Region 10 & Alaska Native T/TA Conference Call Notes

January 25, 2006
Moderator: Gene Gousie

Coordinator

I would like to inform parties, today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

G. Gousie

Thank you very much. The purposes of our call today are: number one: to introduce a graphic representation of the individualizing cycle to stimulate our thoughts and questions; secondly, to provide some common basis for discussion of how the elements of individualizing connect with one an another, because it's not just one thing; and finally, to identify some terms often used in different ways. Assessment is a good example. People can use that term to mean some very different things. We'll be putting forward some definitions and uses of terms that can be used generally among everybody to mean the same kinds of things. Then secondly as I referenced, we want to make this individualizing cycle concrete by giving some program and child-level examples.

We've chosen a couple programs that use some different assessment tools. That's to give you a sense of how this cycle plays out through the use of different tools. I just want to remind you that even though those tools are highlighted today along with what the programs say about them, we are not promoting the use of specific tools. We do, however, promote the use of appropriate tools for the purposes for which they have been designed.

Let's start as a way of moving into the individualizing cycle. We'll talk first about screening. Head Start requirements, as you all know, call for developmental sensory and behavioral screening in collaboration with the child's parents within 45 calendar days of the child's entry into the program.

Screening is a brief process. It results in a snapshot of where the child is developmentally at any particular time. That process can be repeated as appropriate and certainly with the youngest age children whose developmental progression is more rapid; you can look at doing screening more often. Screening is not used to determine if a child has a disability. It may indicate, however, that a child may need further evaluation to determine whether that child has a disability. So it's a short piece. It's a formal tool with formal procedures, which includes the background of those doing the screening; so screening tools have been designed for certain kinds of persons doing the screening. Considerations in choosing a screening instrument included its validity, its reliability, and the appropriateness for the specific population you may be working with. As ever, we always consider the costs, the domain coverage, the ease of use, and the training available.

As a result of the screening, you may make a referral for further evaluation. So a child may be referred to the appropriate agency or professionals for an evaluation. A series of assessments are conducted, so here's the use of that word assessment in a little different context. This is assessment in the evaluation process that is conducted to identify areas of strength, need, and concern. A team meeting would be held to discuss the results and determine if the child qualifies for special services. If the child qualifies, then in coordination with the parents and the Head Start staff an Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) or an Individual Education Plan (IEP) will be developed.

Moving from screening then, potentially through the evaluation process, we move to assessment and the use of an assessment tool.

Now, by assessment here we mean the ongoing procedures – ongoing is an important word there – ongoing procedures used by appropriate qualified personnel throughout the period of the child's eligibility to identify the child's strengths and needs and the services appropriate to meet those needs; the resources, priorities of the family, and the supports and services necessary to enhance the family's capacity to meet the developmental needs of their children.

There are two aspects here. One is that programs typically perform a formalized assessment resulting in a report that often connects with a family conference of some sort two or three times a year. Then there's the ongoing observation, which enables continuous adjustment of goals, curriculum activities, and other support strategies as programs work with children throughout the course of their time in the program. Now, again, the assessment piece should include input from parents and others who know the children well or in situations different from what program staff may see.

Because the assessment tool is the framework for knowing what to look for and what to observe, what to plan from, and what to talk to parents about, it's really the key tool in this individualizing process, so a lot of care should be taken in terms of identifying, settling on, and training to the assessment tool that your program uses. Because that provides that framework, the way you look at children, what you look for, what the developmental sequence is, how you talk to parents about it, all of those kinds of things.

There are a number of assessment tools that have been cross-referenced with Head Start child outcomes and state level early learning guidelines. So that's the link – when people ask what's the link in what the individualizing cycle is, what's the link to Head Start outcomes, what's the link to early learning guidelines in any state? That link can be provided by the assessment tool. So if the assessment tool contains those same domains, and domain subcategories, and key points that are contained in the outcomes and the early learning guidelines, then that's where you've made that link.

Before we move into the curriculum piece, let's look at some of the links as we go from assessment. So we've done the assessment now.

So as we make the link from assessment to curriculum on the basis of assessment results, individual learning plans for each child should be developed. If the child has gone through the evaluation process that we talked about earlier leading from the screening process, and if that child has an IEP or an IFSP developed, those documents will contain learning goals and objectives that should be incorporated in the planning for that child. So the individual learning plans will highlight areas of growth and development across the domains. This will help inform the curriculum. It'll also inform efforts that the program makes to access services in the community to help meet whatever family needs that impact on the individualizing process for the child.

