1. Melissa
Ohio’s Regional Professional Learning Series for Literacy: Building State-Wide Capacity to Support Sustainable Literacy Improvement
January 3, 2018

2. Today’s Presentation
Overview of Ohio’s State Personnel Development Grant
Objectives of Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement
Developing “regional support teams for literacy” 4-year Regional Professional Learning Series
Successes and Challenges

3. What is Ohio’s State Personnel Development Grant?
Earl/Ashely

4. Ohio’s State Support Team Regions
The State Personnel Development Grant’s focus is developing a system of leaders for literacy by providing evidence-based language and literacy training to district/building leadership teams. SPDG is specifically targeting increased literacy achievement for Ohio’s most disadvantaged learners: students living in poverty, students with disabilities, English learners, and students identified with a reading difficulty.
Ohio’s SPDG focuses primarily on building regional capacity, thus many of our formal project measures are at the regional level. Project measures generally reference high-quality professional development, literacy needs assessment through the Reading Tiered Fidelity Inventory, school wide reading plans, coaching service delivery plans, and peer coaching.
In addition to the regional work that Beth will discuss, several districts were selected to participate in SPDG-funded activities in order to scale up Ohio’s Early Literacy Pilot through the State Systemic Improvement Plan.
Districts were invited to participate in SPDG-funded activities if at least one of the following criteria applied:
1) District submitted a Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Grant proposal that aligned with Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement but was not awarded due to lack of funding in proposed age group (preschool through grade 5); and/or
2) District has buildings engaged in the State Systemic Improvement Plan: Early Literacy Pilot and is scaling up use of evidence-based language and literacy instructional practices
In previous years, Ohio has partnered with nearly 50 districts. This year, Ohio is partnering with only 10 districts and 1 ESC in order to provide a deeper level of support within each district.

5. Professional Learning
Classroom
MTSS needs assessment
Evidence-based Language & Literacy PD
Support for English Learners
Family Engagement
Peer Coaching
Curriculum-based Measure
District/Building
Administrator Forums
Systems Coaching
Region
Regional Literacy Network
Evidence-based
Language & Literacy PD
State Literacy Network
SPDG’s primary focus is to build regional capacity and Ohio does that by engaging each level of the educational cascade; Ohio is building knowledge & implementation of high-quality, evidence-based early language & literacy instructional strategies at the state, regional, district, building, & classroom levels.
This figure identifies the relevant activities that occur at each level of the educational cascade. New activities at each level are shaded a bit darker for ease of identification.
State staff are involved in professional learning at every level of the educational cascade.
While regional staff attend the state literacy network meetings, which cover a variety of professional learning topics (e.g., MTSS, CBM, needs assessments, coaching, diverse learner supports), they are also charged with coordinating regional literacy networks.
Both regional & district/building staff take part in monthly administrator forums to share district experiences, learn about implementation updates, receive/give support for implementation of evidence-based classroom practices. While these forums are largely intended for districts engaging in the SSIP Early Literacy Pilot, SPDG administrators are invited to participate to learn from districts that have been engaged in similar work.
A portion of the state network meetings is devoted to family and community engagement, which this SPDG is helping to building at the regional level, as well as within buildings and classrooms. Each region has identified a Family Engagement Lead to participate in professional learning and coordinate the family engagement efforts with the districts participating in the Early Literacy Pilot.
Regional, district/building, & classroom staff all participate in evidence-based language & literacy professional learning, which will include support for SPDG districts serving high populations of English learners in 2019.
District/building & classroom staff complete a literacy needs assessment (Reading Tiered Fidelity Inventory) and are encouraged to engage in systems & instructional coaching with their state support team, ESC, or district literacy coaches if they have them. Districts without full-time literacy coaches will be the focus of the peer coaching model being developed by our Ohio Literacy Leads.
Many classrooms will also be using and submitting data from their student-level curriculum-based measures. SPDG funds are not supporting CBMs in districts, but those districts that are already using one will submit their data for the evaluation.

