Thriving Children, Thriving Community - TC2
Leadership Work Group, LWG, Meeting Minutes – December 17, 2008
Participants & Roles Today:
Asata Virgo
Susan Kirschner-Robinson
Mary Beth Overbaugh
Dr. Camille Jackson Alleyne
M = Minute recorder
Allyson Schultz
Kimberly Tynan
Ceila Robbins
Liz Santa
Suzy Rynaski
Susan Jaafar
Paige Bray (M)
Lauren Good
Ann McAdams
Trish Torruella
Jan Kiehne (F)
Tanya Prince
F = Facilitator
Meeting Highlights and detail because in this meeting it’s all highlights!
Here you will find only the highlights of the discussion. See below this section for full context.


LWG Members selected the following 4 measurable data points to be our ‘Headline Indicators.’
As headline indicators these data points assess most clearly, at this time, Windsor’s progress
towards our desired result: All Windsor Children ages birth through 8 will come to school ready,
willing and able to succeed as caring, capable and confident learners.
o Percent of Windsor children assessed as ready for Kindergarten
o Percent of Windsor children testing ‘at goal’ or above on the 3rd grade Connecticut
Mastery Test (CMT).
o Number of child abuse and neglect cases that are substantiated for Windsor children
ages 8 and under
o Place holder for health related indicator… the health committee is going to research and
make a recommendation for a health related headline indicator.
The January Community Discussion and Celebration around what TC2 has discovered so far is a
critical meeting for our project. It’s important that we engage as many key decision makers at
that meeting as we can. In this context, a key decision maker is someone who
controls/influences resources that impact young children. Everyone in TC2 needs to think about
who they know and invite them to attend.
Action Items
All
Bring as many key players as we can to the 1/28/09 meeting
Jan
Piece together the indicators discussed into a flow that connects results, headline indicators,
secondary indicators and items for the data development agenda. This will be passed back to the
LWG for review and comment.
Jan
Send out list to those who said they could help with marketing of the people they’ve ‘signed-up
for’ including talking points and additional info to make the process go smoothly.
Jan
Schedule next Convener’s meeting
H&W
Identify and propose a health related headline indicator
Conveners
Determine ongoing TC2 project structure (i.e. committees vs. workgroups …)
Design agenda for 1/28/09 Community event
TC2 meeting minutes for 12/17/08 LWG meeting
1 of 9
Meeting Minute Details … including all its luscious context by Paige Bray
Tonight we are going to:
 Select Headline Indicators
 Connect Headline Indicators to Results Based Accountability (RBA)
 ID desired results for January Community Celebration & Discussion
Rules for the Road established for tonight’s meeting:
 Ask clarifying questions
 One speaker at a time
 Be concise
 Personal Bicycle Rule
 ELMO (Enough Let’s Move On)
 Wait Time
Selecting Headline Indicators
First, we reviewed the indicators list from last meeting and reassessed how these data points were ranked
for Communication Power, Proxy Power, and Data Power. [See Appendix A for the list of indicators.
Number 1-9 are from last meeting. Letters a-s are additional for this meeting]
Of these, the group decided that they wanted to have these two be headline indicators
1. % of kids ready for Kindergarten
7. 3rd grade CMT scores
And there was much discussion and the following clarifications:
 What do we mean by “health issues”? Thus changing the ratings to M, M, H
 Key Measurements with low data power can be put on the Data Development Agenda (DDA):
o #2 % of children who received services after identification of need—what we really want
to know is who is not getting services
o Others?
By 7:05pm we shifted over to exploring and rating additional indicators not ranked at prior meeting. See
Appendix A for full list and details
a. m/h, m, h/m
b. h, m, h
b and c go together and fall under #1 maybe?
c. h, m, h
terms of white and non-white to be looked
d, e, f, and g all fall under #7 as secondary indicators
h, i, j, k, l secondary and problematic by gender and race bias
m.
h,h,h, -- Child abuse/neglect reports substantiated for children age 8
and under
n. survey data measuring neg but have positive, secondary to #2
o. m (and related to p)
p. l, COMPOUND
q. m
r. l, COMPOUND
s. m, m, hfalls under #2 as a secondary indicator
At 7:40pm we finalized headline indicators as above PLUS a health indicator to be determined by the
health sub-committee.
TC2 meeting minutes for 12/17/08 LWG meeting
2 of 9
Jan will help us understand how all indicators point towards our desired results and email it out for
affirmation and discussion.
By 7:45pm we broke into three groups to discuss one headline indicator and place into the Results
Accountability Framework.
Group 1: Ann McAdams, Susan Jaafar, Trish Torruella, Ceila Robbins, Asata Virgo, (See
Appendix B for details of discussion)
Group 2: Mary Beth Overbaugh, Kimberly Tynan, Tanya Prince, Liz Santa, Dr. Camile Jackson
Elleyne (See Appendix C for details of discussion)
Group 3: Susan Kirschner-Robinson, Allyson Schultz, Paige Bray (M), Lauren Good, Suzy
Rynaski (See Appendix D for details of discussion)
Group 3 Discussion Detail about the Headline Indicator: Percent of 3rd graders at goal on
3rd grade CMT.
DATA:
2006 52.7%
2007 50.8%
2008 44.6%
3rd graders were at goal
3rd graders were at goal
3rd graders were at goal
Our wonderings about the story behind the data:
 Cohort trends
 Test revised
 Can we see the data for 4th grade so we are comparing apples to apples?
 Curriculum changes
 Class size trend for schools (as relates to total populations)
 Student teacher ratio (real distribution)
 Population shifts in Windsor
o non-native born
o ELL
o Transient populations, such as foster care children
o People moving into Windsor schools (not strictly a product of Windsor schools)
o Education of birth mothers
o Numbers of families being served by B to 3
Group 3 KEY PARTNERS: Administration and Faculty in the Schools, BOE, Educational Experts,
Adult Education, Medical community, Parent Education
At 8:10pm the headlights diagram…followed by the rocket diagram and laughter!
The Project structure will be changing for our next phase to reflect our strategic needs.
ID desired results for January Community Celebration & Discussion
 Community aware we are here
 Community aware we are looking for contributors
 More key players
 Feedback on the indicators
o Validation
o Story behind
 More people needed/contributors
 Invited to make a presentation of TC2 to BOE and Town Council on WINTV
 Identification of more partners
 People upset / ignited
TC2 meeting minutes for 12/17/08 LWG meeting
3 of 9