Once individual children's plans are written, if you're working with a group of children, those individual plans can be listed together to create a group profile, which depicts the focus areas for the curriculum for a group of children. That can help in the ease of moving to curriculum planning.

Let's talk about curriculum. As you all heard any number of times I'm sure by now, when we talk about curriculum and Head Start what we mean is a written plan that includes the goals for children's development in learning, what you're trying to achieve generally; the experiences through which they'll achieve these goals; what staff and parents do to help children achieve these goals; and the materials needed to support the implementation of the curriculum. With children's goals, experiences, materials, and contributions of staff, parents, and volunteers in mind, staff can then construct their weekly and daily lesson plans keeping in mind as well other Head Start regulations and best practices calling for a balance of child-initiated and teacher-directed activities, indoor and outdoor time, meal times, and all the rest.

Now programs often do use additional curricula not just that one, sometimes around specific developmental domains such as literacy, or to provide a focus on things like mental health, personal safety, or some other area. The challenge, obviously, for programs and staff is to make multiple curricula work for the program and child development purposes as well as for the staff. It's not always an easy thing.

As we continue our way around this cycle, we work our way to teacher and child interactions. This is way the awareness, experience, and skills of staff in an environment of support from the program are put to use to individualize for children in a group setting or a home setting depending on the program model. So we are back to the assessment process. Because as teachers interact with children, as staff interact, they are, again, using that framework to observe, to make note of their observations, and to use that information to further refine and inform what they do with the curriculum, how they do their lesson planning, and how they interact with children. Notice that the parents are key partners in all of this by providing information and input. That's key to the individualizing process. They do it when you have home visits, when you have conferences, in the daily interactions when parents come and go, and some other contacts that you may have with them. As you go back and look at this individualizing cycle, there's really a place for parent input just about at every point. That's the outline, the model if you wish, of individualizing. The elements that we're talking about: the screening, the evaluation, the assessment, the individual goal planning, the group goals, the curriculum, the daily and weekly lesson plans, and finally the interactions with children.

Now, we're going to take a look at how that looks in a couple of programs. We're going to ask our guests and we'll start with Carol Snead with the Head Start program at Lane County, Oregon.

C. Snead

Thank you. I'm Carol Snead. My role in the Head Start at Lane County program is Child Development and Disabilities Consultant. Our consultant role is much like coordinator roles in other models. Our role is both monitoring for compliance to Head Start and State of Oregon standards, and also training and doing ongoing support for all of our education staff and the regional managers who supervise those staff. Then I monitor all of our inner-agency agreements for support services for special education and I collaborate with some of the mental health services for children.

We are a program that serves rural and metro families from the ocean all the way up to the Cascade Mountains. We have almost 800 children in our program. The models that we use, we serve only three to five year olds in a part day model and a full day/full year. We also have Head Start children who are placed in community childcare.

In our program, the assessment tool that you choose to use really drives a lot of what the program does and how the program works through this cycle that Gene has provided for us, an excellent tool. We are one of the programs who use Assessment Technology Incorporated's Galileo assessment tool. We went to that tool about six years ago. Our program is one that relies a lot on technology and we have pretty high expectations for all of our staff to use technology, because we cover such a large geographic area.

Seven years ago, when we were looking for an assessment tool, what appealed to me about Galileo was that it was technology-based, and it did a lot of the writing and sorting of information work for teachers, and in essence saves them a lot of time. The other piece that appealed to us was that it had a built-in screening tool, so it ties to screening and assessment together along with curriculum planning and individualizing. That's the tool that we use. If any of you have questions or want to talk to me about Galileo – I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that – you're welcome to e-mail Gene or Renee and they can get you in contact with me.

When children enter Head Start, we do the screening. It is one of the things I like about Galileo's screening tool that's called AcuScreen. It's very observation-based and we do it over a period of at least two, sometimes three days during the child's beginning experience in our program. Some of the screening activities involve direct teacher questioning of children to find out about cognitive and language skills. But also, it's very observation-based so we can observe them working with children and observe their social skills through mealtimes and eating and get an idea about mental health and sensory issues.

There is a checklist that goes with that. The teachers enter that information into the database. The nice thing about this screening tool is that it will generate a score that is norm referenced and indicates by the score whether the child is moderately at risk, slightly at risk, or typically developing. Although, we don't always base our decisions for referral to evaluation on that, it certainly does help us to kind of gauge where the children are and make more than just subjective decisions about whether to refer a child. Parents are involved at the screening level. They fill out parts of the tool to give us information about how the child functions in settings outside of the classroom.

