ESEA Flexibility Waiver
Webinar
Early Childhood, Special Education, Title
Program Services
Kansas State Department of Education
Pat Hill phill@ksde.org
Norma Cregan ncregan@ksde.org
Agenda
 Part 1: School Improvement Process
 Flowchart
 Next Steps
 Support for Districts and Schools
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District Facilitators (DFs) and Implementation Coaches (ICs)
Kansas Integrated Innovation Teams (KIITs)
Technical Assistance System Network (TASN) and Directory of Resources
Additional Support
 Part 2: Role of KansaSTAR System
 Purpose/Key Features
 Dashboard – Login/Password, Enter School Information
 Getting Started – School Leadership Team Steps
 Part 3: Focus of the School’s Work: Four Team Structure Indicators
 Assess – Assessing the Indicators
 Plan – Creating the School Plans and Tasks
 Monitor – Implementation & Sustainability
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Part 1: School Improvement
Process
Flowchart
Next Steps
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
School Improvement Process –
 KLN Team conducts DNA
 DNA Reports including recommendations of
Menu of Meaningful Interventions (MMIs).
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Priority and Focus Schools’ Next Steps
 Implement targeted technical assistance and professional
development that is based on data from the District Needs
Assessment.
 Required in Priority Schools (Address First):
 Review the performance of the current principal
 Replace the principal if such a change is necessary to ensure
strong and effective leadership; or demonstrate to the KSDE
that the current principal has a track record in improving
achievement and has the ability to lead the turnaround effort.
 Review the quality of all staff and retain only those who are
determined to be effective and have the ability to be successful
in the turnaround effort.
 School Improvement Grant (SIG) schools will use the Menu
of Meaningful Interventions.
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Priority and Focus Schools –
Next Steps
 Complete an analysis of the DNA Report
 Begin using the KansaSTAR system to track
implementation of DNA Report
recommendations.
 Refer to the Crosswalk document that aligns
the 7 Turnaround Principles, Menu of
Meaningful Interventions and the KansaSTAR
Indicators.
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Priority and Focus School –
Next Steps
 Using the KansaSTAR system Assess, Plan for, and
begin to implement 4 Key Indicators (Team
Structure).
 Dates for implementing 4 Key Indicators
 Refer to the KansaSTAR Reporting Requirements
and Timelines document for specific directions on
the number of indicators to complete in a given
timeframe and the KansaSTAR Indicators of
Effective Practices document. This cycle will
continue for 3 years.
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Priority and Focus Schools –
Next Steps
 Determine what types of technical assistance will
assist the district and school(s) in addressing the
challenges and recommendations indicated in the
DNA Report.
 Utilize the Technical Assistance System Network
(TASN) and the Directory of Resources to assist
the district and school(s) in providing additional
professional learning opportunities aligned to the
DNA Report’s recommendations.
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
TASN and Directory of Resources Links
 TASN:
http://www.ksdetasn.org/cms/
 Directory of Resources:
http://tasnsupport.greenbush.org/
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Role of District Facilitator (DF)
 DFs will work directly with the district and
Priority and Focus schools.
 DFs work at the district level to facilitate the
implementation of the improvement
process.
 DFs provide ongoing technical assistance to
the district as they implement interventions
related to the needs assessment.
 DFs serve on the KIIT.
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Role of Implementation Coach (IC)
 ICs work at the school level to facilitate the
implementation of the improvement process
in Priority Schools.
 ICs will support the implementation of the
interventions at the school level.
 ICs will evaluate whether the key indicators
and turnaround indicators are met.
 ICs will serve on the KIIT.
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Additional Support for Priority & Focus
Schools
 Federal School Improvement Grants
 Title I funds reserved by districts
 Support provided by KSDE through the Kansas
Learning Network (KLN)
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KSDE—School Improvement Coordinator Sandy Guidry
Network Providers (service centers)
Cross & Joftus Consultants
District Facilitators
Implementation Coaches
Kansas Integrated Innovation Team (KIIT)
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Support for Priority and Focus Schools –
Kansas Integrated Innovation Teams (KIITs)
 KSDE staff is assigned to KIITs.
 The KIITs will offer technical assistance
throughout the school improvement process.
 The KIITs will provide On-site monitoring two
times a year in Priority Schools.
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
The KansaSTAR System
Dashboard
Login/Password
School Information
School Leadership Team Steps
Schools are given a unique password and
enter here through a link from the SEA
website
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
The first items
that a process
manager should
do in the
system, are:
 Update school
information
 Add Team Members
 Add demographics
and test assessment
scores
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Focus of the Work
Four Team Structure Indicators
Assessing the Indicators
Creating School Plans and Tasks
Monitoring: Implementation & Sustainability
Indicators of Effective Practice-Samples
Teams
Teachers
Principals
• All teams operate with work
plans for the year and
specific work products to
produce.
• Instructional Teams meet for
blocks of time (4 to 6 hour
blocks, once a month; whole
days before and after the
school year) sufficient to
develop and refine units of
instruction and review
student learning data.