Exciting / fun
Publicity
Commitment to change
NEXT STEPS:
-Health is going to identify a headline indicator
At 8:29pm ACTION ITEMS:
-Get Key Players (Jan please let us know who we are to contact)
-Clarify our project structures-reallocating human resources
-Unified talking points/material (elevator versions)
-Logistics
-Agenda and Design
Round of applause for Jan!!!
Meeting FEEDBACK:
Positive+
-Concise
-Rules of the road helped a lot
-Everything up on the walls/visible
-Small group breakout
-Template
-Placeholder
-Location
-Participation
Negative -Whipping cream
-more ELMO
TC2 meeting minutes for 12/17/08 LWG meeting
4 of 9
Appendix A This is a list of measurable data points used in group discussion to identify
data that could be used as Headline Indicators (a.k.a. information which will help Windsor
assess progress toward its result)
key
Measurement
Comm
Power
(H, M, L)
Proxy
Power (H,
M, L)
Data
Power
(H, M, L)
DDA
1
2
% of kids ready for Kindergarten
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Percent of kids who are assessed at the satisfactory
level upon entry to Kindergarten on the BOEHM
H
H
H
% of children who receive services after
identification of need
# of people outside
H
H
L
H
M
L
# of kids walking to school
H
H
L
# of obese children
H
H
M
% of children with health issues (as reported on
survey)
3rd grade CMT scores
M
M
H
L
H
H
# of behavioral issues in school
M
H
H
# of children with developmental issues
M
M
H
M/H
M
H/M
Yes
yes
Yes
a
% of Kindergarten students who attended
preschool, nursery school or Head Start
not about entire population, gap might be more useful
b
% of white Kindergarten kids at satisfactory level
upon entry to K
not about entire population, gap might be more useful
c
% of minority Kindergarten kids at satisfactory
level upon entry to K
% of 3rd graders who are at or above goal on the
3rd grade CMT in Math
use rolled
up score as
headline
d
e
f
g
Number of incidences of behavioral issues in K-3
h
i
j
k
l
yes
% of 3rd graders who are at or above goal on the
3rd grade CMT in Reading
% of 3rd graders who are at or above goal on the
3rd grade CMT in Writing
% of 4th graders who met goal
yes
yes
yes
not about
entire
population
yes
Number of students creating the behavioral
incidences K-3
Number of out-of-school suspensions (K-3)
yes
yes
yes
yes
Number of In-school suspensions (K-3)
Number of bus suspensions (K-3)
TC2 meeting minutes for 12/17/08 LWG meeting
5 of 9
key
m
n
Measurement
Child abuse / neglect reports substantiated for
children age 8 and under (DCF)
% of parents who don't know where to go for help if
their child has emotional or behavioral issues
r
% of births to mothers who have not completed
high school
% of births to mothers with high school education
or less
% of low birth weight babies in Windsor (also
compared to CT overall)
% of unmarried mother and low birth weight babies
in Windsor (also compared to CT)
s
% of Windsor public school students who have
special needs
o
p
q
% of children screened for kindergarten
p1
# of children receiving services by B-3
p2
% of children receiving services in timely fashion
p3
# of parents satisfied with access to programs
p4
p5
p6
p7
p8
% of eligible children receiving free or reduced
lunch
% of inadequate prenatal care in Windsor (also
compared to CT)
% of Prenatal care for Windsor births that was
inadequate (also compared to CT)
% of Prenatal care for Windsor births that had late
timing (also compared to CT)
TC2 meeting minutes for 12/17/08 LWG meeting
Comm
Power
(H, M, L)
Proxy
Power (H,
M, L)
Data
Power
(H, M, L)
H
H
H
DDA
1
yes
M
M
M
L
M
H
performance measure… about a program not about
kids
performance measure… about a program not about
kids
performance measure… about a program not about
kids
performance measure… about a program not about
kids
performance measure… about a program not about
kids
performance measure… about a program not about
kids
performance measure… about a program not about
kids
performance measure… about a program not about
kids
6 of 9
2
Appendix B – Group 1 exercise
Template for 12/17/08 - Turn the Curve Exercise
Result:
All Windsor’s children, ages birth through eight, will come to school ready, willing and able to
succeed as caring, capable and confident learners.
Headline Indicators:
1) Percent of children ready for Kindergarten (assessed as ready at the satisfactory level by the
BOEHM assessment at Kindergarten entry.
Baseline
42% of Windsor Kindergarten
children were assessed as ready in
the fall of 2008
The Story behind the curve (as we best understand it)
-
home environment
# of mom’s reading to children – parent’s guardians educational level
# of parents guardians utilizing services / knowledge of services
Lack of quality structured daycare / preschool experiences
# of transient students
Culture around how test is given (text questions / validity quality) (no prep)
Lack of basic social skills
Un-assessed needs / misdiagnosed children
Language / culture challenges
Each child learns differently
Quality control
Key Partners who need to be in on a discussion about turning this curve