When there is a decision to refer a child for evaluation based on the screening, the parents are involved from the get go. We do parent/teacher conferences, talk to them about the scores, what our areas of concerns are. We compare it to what they're seeing at home based on that and the parents would sign off a permission form. Then the child is referred to our LEA for evaluation. Ninety-nine percent of the time those evaluations are done within our classroom. One of their staff people comes to our classroom, observes the child, and conducts the evaluation. Even though that evaluation process is going on, our teachers immediately move into the assessment process. This tool that Gene developed really depicts in a visual way what actually goes on in our program. So that even though the screening is going off to the right, if you're looking at your diagram, referral to evaluation, that little dotted line, and maybe the development of an IEP or IFSP, the teacher is still proceeding on with assessment.

In Galileo, what we do is observe the children for a period of time and make some general observations, which is the key function of any good assessment tool observation, and determine what's the child's baseline or general skill level in the eight domains, because Galileo follows and matches exactly the Head Start performance standards for domains of development. Once the baseline is set then the teachers begin the cycle of observing, planning curriculum, and assessment.

I wanted to describe how the parents are involved in that, because it's a huge piece of what we do for individualizing. When we have a parent/teacher conference we ask the parents to share with us what are their child's strengths and interests. In other words, based on their experience with their child, and we consider them to be the expert, what are the things your child does well and what are the things your child really likes to do? What are their interests? We also ask them about what do you and your child like to do together. Then at the same time, we interview them about their family's culture. We firmly believe that finding out about a family's culture is a huge piece in individualizing. We ask them to talk to us about the kinds of celebrations they do, their routines at home, the kinds of foods they like to eat, what hobbies they have, and their extended family support. Those kinds of things help us to understand what their family's cultural values are and also help us to kind of get an idea about how they would like to share some of their family cultural experiences with our classroom. That helps the teachers then to individualize not only the activities, but the environment within our classroom to be reflective of their culture.

At the same time, we were doing that for all of the children. Parents are involved in what we call curriculum webbing. They give us ideas about activities or field trips, things they'd like to see the children doing in the classroom. Then based on the assessment tool, Galileo, which tells us then what the children are ready to learn skill-wise in all eight domains, we like to incorporate the parents' ideas from their child's interest, their family culture, and activities they'd like to see their children do at Head Start so that they form the basis of how the children begin to do activities to work on those goals.

Back to this child whom we referred for an evaluation. Once that evaluation is completed, and let's say it's a child who was found to be eligible for special ed services, the special ed coordinator then will share with us and our team participates in the IFSP meeting to develop the goals for the child that they need to work on in the areas that they're not typically developing. So immediately those goals are taken off the IFSP and added to our individualizing tool in Galileo so that we, on a regular basis, are incorporating those IFSPs into the plan for the week and daily plans. Much of the time about 30% of our children are special ed eligible. They all get their services within the classroom. All the accommodations that we need, which is another form of individualizing, are conducted within the classroom. There are a few exceptions. Sometimes the child with some specific articulation goals needs to go out of the classroom for a brief period of time with a speech path to work on some of those sounds that are really hard to hear in a hustling, bustling classroom.

The teachers then follow the exact cycle that Gene was talking about where they plan a weekly curriculum filled with all kinds of activities based on parent input and child input and using the prescribed curriculums that we have so that we know we're meeting the performance standards. It is quite a few balls to juggle in the air. We develop a curriculum plan and implement that on a weekly basis, evaluate at the end of the week: how did that go, what was the interest level like, what was the skill level like as the children participated in these activities, what needs to be repeated and what do we need to move on? And the cycle begins again.

One of the things I did want to talk about even though we use an electronic system for assessment in individualizing, we have child and family portfolios that we build on throughout the year where we collect samples of the children's work and we document each of the eight domains. So some of those documentations are actually photos of children and things they've made or activities that they're involved in. We share those portfolios with the parents at each one of our assessment update periods where we monitor child progress and share with the parent the progress that we've seen so far in the eight domains and samples of their work. Parents really enjoy looking at those things and seeing things like block structures and how they've changed from the beginning of the year to the end or writing and drawing skills and so forth. That's a very hands-on way to get parents involved in their child's progress.

Another piece that we like about Galileo is that it does have a parent library. Many of our parents have access or have a computer in their home and they can get into Galileo's online parent library and work on skills at home with their children doing activities that are just really easy to do at home with materials that most any home would have. So the parents are working in concert with us on the assessment process and sharing information on what they see their child doing at home.