• All teachers maintain a
record of each student’s
mastery of specific learning
objectives.
• All teachers differentiate
assignments (individualize
instruction) in response to
individual student
performance on pre-tests
and other methods of
assessment.
• The principal spends at least
50% of his/her time working
directly with teachers to
improve instruction,
including classroom
observations.
• The principal challenges,
supports and monitors the
correction of unsound
teaching practices.
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
First Read Wise Ways Research

Indicator: A Leadership Team consisting of the principal, teachers who lead the Instructional
Teams, and other key professional staff meets regularly (twice a
month or more for an hour each meeting). (42)
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Evidence Review:
Some decisions concern the general operation of the school and its continuous improvement. The
Mega System places those decisions with a Leadership Team that is headed by the principal and
includes teachers and other staff. In order to facilitate communication and coordination among the
grade levels and the departments of the school, a typical composition of the Leadership Team is the
principal and team leaders from the Instructional Teams. The Leadership Team needs to meet twice
each month for an hour each meeting. Less frequent meetings lead to drift and loss of continuity;
less time for each meeting creates hurriedness and insufficient attention to the work at hand.
Effective teams operate with agendas, keep minutes, stay focused, and follow through with the
plans they make.

Source: Sam Redding, The Mega System. Deciding. Learning. Connecting. A Handbook for
Continuous Improvement Within a Community of the School.
©2010 Academic Development Institute
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
The Leadership Team should ask
themselves:
1. What is the straight-forward, literal meaning and intent of the indicator?
2. How would we know the extent to which the indicator is implemented?
3. What data must be analyzed to determine the level of implementation?
4. What instruments must be created to gather the data?
5. Who will make the data available?
6. What does it look like now?
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Team Structure Indicators
Category: Leadership and Decision-Making
Section: Establishing a Team Structure with Specific duties and time for
instructional Planning
Four Key Indicators:
A Leadership Team consisting of the principal, teachers who lead the
Instructional Teams, and other key professional staff meets regularly (twice a
month or more for an hour each meeting). (42)
The Leadership Team serves as a conduit of communication to the faculty and
staff. (43)
The school’s Leadership Team regularly looks at school performance data and
aggregated classroom data an uses that data to make decisions about school
improvement and professional development needs. (45)
Teachers are organized into grade-level, grade-level cluster, or subject-area
instructional teams. (46)
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
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Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Assess School Indicators
Utilizing Wise Ways and candid conversations, teams will determine if indicators
are:
 Fully Implemented
 Limited development
 No development
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
No Development or Implementation
If the team determines there is no implementation, it then decides
if the indicator is:
 not a priority (provide explanation why)
 a priority and will be included in the school improvement
plan.
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Will Include in Plan/Limited Development
If the team determines that it will include the indicator in their plan OR if the team
assesses the indicator as Limited Development, then the team will determine:
 Priority of the indicator
 Opportunity to reach full implementation
 Description of current implementation
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Full Implementation
If an indicator is determined to be fully implemented, the team must
provide:
 Evidence of full implementation
 Description of sustainability efforts
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
*Indicators marked as fully implemented or not a priority will not move into the planning process.
Creating School Plans and Tasks
Objectives to Plan
Teams can create plans for
indicators assessed as:
 No development, will
include
 Limited development
Indicators that were
assessed as:
 not a priority or
 fully implemented
will not appear in Step 5.
Indicators are referred to as ‘objectives’ in the
planning process.
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Creating Plans
To create a plan for an objective, the
Leadership Team :
*Teams should again refer to Wise Ways when creating plans.
 assigns a team member to
be responsible for the
Objective
 describes how the
Objective will look in the
school when it is fully
implemented
 describes what they will
need to gather to provide
evidence when it is fully
implemented
 creates tasks to reach the
Objective
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Creating Tasks
For each task
created, the
Leadership Team:
 describes the
tasks
 assigns a person
to complete the
task
 establishes a date
for completion
Tasks should be simple steps towards completing the objective.
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Monitoring:
Implementation & Sustainability
Monitoring the Plan
At each Leadership Team
meeting, the team will:
 review the list of tasks
that were created for
each Objective
 check progress of each
task with the team
member assigned
 check off each task as it is
completed.
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Monitoring the Plan
Once all tasks for an
objective have been
completed, the team will
decide if:
 The objective is now fully
implemented OR
 More work still needs to
be done
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Monitoring the Plan
If the team has reached full
implementation for an
objective, they should:
 CELEBRATE!
 Describe evidence of
implementation
 Describe experience
 Explain how
implementation will be
sustained.
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Monitoring the Plan
If all tasks have been completed, but the Leadership Team does not feel as if they have
reached full implementation, the Team will simply add more tasks until the objective has
been met.
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
Thank You!
 Questions?
 Contact Information
Pat Hill
785-296-3137
phill@ksde.org
Norma Cregan
785-296-4906
ncregan@ksde.org
Kansas State Department of Education
www.ksde.org
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