Board of education
School / preschool providers
Social workers
Adult education (ESL)
Library
Social services
FRC’s
B-3 program
Medical community
State (quality control groups)
TC2 meeting minutes for 12/17/08 LWG meeting
7 of 9
Appendix C – Group 2 exercise
Template for 12/17/08 – Turn the Curve Exercise
Result:
All Windsor’s children, ages birth through eight, will come to school ready, willing and able to
succeed as caring, capable and confident learners.
Headline Indicators:
1) Number of child abuse and neglect reports substantiated for Windsor children ages eight and
under.
Baseline
There were 21 substantiated cases of
child abuse and neglect in Windsor in
the year 2008
The Story behind the curve (as we best understand it)
-
Economic / income
Education
Single parenting
Stresses due to lack of support
Isolation / maternal depression
Legacy
Mental health
Substance abuse
Young parents
Access to services
undocumented
Key Partners who need to be in on a discussion about turning this curve














Windsor Police
DSS
DCF
Dep HS
DOE
Schools
Pediatricians
Day Care Providers
Media
Child advocacy
Faith based organizations
Rec programs
DMR
FRC’s
TC2 meeting minutes for 12/17/08 LWG meeting
8 of 9
Appendix C – Group 3 exercise
Template for 12/17/08 - Turn the Curve Exercise
Result:
All Windsor’s children, ages birth through eight, will come to school ready, willing and able to
succeed as caring, capable and confident learners.
Headline Indicators:
1) Percent of children who test at goal or above goal on the 3rd grade CMT assessment
Baseline
3rd grade CMT scores have been
going down incrementally in reading
and math over the last couple years.
This pattern continues in every
subcategory of students (*one
exception, Hispanic reading has
remained level)
This assessment has only been
around for a few years, so we don’t
have extensive history.
The Story behind the curve (as we best understand it)
-
-
Some cohort trends
Test revised
Curriculum changes
Class size trend for schools (as it relates to total populations) pupil/teacher ratio
Population shift in Windsor – greater ELL
o Non-native born
o ELL
o Transient populations, such as foster care children
o People moving into Windsor schools (not strictly a product of Windsor schools)
o Education of birth mothers
o Numbers of families being served by B to 3
Maternal education levels
Key Partners who need to be in on a discussion about turning this curve






Administration & faculty
Board of education
Early childhood educators
Adult education
Medical community
Parent Education
TC2 meeting minutes for 12/17/08 LWG meeting
9 of 9