G. Gousie

Let me ask one question and make a few observations about what you've said. First, thank you, Carol, that was very clear. Some of the important things I heard in there that I perhaps didn't stress as much as I might have: one is the use of that screening tool was one piece of information that informed the decisions that follow from the screening process. And very importantly is that parent input became critical at that point. The second thing, when you talk about the special services and the evaluation process and the services in the classroom, what you're referencing is an important relationship with the local education agency that is the envy of many programs, I'm sure. But what I want to point out here is that this whole process is indeed affected by factors beyond what we've highlighted here. One of the important ones is the quality of that relationship with your local education agency.

You also did a very nice job of highlighting the link to family culture and how that gets incorporated in the curriculum and referencing of the individualizing of the environment, which is a piece really that I'll have to add to this paper and haven't included yet. Finally, my question, Carol, the Galileo system that you use – or not that system itself, but how is it that the process for using that plays out in your program. So here's my question: all the teachers use the same tool. Do they all do the same amount of and kinds of observations at the same times? How much is everybody doing the same thing all the time?

C. Snead

Okay. That's a good question. Our teachers, if they were here, would be talking about we do have some basic, minimum requirements that teachers individualize a goal in language and literacy every week, plus one of the other domains. So each week they are choosing for every child one goal in two different domains that they're going to observe and collect data on. Now they're doing lots of other activities in the classroom and in every center of the classroom. They're doing art activities and large motor and all of that. But we have designed a system so that within the eight to nine-week period of time where we're collecting observational data in an ongoing way, we want to make sure that they're cycling through all eight domains and looking at the complete child's development and not just one particular area like language and literacy. So there is a minimum of individualizing for a language and literacy and one other domain goal every week for all children.

The beauty of the Galileo system is when you have 18 to 20 children in your classroom it's really hard to manage all that data in your head: who's ready for what goal and what skill are they working on. And based on the assessment information that the teacher puts in the system, it will create – there are two individualizing reports. Two different kinds that it will create to show the teacher, based on this language and literacy goal, these are all the children that are ready for this goal. So that's the goal they select, put on their curriculum plan, and then they choose an activity, a fun kind of activity based on the child's interests and family culture and all those other inputs, to embed that goal or skill in.

We have three data collection periods where we collect data on the children. Then we have a time, a certain date – there are three dates within our program year – that all their data needs to be in for all children into Galileo. So we can print our outcomes report from the system and check in and see are we on track? Are the kids that are transitioning to kindergarten working at the level at a trajectory of a development that's going to make them ready for kindergarten? We look at it as a group. We look at reports for the kids on an IFSP. We look at our English language children and compare their progress. So that throughout the year periodically then, we can say hold the phone here, Martha; we need to go back and start working more in this area or really are the children not learning anything in science and math or is it just you didn't put your data in the system? That's kind of our checkpoint way that we do that and that's why we do have the minimum requirements and then these timelines where they have to get their data in. The nice thing about Galileo is it's instant. The minute they put their information in about assessment for a particular child then we can look at a report on that particular child or that class and compare and see how they're doing. Did I answer your question?

G. Gousie

Yes. Thank you, Carol. In fact, what you were saying right there highlights two things that are very important, something for programs to think about. One is how they manage this whole assessment piece: the observation, what they require of staff, how often, how does it get aggregated, and all of that. Then secondly, what came through in part of your talking about the baseline requirement of that literacy and language observation, is this is where program values and vision and the link to the particular needs of your population of children and families comes through; that programs will focus in on one area more particularly because that's a particular need. So, Carol, we want to thank you very much.

C. Snead

You're welcome.

G. Gousie

Now, we're going to turn to Jon Whelan with Neighborhood House here in Seattle.

J. Whelan

I want to thank Carol, because she set up a nice framework for people to consider what I'm about to say, which is similar in many ways, but also different in many ways. First of all, my name is Jon Whelan. I am the Education Supervisor at our program. I work primarily with the teachers overseeing the daily program in each of the classrooms, not to micromanage, but just supporting and meeting with the teachers weekly.

Our program is based in the Seattle Housing Authority's garden community where there is low income housing. Most of our families are either new immigrants or immigrants and English language learners. Many of them are refuges from East Africa, Southeast Asia, South and Central America, and one or two Eastern European, though that's not a primary element of our population. Needless to say, our program is heavily literacy based, so that's a primary focus of much of our curriculum.

One of the overriding assumptions in our program is that the parents are the primary educators of their children. We here at Head Start and eventually in schools will be secondary to that. So part of our program through our family support workers as well as our teachers is to engage the parents in that way to help them see themselves as the child's primary educator. For many of our people their culture, as Carol was speaking, bringing in cultural issues is very important, because for a lot of our families their culture has been that the child is turned over to an educator. The parent actually steps out of that process and the teacher has eminent domain over the education of that child as well as discipline issues, etc. We have to work against that by engaging the parents as a team member, part of this team that educates their children.

