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Southwest Early Childhood Education Research Partnership

Workshops and coaching icon

Oklahoma has prioritized the alignment of the state’s early learning standards and assessments to strengthen the quality of state-funded early learning programs and ensure that all children enter kindergarten ready to learn. REL Southwest is working with the Oklahoma State Department of Education and other partners to support these efforts.

Goals

  • Examine and address issues of equity in state-funded early childhood programs in Oklahoma.
  • Support the state’s use of an early learning inventory to assess children’s knowledge and skills at kindergarten entry and to provide data to improve state-funded early learning programs.

Handout

Janice Keizer, Partnership Facilitator Katie Dahlke, Partnership Research Lead
Partnership Facilitator Partnership Research Lead
Janice Keizer Katie Dahlke
jkeizer@air.org kdahlke@air.org

Partners

  • Melissa Ahlgrim, Director of Reading Sufficiency Act, Oklahoma State Department of Education, Oklahoma
  • Paula Brown, Director, Oklahoma Head Start Collaboration Office
  • Valarie Davis, Coordinator, Oklahoma State Department of Education
  • Shannon Dennis, Executive Director, Smart Start Central Oklahoma, Oklahoma
  • Stephanie Hinton, Director of Early Childhood Education, Oklahoma City Public Schools, Oklahoma
  • Lauren Jenks-Jones, Executive Director of Early Childhood Education, Oklahoma State Department of Education
  • Susan Kimmel, Director, Center for Early Childhood Professional Development, Oklahoma
  • Margie Marney, Director, Potts Family Foundation, Oklahoma
  • Rachel Moehle, Early Childhood Education Specialist, Oklahoma State Department of Education
  • Tiffany Neill, Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Oklahoma State Department of Education, Oklahoma
  • Sophia Pappas, Managing Director, Kaiser Family Foundation, Oklahoma
  • Sarah Roberts, Program Officer, Inasmuch Foundation, Oklahoma
  • Nicole Silvestri, Early Childhood Education Specialist, Oklahoma State Department of Education
  • Mark Sharp, Executive Director of SoonerStart, Oklahoma State Department of Education
  • Amy Tate, Associate Professor, Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma
  • Deb Wade, Director of Elementary English Language Arts, Oklahoma State Department of Education
  • Carrie Williams, Executive Director, Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness, Oklahoma

Training, Coaching, and Technical Support

  • Coaching to Support the Selection of an Early Learning Inventory
    This coaching project is part of a larger effort to support the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) in using an early learning inventory (ELI) to assess children’s knowledge and skills at kindergarten entry and to provide data to improve state-funded early learning programs. The project had two primary goals: (1) to build OSDE capacity to identify and apply evidence about the validity and feasibility of early learning assessments to support planning for an ELI pilot study; and (2) to build OSDE capacity to communicate and disseminate information to teachers, principals, early childhood education advocates, and policymakers about the scientific rationale for piloting an ELI. The coaching sessions equipped OSDE staff with information to make an evidence-based decision about selecting an ELI for a pilot study.
  • Coaching to Build State Capacity to Develop and Administer a Prekindergarten Teacher Survey About Curricula and Instructional Practices
    This coaching project is intended to build the capacity of the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) to develop and administer a survey to prekindergarten teachers about their curriculum use, curriculum training, and instructional practices. Through a series of workshops, REL Southwest coached OSDE on best practices for survey development, administration, data analysis, and data use. OSDE and REL Southwest then collaborated to develop and pretest a survey for administration in fall 2019. REL Southwest will analyze the results in spring 2020 and then coach OSDE on using the findings about the prekindergarten curricula landscape to inform professional development strategies and policy. In addition, OSDE plans to apply the skills that staff gain through this project to develop and administer annual surveys to continue to study the state’s universal prekindergarten programs.
  • Planning for an Early Learning Inventory Pilot Study
    This coaching project is part of a larger effort to support the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) in using an early learning inventory (ELI) to assess children’s knowledge and skills at kindergarten entry and to provide data to improve state-funded early learning programs. Through a series of coaching sessions, REL Southwest and OSDE staff adapted an existing ELI for use in a pilot study, developed resources and training materials to support teachers in implementing the ELI for the pilot study, recruited local education agencies to participate in the pilot study, and developed data collection measures to learn about implementation challenges and teacher outcomes from the ELI pilot study. The goals of the coaching project were to help OSDE create a pilot study of ELI implementation that would provide data to inform the training resources and guidance necessary to promote a successful state roll-out of the voluntary ELI. View archived resources.