6. What is Ohio’s plan to raise literacy achievement?
Beth

7. Beth
Ohio was fortunate to receive a Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Grant in the fall of As part of this grant, Ohio agreed to update it’s literacy plan and through the work of the State Literacy Team, ODE published an updated birth-grade 12 comprehensive literacy plan in January 2018.

8. Where to Find Ohio’s Plan
education.ohio.gov Search keyword “Literacy”
education.ohio.gov/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/Literacy
Beth
Ohio’s plan is located on ODE’s website and is accompanied by an appendices.

9. What is the purpose of Ohio’s plan to raise literacy achievement?

10. Use literacy acquisition and achievement as a lever for sustainable school improvement.
Purpose
Beth
The purpose of Ohio’s plan is to use literacy acquisition and achievement as a lever for sustainable school improvement. The majority of districts and school’s currently engaging in formal school improvement efforts in Ohio have literacy goals and many of their achievement outcomes can be linked to issues around literacy, from Kindergarten entry to high school graduation. We hope to utilize this plan to help focus those literacy efforts and ground school improvement planning.
Ohio’s plan serves as a guide to promote evidence-based language and literacy practices birth-grade 12. Ohio’s plan aims to bridge the gap between research and practice for educators in Ohio.
In addition, the plan supports the alignment of cohesive literacy efforts across the educational cascade covering educators and stakeholders from the state, regions, districts, schools, classroom, families, and communities. Learning happens in homes, early childhood centers, and schools so any policies or support that are developed at the state, region or district need to be aligned to work that can occur in homes, centers, and schools.

11. Regional
Local
State
Sustainable School Improvement = Capacity to Implement Effective Innovations
Beth
Through Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement, the Department is testing out various methods to build capacity among the state, regions, and local districts to implement effective innovations and thus engaging in sustainable school improvement.
An effective innovation is useable which means that it is:
teachable, learnable, doable, and readily assessed in practice
Used with fidelity
Can be scaled
Can be sustained over time
Evidence to demonstrate improved outcomes

12. How does your state/team define “capacity”?
Question
How does your state/team define “capacity”?
Beth

13. Defining Capacity
Entities’ ability (systems, activities, resources) to effectively facilitate the use (adopt and sustain) of effective innovations
State: Across regions and districts
Regional: Across districts and schools
District: Across schools
Beth
As part of this work to build state-wide capacity to improve literacy outcomes, our group is defining capacity as the entities ability to effectively facilitate the use of effective innovations. The entities ability is dependent on its systems, activities and resources.

14. Objectives of Ohio’s Literacy Plan
Support data driven decision-making with the Ohio Improvement Process
Ensure districts develop aligned and sustainable language and literacy plans
Support the fidelity of implementation of evidence-based practices
Beth
Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement is focused on four objectives:
Support data driven decision making with the Ohio Improvement Process
Ensure districts develop aligned and sustainable language and literacy plans
Support the fidelity of implementation of evidence-based practices
Provide financial support to literacy improvement and identify sustainable practices
To accomplish these objectives, Ohio committed to using the Simple View of Reading to drive content discourse and development, ensure all learners are represented and supported, enhancing partnerships and collaboration of general and special education practitioners and stakeholders, and enhancing Ohio’s infrastructure supports to build implementation capacity at the state and regional levels.
Provide financial support to literacy improvement and identify sustainable practices

15. How is the Department supporting the state’s infrastructure to implement Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement?