The first step in our processes is our enrollment process where one of our family support workers meets with the parents and fills out basic paperwork as well as what we refer to as our family partnership goals. They begin to look at that. So it's not only the goals for the children, but it's the goals for the family as a whole. That can also be around issues of economics and work and housing, but definitely includes a large portion of seeing themselves as educators and part of the team with their children. Then the children enter our program in September. Within the 45 days, obviously, we fulfill our screening, both our health as well as our cognitive and behavior screenings.

Now, we have two options. We used to use a tool that was the ASQ. It's a questionnaire that was done with the families as well as via observation by the teachers. We have moved away from that to what is now called the Early Screening inventory (ESI) and that is a formal sit down, one-on-one with either a teacher or another facilitator from our staff to do some basic questions, fine motor/gross motor skill assessment. Then there is the Connors Behavioral Scale, which is done by the teachers in each classroom. That is supposed to be an objective snapshot – one of the terms that Gene uses – of where that child is as they enter the program.

Now, as I speak I'm going to touch upon some of the qualities of our teachers in this process. Because training the teachers to see that as simply a snapshot has been very important. A number of our teachers are concerned about some of these screenings that we do, because they're concerned that the children will be labeled. Part of our role is to emphasize that there's – hopefully no labeling is done – but that the child is just taken a brief look at their behavior in the classroom. These are generalities; they're only happening today. They may not have happened yesterday, but we just want to get a real brief glimpse to find out where that child is behaviorally. Then that continues to be part of our assessment program from not only the teachers, but our mental health special needs mangers as well, and then also the initial parent home visit where the teachers meet the parents and begin to build that relationship with the parents within the classroom.

Now, again, we go back to issues of language. Many of our families do not speak English very well, so our family support workers serve as translators not only of the actual language, but of the cultural aspects of our program and from the families to the people in our program to help us understand better who they are and what their view of children's education is.

The initial home visit is a very basic interview. It's an introduction to what will happen in the classroom, and that piggybacks on with our initial parent meetings to invite the parents in and see the classrooms, get a sense of what the setup looks like, what the daily schedule will be like. But also to explain or just sort of build the relationship and explain to the parent what the teachers do with the kids, why play is so important to them, as well as the reading and the writing, and learning how to spell their name, and count, and things to this extent, which is a huge emphasis for our parents. Many of our parents are wondering why their children aren't writing their names at four years old and such. So we explain that's a process of getting to that place.

The home visits and conferences that occur after that will include a little bit more reflective data that we have a form, which is the summary of the child's development, which looks at their physical development, fine and gross motor, their cognitive development, their language and literacy development, and then their social development. Those are ongoing just observations that are shared with the families as well as photographs and other portfolio elements: samples of the children's work throughout the year.

The child comes to the classroom; the parents have a meeting with the teachers. That relationship has begun. The children attend regularly and ongoing observation begins right away. So the teachers are writing down observations, they're taking photographs, they're talking with me, they're talking together: the lead teacher and assistant teacher. They begin to consider the individual learning plan, the ILP, which are classroom-based goals that are built up for the child. The initial ones are making friends, learning to recognize their name, following some rules, getting a handle on the daily schedule. Those will be more specific to that individual child's needs and progress as the year progresses.

We have four conferences total including the initial, so there will be three of these ILP sheets that are put together. Within that sheet, it's discussed with the family of what the family would like to have, like to see their child working on, what the teachers see in the classroom as a logical next step for the child. Then they develop strategies together: what will happen in the classroom and what will happen at home.

Now we've established goals and a role for the family not only in getting the child to school on time, attending parent meetings, but also activities that they can do at home that parallel or piggyback and support the activities that are happening at school. Again, this develops this relationship and this intention that the parents are the primary caregivers and educators of their children.

Then throughout the next few months, through the lesson planning – and I'll talk a little bit about our curriculum in a moment – through their lesson planning the teachers utilize the goals and the strategies, specifically the strategies, that have been developed with the family in the planning of what will be happening in their large and small group activities. What will be happening, what will be brought in materials-wise to the manipulative area, the sensory area, the block area, etc., the art and writing centers. There's a record kept of the individual goals, what activities related to those goals and the strategies for each child. That is separate documentation either kept directly on the lesson plan or what we refer to loosely as a class picture tracking sheet, which just tracks the numbers of opportunities and activities that were provided to that child throughout the weeks between the ILP goal process with the parents.

