Professional development
Two days of leadership training
Four days of practitioner training
All led by Phil Strain and Ted Bovey from the ECTA Center

19. RP2 Components Coaching Internal coaches provided by the LEA
External coaches provided by USBE to the LEA
Myself
30+ year preschool administrator in public, private and Head Start settings
IHE faculty members

20. RP2 Components Data based decision making
Program-wide data (Benchmarks of Quality)
Individual practitioner data (Observation Scale for the Classroom)
Student data (STARE: Scale for Teachers Assessment of Routine Engagements[R. McWilliam])
Using this data to report to : has increased our accountability, visibility (“I’ve heard of RP2, can you tell me more about it?”)
LEA leadership
State leadership
Board
Legislature

21. First Year Cohort Four school districts became our first cohort
Training provided by ECTA Center
Implementation to scale up over five years

22. Second Year Cohort
Added six additional school districts, implementation to occur over four year period
Added RP2.2 for Private Providers
Head Start program
Private preschool program
Trained the first two years with Phil Strain and Ted Bovey

23. Outcomes
More inclusive environments for students with disabilities; improvement in Indicator 6 for 2016, increase by over 2 percentage points
More money ($7mil) from state legislature for preschoolers at risk will allow for more inclusive environments
More Title I money being spent on preschool
IHEs added RP2 effective practices terminology and ideas in pre- service training

24. DEC RPs: Implementing and Building Effective Systems
Chelsea Guillen, Illinois

25. State context Part C Lead Agency is the Department of Human Services
Program is administered through the Bureau of Early Intervention and five administrative contracts
Central Billing Office
Early Intervention Clearinghouse
Early Intervention Monitoring
Early Intervention Training Program
Provider Connections
Services are administered at the local level through 25 regional Child and Family Connections’ offices
Part C program serves over 20,000 children with Individualized Family Service Plans each month

26. State context (2)
The Early Intervention Training Program at the University of Illinois holds the contract for the state’s professional development
Responsible for system-required trainings as well as those that help practitioners develop knowledge and skills
Most practitioners must be credentialed to provide service
Most practitioners are independent contractors
Have system-wide expectations for ongoing professional development and re-credentialing

27. Infrastructure
EITP embedding Recommended Practices in many of our linked series offerings
Attend multiple days
Include videotaping of practice use
Reflect on experience and receive feedback (written and verbal)

28. Infrastructure (2)
State Systemic Improvement Plan prompted the creation of local leadership teams
Recommended Practices used to inform desired processes
Selected specific RPs to be the basis of family engagement professional development opportunities
Local leadership teams are seen as an opportunity to impact local practices
Use benchmarks of quality and action plans to guide work
Spent time building their capacity
They then serve as a support for others

29. Infrastructure (3) Using RPs to support Inclusion efforts in Illinois
Raising awareness within and across systems
Professional associations
Childcare
Head Start

30. Accomplishments to date
Completed policy/procedure for COS
Includes ideas consistent with Recommended Practices on Family and Assessment topic areas
Recommended Practices were presented as a solution for addressing challenges/barriers to Inclusion via an Inclusion Summit
Have completed awareness activities on the RPs for:
Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education personnel
Special Education and Head Start personnel
Childcare resource and referral trainers
Special Instructors working in EI

31. Upcoming Work
Continue to build LT awareness of and capacity to support RPs
Develop/refine additional PD to include selected RPs as we turn our focus to Family Engagement
Through curricula review, embed more of the RPs into ongoing system wide professional development
Continue to bring RPs to other early childhood sectors to support inclusion efforts

32. Challenges Overcome
Bringing the RPs into as many system processes as we can
Direct people to them in the Provider Handbook
Eligibility determination and child outcomes summary processes
Using RPs to work on practitioners’ awareness of the need to use evidence-based practices in our work with young children and their families
Have begun addressing how to provide local support for implementation of RPs
recognizing that we can only get so far in changing practice without this- no matter how good the “training”
Reaching audiences outside EI with information about RPs

33. Time Investment
Have a team working on SSIP with overall coordination provided by two state level staff (with assistance from TA provider and outside consultant); time is dedicated to this every week
Each LT has volunteer members (EI credit provided)
Reworking assignments
Training and Monitoring supports also giving time
Recognizing that capacity-building and team-building also take time
Building relationships in other sectors also takes time and IL is a big state (may take more than one Ambassador to make it work)

34. Minnesota Centers of Excellence for Young Children with Disabilities

35. Minnesota Centers of Excellence for Young Children with Disabilities (MnCoE)
Minnesota is an education-lead, birth mandate state for Part C. Early intervention and preschool special education services are delivered by each child’s school district.
The regional system of professional development we have now is not the system we envisioned in 2008, even though the mission is virtually unchanged:
To provide early childhood professionals with the knowledge, skills and supports necessary to be effective in their respective roles in order to improve outcomes for young children with disabilities and their families.
We have had lots of help.