16. Infrastructure Supports
State
Regional
16 Regional Literacy Networks
Regional Professional Learnings Series in Literacy
Local
Early Literacy Pilot Schools
State Personnel Development Grant Districts
Striving Readers Grant
ODE Literacy Unit
State Literacy Network
Beth
The fourth commitment Ohio is making is to enhance Ohio's infrastructure supports to build implementation capacity at the state and regional levels. 
At the state level, Ohio invested in human capitol and developed a literacy unit within the department. In addition, Ohio developed a State Literacy Network consisting of department staff, regional early literacy specialists, regional adolescent literacy specialists, and district literacy coaches engaging in the State Systemic Improvement Plan. This network meets monthly and develops state-wide supports in literacy. The monthly networking is supported by SPDG funds. If anyone is interested in the roles and responsibilities of the regional literacy specialists, please let us know and we can send that to you.
At the regional level, each of regional early literacy specialists leads a regional literacy network made up of district literacy leaders. In addition, through the SPDG grant, we are bringing together regional teams to develop capacity to support literacy improvement in staff that are not literacy specialists but work with districts on literacy initiatives, such as Ohio Improvement Process facilitators, family engagement leads, and early childhood staff. We will dive deeper into this is a few minutes.
At the local level, we are building networks among districts and schools receiving funds to improve literacy outcomes. As Ashley mentioned, there are 10 districts and 1 Educational Service Center receiving SPDG funds and engaging in these networks. All districts are invited to come together once a year at the annual literacy academy and continue networking through the regional networks and other SPDG funded activities.
Networking to Support Improvement Efforts

17. Infrastructure Supports
State
Regional
Local
Department and regional partners are currently exploring capacity assessments and training for the state, regions, and districts in developing infrastructures to support implementation of effective innovations.
Beth
Our team is not simply assuming that the department, regional entities, and local districts have the capacity to engage in this complex work. We are currently in the beginning stages of a usability study testing the use of the National Implementation Research Network’s (NIRN’s) Regional Capacity Assessment and District Capacity Assessment. Please let us know if you’re interested in more information and we can send you our usability study outline.
How well is each part of the system set up to successfully implement effective innovations?

18. Ohio’s Regional System
We are going to spend the remainder of our time quickly outlining Ohio’s Regional Professional Learning Series. The context of Ohio is important to begin with. In Ohio, we have a dual regional system. This map shows the 52 educational service centers that are large scale providers offering diverse services to Ohio’s local districts and schools.
52 Education Service Centers- “large-scale service providers offering administrative, academic, fiscal and operational support services to Ohio’s school districts, chartered nonpublic schools, community schools, and STEM schools” oesca.org.

19. Ohio’s Regional System
16 State Support Teams support state and regional improvement efforts
Ohio also has a State Support Team system. These teams are located within 16 of the Educational Service Centers and specifically support improvement efforts.

20. Multiple Choice Question
Does any other state also support a dual regional system?
Yes No

21. Regional Support Team for Literacy
Beth
Three of the four objectives of Ohio’s plan include activities carried out by regional support teams.
These regional support teams will initially be comprised of staff from State Support Teams and Educational Service Centers.

22. Regional Support Team for Literacy
Regional staff who provide districts/schools support in:
Data driven decision making using the Ohio Improvement Process
Developing improvement plans focused on literacy
Beth
Regional Support Team includes anyone in the SST or ESC that supports literacy improvement in regions in the following areas identified by Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement:
data driven decision making through the Ohio Improvement Process;
developing improvement plans focused on literacy; and/or
supporting the fidelity of implementation of evidence-based practices in language and literacy.
Implementing evidence-based practices in language and literacy

23. Why develop capacity of regional support teams for literacy?

24. Local Literacy Plans 19% 37% <50% <50%
Collaboration among general and special education practitioners
19%
Described how all learners are represented and supported along the language and literacy development continuum
37%
Align to the state’s vision for a multi-tiered system of support
<50%
Beth
Over 100 districts, community schools, and early childhood providers submitted Local Literacy Plans to the Department for review as part of their Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Subgrant application. Interested applicants were mostly provided assistance through regional opportunities offered by State Support Teams and Educational Service Centers.
The review of the local literacy plans showed:
Only 19% of submitted plans described how the plan will enhance partnerships and collaboration of general and special education practitioners and stakeholders;
Only 37% of submitted plans adequately described how all learners are represented and supported along the language and literacy development continuum;
Less than 50% of the submitted plans aligned to the state’s vision for a multi-tiered system of support; and
Less than 50% of the submitted plans included practices aligned to the Simple View of Reading.
Include practices aligned to the Simple View of Reading
<50%