Again, these continuing ongoing observations as well as staffing, which are meeting more regularly with myself and the teaching staff in the classroom. We try to meet two to three times per year, talking specifically about each child. That process relates directly to what happens in the classroom. We also do a broader staffing process where we bring in the family support people, our health and mental health special needs coordinators, and look at the child as well as the family as a whole and what successes, what struggles they're having and how those can be addressed and supported by each member of our team. Then the process begins again by meeting with the parents, talking about progress, looking at photographs and other portfolio items, discussing their developments, etc. So the parent is given a regular opportunity, obviously daily, when they arrive and drop off their children. But also a more intensive opportunity four times throughout the year to sit down and really focus on what their child is doing.

That process is, as I've alluded to, there are challenges created not only by language and culture, parent perspective about education in school, what their role is, what our role is. But also by engaging the parents and drawing out of them the willingness to be interested and to really truly see themselves as a partner in this process. We work on training our staff to ask the questions to draw people out. Very often, the parents say they have no concerns, which that's not the first thing we're looking for. We're not looking for concerns; we're looking for maybe hope and dreams and goals and aspirations, etc. But talking with the parents, asking the right questions, engaging them about their own feelings about school: what did they do when they were children, how do they see their children in relationship to where they were when they were children, how did they play, what did they learn, etc.? So really, really bringing that out is a skill that is developed with our teaching staff as well as our family support staff.

Our curriculum that we use is the Creative Curriculum that's put out by Teaching Strategies Publishers. The Creative Curriculum focus is primarily on the room environment: creating spaces for the different areas of learning that would happen in sensory activities and block play and manipulative puzzles; creating quiet spaces for looking at books, large group areas, small group areas that would happen at tables or on the floor, etc., and then building your curriculum from there.

We have two planning sheets that are modeled after the Creative Curriculum. One is an environmental sheet that includes comments by the teachers about the focus of their study at that point; skills and concepts that they're working to emphasize for all the children and any new vocabulary as well that's happening. Then they would record the changes or the additions to the environment in the dramatic play area, the art area, block and accessories for blocks, manipulatives and other games, bulletin boards that they put up for the children as well as for parent information.

And most importantly, the language and literacy materials that are available and used throughout the classroom: There is a discovery science area, library books that are available to the children to choose, as well as what will be used in large group activities, and then computer software and other various sensory materials. We do have computers in our classroom that are used on a regular basis. Then that is looked at and changed anywhere from two to four weeks depending on what the weekly plan and process is that needs to support it.

Then we have a weekly plan that is filled out every week by each classroom that includes small group activities, large group activities, the books, finger plays, and songs that they'll be using in their large and small group activities. The outside time is also planned for what we would call large motor activities and that does happen mostly outside. We see that as part of the plan; that it's not just something that you let the kids go out and then the teachers lean up against the fence and talk or have a glass of water or whatever. That is a very planned and intentional moment in the day. Also, any visitors or events: we have guest readers that come in. I'm in the classrooms regularly and I sometimes take over an activity.

We also have sections for family communication activities and that may be the weekly parent meeting or some other kind of celebration that's happening, our RIF book distributions. Then also the emphasis on handwashing, personal hygiene, dental health, safe play, what are the ways the kids utilize the room or the rules in the room that help everybody stay safe, health examinations that might be happening; and those do happen on a twice if not three time-yearly basis. Then nutrition issues, when we sit at the table and share meals.

Then there are three other areas: poison prevention, health and safety, and mental health and social and emotional learning. Those are, although I think mostly intrinsic and part of the teaching and the teachers' behaviors with the children, we want those to be emphasized so that the lesson plan not only serves as a guideline for the teachers, but also as a method of communicating to the families what their children are doing in the classroom each day. What they're being exposed to and what concepts in vocabulary are being emphasized. Along with that communication, we include parent letters that are on a weekly basis as well as vocabulary lists that are being emphasized.

One thing that's a little bit different this year is that throughout – I've been with the program almost two years now. But in the past, they had rooms that were primarily three's and four's and then rooms that were four's and five's. Because of the change of our demographics that's no longer possible and our rooms, almost all of them, include some three-year-olds all the way up to nearly five when they enroll. So the teachers are being challenged to expand their curriculum to create developmentally appropriate practice and activities for all of the children in their rooms.

We are lucky that the Seattle Public School supports us in our special needs assessment, so we do our ESI behavioral screenings. The score relates those to okay, re-screen, or refer. Now, one of the things is that the ESI is only developed for English language and Spanish language, so many of our children – we have families from the East African languages to Vietnamese, Cambodian, Mung, Laotian, a few Chinese speaking families, as well as Spanish speaking families. Oftentimes, the ESI will register as a re-screen or referral when it's primarily due to the child not responding because they don't understand the questions.