36. Frameworks of Active Implementation http:nirn.fpg.unc.edu
USABLE INTERVENTIONS
Teachable, learnable, doable, and readily assessed in practice
IMPLEMENTATION STAGES
Steps that lead to successful implementation
IMPLEMENTATION DRIVERS
Critical program and organizational supports needed to implement the usable intervention
IMPLEMENTATION TEAMS
State and local level groups that guide the change process
IMPROVEMENT CYCLES
A focus on efficiently solving problems and getting better
(c) Dean Fixsen and Karen Blase, 2012

37. Professional Development Facilitators (PDFs): Roles and Responsibilities
7.0 FTE of regional PDFs
Partner with leaders from assigned districts to support continuous improvement
Guide exploration, participate as member of local implementation team and serve as the external coach for districts selected to install an “innovations”
4.0 Content PDFs:
Convene the State Implementation Team for their assigned innovation
Manage aspects of statewide implementation; e.g. training
Make recommendations to State Leadership Team
Support all other PDFs to install their assigned innovation
1 content PDF focuses on leadership capacity and data use
Each PDF has gone through an 8 day intensive training on cognitive coaching and is supported by an external contractor to build mindfulness and enhance leadership skills.

38. Three usable interventions (a.k.a. innovations)
Three Innovations
Pyramid Model, formerly known as TACSEI: Lise Fox, Glen Dunlap, Barbara Smith, Phil Strain
Family-guided, Routines-based Intervention (FGRBI): Juliann Woods)
Classroom Engagement Model (CEM): Robin McWilliam
DEC Recommended Practices are embedded within these innovations
Districts wishing support to install an innovation must participate in a exploration, guided by their assigned PDF
Selected districts receive ongoing PDF support and fiscal support

39. Multi-Year Financial Partnership
Implementation Year
Local Investment
State Investment
First
100%
Second
20%
80%
Third
40%
60%
Fourth
Fifth
Sixth year and beyond
*Funding is a $12,000 Year-1 base plus per-child amount of $100 for Preschool and $50 for Part C.

40. Allowable Uses of Funds
Innovation Training
Internal Coach
Substitute Teachers as needed
Tools and Materials
Participate in related trainings

41. Implementation Drivers

42. Observed fidelity used to determine frequency of practice-based coaching (PBC)
Beginning
Training complete. Working towards 80% of each key practice area on the CEM Checklist
Two or more PBC cycles per month; either individual or group
Expanding
Working towards 80% of each key practice area on the CEM Checklist for the second time and in a new setting
At least one PBC cycle per month; either individual or group coaching
Maintaining
Maintaining fidelity at 80% of each key practice area of the CEM checklist
If fidelity dips, Coach & practitioner decide to either use individual burst coaching or group coaching
Coach as needed.

43. MnCoE Data Infrastructure
Hexagon Tool
Fidelity of Implementation*
State Benchmarks of Quality
Local Benchmarks of Quality
Quality and effectiveness of training
End-of-event survey
Follow-up Survey
Coaching log*
Coaching model
Frequency and focus
Fidelity of Practice*
Pyramid: TPOT & TPITOS
FGRBI: SS-OO-PP-RR Key Indicator Observation
CEM: CEM Checklist
Child Event Tools
Behavior Incident Report
Scale for Teacher’s Assessment of Routines Engagement (STARE)
PDF Time and Effort Log
Fiscal Reports

44. Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) Data Infrastructure
MARSS—MDE Student Information System
Child demographics
Federal Setting and Disability Category*
Dosage—planned and received
STAR—MDE Personnel Information System
Instructional staff credential and demographics
Minnesota Common Course Catalog
Attributes of classroom experience (curriculum, assessment, site-based initiatives)
Level of fidelity attained by teacher (beginning, expanding or maintaining)
Links instructional staff to enrolled children
Part C and Preschool Special Education child outcome data*
Part C Family Outcome Data*
Mastery of Early Learning Standards
*denotes data element specific to young children with disabilities

45. DaSy Powerful Data Cohort: Data Integration
Connect MnCoE data to MnCoE data
How much coaching is needed to support a teacher to reach fidelity?
Is each coaching model equally effective?
How does fidelity of implementation increase fidelity of practice?
Does PDF effort predict fidelity of implementation?
Connect MDE data to MDE data
How does dosage impact child and family outcomes?
How does early intervention environment or preschool instructional setting influence outcomes?
To what extent does the use of a particular curriculum or assessment tool improve child outcomes?

46. DaSy Powerful Data Cohort: Connecting MnCoE and MDE Data
To what extent do families served by teachers implementing FGRBI report that early intervention has helped them:
know their rights?
communicate the needs of their child to others?
help them help their child develop and learn?
To what extent do children benefit from instructors who demonstrate fidelity of practice?
OSEP Child Outcomes
Mastery of Early Learning Standards
Reduction in referrals to special education in kindergarten
Reading well by 3rd Grade

47. Opportunity for Questions and Comments
???

48. A Few Key Resources
DEC Recommended Practices, Examples, Videos and Glossary: sped.org/dec-recommended-practices
System Framework for High-Quality Part C and Section 619 and Self-Assessment Tool:
Data System Framework:
Performance Checklists, Practice Guides, and Illustrations:
Planning Guide to Statewide Implementation, Scale-up, and Sustainability of Recommended Practices:
Active Implementation Hub:

49. Thank you!