25. Regional Professional Learning Series in Literacy
Knowledge
Skills
Abilities
Developing
Beth
Based on the data from the local literacy plans, it became clear that our regional staff in Ohio deserved professional learning to build their knowledge, skills, and abilities in assisting districts with literacy improvement.
This series is designed to build:
Knowledge in the components of the Simple View of Reading, including development of oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, sight vocabulary, fluent word recognition, comprehension, writing and disciplinary literacy
Knowledge of the diversity of needs among learners
Ability to provide system support specific to literacy improvement, including facilitating system level needs assessments and data-driven systems coaching
Skills to support DLTs, BLTs and TBTs in identifying and implementing evidence-based practices based on data-driven decision making

26. Critical Components of Regional Professional Learning Series in Literacy
High quality professional learning
Sustained
Intensive
Collaborative
Job-Embedded
Data-Driven
Instructionally-focused
Weaves critical concepts throughout
Presumed competence
Related coaching practices
Productive dialogue
Diversity of learners
Intentional integration
Depth and breadth of Ohio’s Learning Standards
Belief that all students are competent and a part of the educational system
Belief that all professionals are responsible for all students
Beth
The State Literacy Network developed critical components for this learning series.
Critical Components:
Meets the criteria for professional learning described in the Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA): sustained, intensive, collaborative, job-embedded, data-driven, and instructionally-focused;
Each intensive professional learning topic weaves the following concepts throughout: presumed competence, related coaching practices (focusing heavily on systems coaching for regional support teams), engaging in productive dialogue, and practices to support diversity of learners, including English learners and students with complex needs.
Intentional integration of topics that will develop a system where all educators:
understand and apply the breadth and depth of Ohio’s learning standards,
believe all students are competent and a part of the educational system, and
believe they are responsible for all students.

27. Professional Learning Plan to Build Regional Capacity
Timeframe
Intensive Professional Learning Topic:
Year 1:
September 2018-May 2019
Building a Disposition to Improve Literacy Achievement
Year 2:
August 2019-December 2019
Word Recognition: Phonemic Awareness (Beginning, Early, Advanced)
January 2020-May 2020
Word Recognition: Phonics (Early and Advanced)
Year 3:
August 2020-December 2020
Language Comprehension: Oral Language and Vocabulary Development
January 2021-May 2021
Language Comprehension: Reading Comprehension, including content area reading strategies
Year 4:
August 2021-December 2021
Writing
January 2022-May 2022
Disciplinary Literacy
Beth
This series is a 4-year series, beginning with developing a common disposition to improve literacy achievement.

28. Why aren’t we diving right into content?

29. Beth

30. Successes of the Regional Series
Open dialogue about capacity to meet the needs of districts and schools
Explicit integration of equity and social justice work of previous SPDG project
We are halfway through year 1 and have experienced successes and challenges with the roll-out of the 4 year series.

31. Challenges of Regional Series
Collaboration among Education Service Centers and State Support Teams
Adult learning behaviors
Participants allowing themselves a space to learn as opposed to treating this as a “train the trainer”
Any Advice?

32. Questions? Beth Hess Ashley Hall Earl Focht
Literacy Specialist
Center for Teaching, Leading, and Learning
Ashley Hall
SPDG Project Director & SSIP Evaluation Lead
Office for Exceptional Children
Earl Focht
SPDG Coordinator

33. Share Your Stories #MyOhioClassroom
There are amazing things happening everyday in Ohio’s classrooms.
#MyOhioClassroom also offers teachers and administrators a way to share stories of success, innovation and other great news with their statewide peers. The hashtag, which is on Instagram and Twitter, is a simple way to engage educators across Ohio and share what’s happening. 
We hope to see your social media posts using this hashtag!

34. Join the Conversation OHEducation @OHEducation @OHEducationSupt
Did you hear the news? We’re now on Instagram! Check out our official account and follow us at instagram.com/OHEducation. There, you can keep up with top news and updates and, this fall, be on the lookout for fun connections with Ohio teachers in their classrooms.
You also can stay up to date by following our other social media channels. In addition to Instagram, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Our handles are on the slide.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Paolo DeMaria even has his own Twitter account. Follow
OhioEdDept
education.ohio.gov/text