This is part of the expertise of our mental health special needs program managers to assess where that child is at and to make that determination if it's a language issue or if it is an actual developmental concern for the child. That's where we also incorporate the families, particularly if they show a referral or re-screen in speech, we check with the families and find out do they have any concerns about their child's ability to speak their home language, their pronunciation, etc. If the parents don't have a concern we take that into account. Then pay attention: maybe there is some stuttering that the parent has just gotten used to, but our teachers pickup on it because it stands out when they're in a group of children.

The use of photos particularly as well as portfolios is also very key. Sometimes it's difficult to relate the concepts of children playing together in the dramatic play area. What good is water play and sensory activities? Photographs help the parents see the fine motor development, the social skills that they're developing. When they come into the classroom they hear the language that's being created and developed between the children and their peers as well as the adults in the classroom as well and the children.

Carol touched upon those questions that we asked the families. What do you do with your child? What does your child like to do? What opportunities do you have as a family to do things together? What toys and games – which is another huge issue, obviously. Head Start families are fairly low income, so resources in the home are few and far between for many of them. So finding used books and distributing those to our families, finding resources for games and other kinds of activities, teaching parents how to turn kitchen utensils and daily activities into learning experiences with their children are all very, very important to that process.

If a child does receive – we do see a referral as necessary – we speak to the Seattle Public Schools and they have their special ed teams that setup these assessments with the kids and the families. We have to sign all the appropriate releases for sharing of information. Usually our special needs coordinator will attend and occasionally the teacher and the family support worker to support the family and understanding and feeling comfortable with the process. Then a determination is made whether the child will receive onsite services at our program.

As Carol described, there are two options. One is that the provider comes into the classroom and works in tandem with the teachers, but also may pull them out to a separate room where they can work more closely one-on-one to hear some of the finer points of speech. Then occasionally, I would say maybe one child that we initially enrolled either goes to a self-contained program all day long or attends our program at one point of the day and then is transported to a self-contained program with the Seattle School District.

There's a variety of players and partners involved. I think our program – we've been in action for a good number of years and have a real strong partnership with the community in creating the best model possible for each of our children and families. I think I've gotten most of them.

One thing that we do and we try to make happen so that there's not too many pieces of paper that are being brought to the families is if a family does have an IEP or an IFSP developed for them, we incorporate as much of the goals around those IEPs or IFSPs as part of our goal sheets, the ILPs that we create, and then develop strategies based upon what is described in the IEP or IFSP. That just helps us limit the amount of information that a parent is trying to keep straight as to what's affecting their children and what's happening with their child in a classroom. I think I've touched upon all the details there. It's a very involved and broad-based process.

G. Gousie

Great, John. That's very helpful. Certainly, several themes: the connection and the communication with families, the focus on language, the importance of the environment, and planning all comes through loud and clear.

When we had talked earlier it seemed like it might be possible to have someone from your program on the line with you to talk just for a few minutes about how this process differs a little bit for children ages zero to three. Is that something you're able to do now?

J. Wayland

I am able to. I was unable to get one of our home visitors from our early Head Start program and I apologize for not including that. Yes. Neighborhood House does also have an early Head Start program for prenatal to three. Their process does look a little bit different. Although it incorporates many of the same personnel, their process is different.

Most of you are probably familiar with Early Head Start. It's a home-based support and education program for pregnant mothers and new parents with young children. The process that we have is similar in that there are meetings with the families, there are discussions about what the family's goals are. This is where the parent observation of their child becomes most key to the process. We use what's called the AEPS, the Assessment Evaluation Programming System for infants and children. It's put out by Paul H. Brookes Publishing. It is a measurement and a flow system, a continuum that occurs – actually, I just got reminded of another thing, but I'll go back to that in a moment – of looking at all the different domains of physical and social and cognitive development with children. Again, these are continuums of a beginning process to an ending process with a goal involved for each one.

I apologize if I sound a little vague; this one I'm less familiar with. But what was described to me was that a form is filled out by the home visitor. It's a home visit planning and feedback form. On there it has – the goal is that the home visitor will meet with the family at their home once a week. At that time, they talk with family and talk about what happened at the last visit, the previous visit, any plans that had been made, any goals that the parent had set for themselves, and where they are in that.

There will be an activity. Generally, it's a literacy-based activity, but often it's, again, how to either use toys or home materials and activities to focus on the child's learning and engagement. They look at the activity for that day, do the activity with the child and the family, and then get some feedback. What did the parent think about it? Will they be able to continue using this kind of an activity? Do they see it as worthwhile? Then they plan for the next visit.

Usually, they set goals for the child. On here they have two goals: child goal one and child goal two. Again, that's something where that is an engagement between the parents themselves and the child where the home visitor then steps back from the process and coaches the parent on how to be with their child. What's a way that you can look at a book? How do you give children appropriate material and take the time? What are you describing to them in words that they can utilize and learn using descriptive words, descriptive language, and the tone of voice even.

Then there's a documentation form of what happened. Who was there, what the environment was like, were they at home, were they in the bedroom, were they in the kitchen or the living room, did they actually meet somewhere else, which happens with many families. They're not comfortable bringing a stranger into their home. But they do want to meet with them, so they'll meet at a neutral place. There's a description of the parent/child interaction. There's a description of the activities that happened, and there's a description of any discussions or teachable moments that occurred, anything that emerged out of that meeting that day.

They talk about the length of visit. They talk about what kinds of things were accomplished and if the family showed up, obviously, if they were unable to make the visit for some reason. They look at the different curriculum areas: health, safety, nutrition, dental health, pre and postnatal issues, education and disabilities, mental health, family partnerships, community partnerships, literacy, any transitions. What has become more of a specific focus in Head Start in the last couple of years is father involvement. What are the roles of the men in the home? Then an individual child plan is made up with the input of the family.

Again, this is sort of a goal sheet and it looks at the child's strengths as observed by the home visitor and the parent, the child's interests, and the emerging skills or needs that the child may have. The wants and goals of the parents, and then routines that are developed and discussed that would help support those goals. The parent and the staff person sign off on this and it's sort of an agreement that these are the things we're going to be looking at. Then they look at the goals and create an outcome, a very tangible outcome for the goals and create a plan that says these are the steps, this is what we're hoping to accomplish by this step by this activity, which then leads to that parent. Oftentimes, it's finding a job, so they would look at what skills the parent has, what do they want to do, how much money do they need to make, how much time do they have to spend?

Then they would also look at for my child I want to spend more time interacting with my child in an appropriate way, but I also have to clean the house, we have to go get groceries, so sometimes I put my child in front of the TV set or something. So what are alternatives to that? They create strategies and routines to support that. What's very important for this process as well as for our process is if you set a goal, did you meet that goal, when did that happen, a date, what was the observation oftentimes? What's the observation that says yes, I met that goal?

Then there's – it looks like a journal of – it's an assessment I guess. It's called the Family Report. It looks at questions like does your child bring both hands to the middle of the body at the same time; did it happen, yes, and what date; does your child use the index finger to activate toys or objects; does your child put together simple toys; and things like that. There are a number of questions in here that deal with the different areas of development.

This last thing that I'm discussing, the Family Report, relates directly to the curriculum in our three to five program also – and I failed to discuss this – which is called the Developmental Continuum. That is an observation-based assessment that is done three times throughout the year for the children in our three to five Head Start program that looks at the different areas of development – this is a published portion of the Creative Curriculum that we use – that looks at social/emotional development, physical development, cognitive development, and language development. There are fore-runner examples of behaviors that would – like enjoys and values reading. What would be a fore-runner example? That gets filled in.

The child asks to be read to, the child seeks out a book, and the child will sit and look at books for a long period of time. Then it says and the extensions of that are listens to stories being read, participates in story time interactively, and finally, chooses to read on their own, seeks information in books, and sees themselves as a reader. This is filled out, as I said, three times during the year. The data from that is entered into a computer program, which then tracks our program and the successes of our program of children's development – or not necessarily the successes, but just the development of the children throughout the year. That's the only real technology piece, but it creates a nice little graph so the teachers can see how as a percentage of their classroom is developing through each of the areas of development in the class. There you go, Gene.

G. Gousie

Thank you very much, Jon.

J. Wayland

It's a lot of information.

G. Gousie

It is a lot of information. But it's a lot of useful info as well. We've about run out of our time here. I want one, to tell you the next steps here or remind you of the ones that I posted earlier. We will be putting up on the Web this conference call, a transcript and a recording in the next couple weeks, as well as the, hopefully, revised document that was sent out with the announcement, and any additional resources – the document contains references to some resources. If any of you have found that certain resources are of particular value to you and maybe to others, by all means send that information in to us so that we can include it in the information that follows up with this call today. Again, if you have any questions about this whole process, feel free to send them in and we'll route them to Jon and Carol and myself as well and include the responses to those up on the Web. So we want to thank Carol and Jon in particular for their participation today. We want to thank all of you for tuning in and we look forward to those materials being up on the Web and an announcement about next month's call. So we'll sign off here. Thank you all very much. Bye-bye.