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Team members Lori McClung and Rebecca Cohen are busy traversing the country to help grantees in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Forward Promise initiative develop powerful communication strategies and outreach tools. Lori and Rebecca have led strategy sessions with Little Rock, Chicago, New Orleans, Minneapolis, and Phoenix.  “ Much of what we are doing with them is helping with their communication strategy and supporting efforts to solidify their active partnerships, with goals that range from developing internal protocols and keeping accountability as a backbone organization to publicly launching their effort, to showcasing their work nationally to help with sustainability and policy change,” says Rebecca.  Each grantee organization is participating in a collective impact approach with other organizations in their communities to fundamentally change how their neighborhoods or cities engage with and provide services to young men and boys of color. Approaches range from restorative justice to college preparation, and ACS is there to help groups define their messages, identify promising practices and strategies, and setting the tasks and timelines to ensure the work is impactful.

On Wednesday May 13, 2015 David Romick, President of the Dayton Education Association presented The Ohio 8 Coalition‘s testimony on HB 64 to the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Education. The Ohio 8 Coalition’s testimony highlighted concerns and recommendations related to:

1. Funding for special populations,
2. Inclusion of transportation directors on the new Transportation Taskforce,
3. School funding stability, and
4. Measures to increase charter school accountability and transparency.

The Ohio 8 Coalition brings a shared administrator – teacher voice to help shape state education policy. Comprised of the superintendents and teacher union presidents from Ohio’s eight urban school districts, the coalition’s mission is to work with policy makers to improve academic performance, increase graduation rates and close the achievement gap for urban children throughout Ohio. The Coalition carries out its mission by working closely with legislators, educators, parents, labor and community officials.

The Ohio 8 Coalition has long advocated for a special commission to study the best approach to ensure students are transported safely and efficiently, while addressing funding gaps and policies that drive costs up for every school district in Ohio. In her letter published April 29, 2015, in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Mary Ronan, Superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools, and member of The Ohio 8 Coalition, calls for school district representation on the proposed Transportation Taskforce.

Transportation costs are a reoccurring concern for public schools across the state, and the schools in The Ohio 8 Coalition are no exception.  State funding that supports student transportation has not kept pace with actual costs, and currently no school district is fully reimbursed for what they spend to transport students. To help address the gap between transportation costs and reimbursement levels, the Ohio House of Representatives established a Transportation Taskforce, which will study the state’s existing funding approach and policies related to student transportation. While the study is a significant step in the right direction, The Ohio 8 Coalition calls on the Ohio Senate to take it one step further by making sure transportation directors from urban, suburban, and rural school districts are represented.

Can early attachment lead to later independence? Yes, according to new research from the University of Minnesota. The results of the study were recently highlighted by The Brookings Institute, raising the profile of a long-held belief among early childhood specialists and practitioners: “secure attachment,” the critical early bond formed between infant and caregiver, has lifelong impact. The longitudinal study followed children from infancy through the teen years, and found that those with secure attachments to caregivers in the first 18 months ended up more confident and comfortable in kindergarten and beyond. In addition, those with secure attachments were less likely to suffer from depression as teenagers. Many of the study’s findings can be found in the book The Development of the Person (The Guilford Press, 2009).

 

Last week, ACS’s Heather Lenz led a group of Arizona’s early intervention stakeholders toward system coordination. Right now parents and families in Arizona face many barriers when it comes to identifying and addressing developmental delays in children from birth to age two. Things that should be simple – like finding information on screenings for hearing, vision, and developmental delays, or actually receiving these services – can be difficult for parents. Through a federal Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (ECCS) grant, First Things First seeks to coordinate these services and others to improve both the rate at which children are screened for developmental delays and the process by which those children and their families are connected to the services and supports that address these concerns.

It’s a complicated undertaking involving many different stakeholders in a collective impact approach, but ACS is there on the ground, leading quarterly stakeholder group meetings in a drive to coordinate improvements statewide. Currently, the group is focusing on standardizing a set of screening tools, creating a standard referral form for physicians and providers, and mapping the system of screening and treatment services currently available to children. Heather and the ACS team have been working with First Things First on the ECCS project for more than a year, helping to establish priorities, develop a three-year workplan, and move forward on some of the most critical pieces of systems coordination.

When all is said and done, many Arizona parents will be more aware of and have more access to vital early screenings for their infants and toddlers, potentially addressing developmental delays earlier and more successfully.

 

 

The Cincinnati Inquirer reported findings released in April 2015 that examined the StrivePartnership of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. StrivePartnership focuses on the success of children: every child, every step of the way, cradle to career, with a focus on kindergarten readiness, fourth grade reading, 8^th grade math, high school graduation, and college completion. StrivePartnership unites more than 300 cross-sector representatives and providers around shared issues, goals, measurements and results. These findings show the power of uniting stakeholders around a shared goal and shared measurement system.

Comparing 2014 to 2005 baseline data of public, parochial, and postsecondary schools, the report found that across the region, scores have improved. Results indicate:

• Cincinnati Public Schools saw an 8% increase in high school graduation rates;
• All districts show improvements in 27 of the 30 indicators.
• Kindergarten readiness has increased since the baseline year (57% of children are prepared vs. 44% in 2005).
• Of children prepared for kindergarten, 85 percent are on-track with reading by third grade.

However, indicators also showed room for improvement. Results show:

• More than 1,720 children showing up for kindergarten unprepared, not knowing their colors, shapes, letters or numbers. Of these children, roughly 87% were from economically disadvantaged families and 74% were non-white.
• Children are showing up for kindergarten without the necessary social and emotional components to succeed; they don’t know how to sit still and follow directions, or they struggle communicating with their teacher or working in groups.
• Of those unprepared for kindergarten, only 43% are on-track with reading by third grade, showing the importance of kindergarten readiness on later school success.

At ACS we are always on the lookout for fresh ways to think about the work we do. We recently came across a blog by Aubrey Daniels that is not only spot on about the importance of meaningful performance metrics, but also helpful in providing guiding questions for your effort or collaborative to shape the development of those metrics.

Here is an excerpt from the blog:

Measurement changes nothing unless it is associated with meaningful consequences to those being measured. When you understand behavior and how habits are formed and sustained, measurement will become a useful tool.  Without such understanding it is a waste of time and money, upsetting more people than it pleases.

Below are some things to consider in making measuring behavior or other variables meaningful:

1. Plan a positive consequence for the activity that is being measured.
2. Reinforce the behavior without waiting for the result.
3. Rewards (incentives, as some call them) should be considered necessary but not sufficient.
4. Rewards should be relevant to the performer—know what is reinforcing to the person or variable being measured (Fitbit Awards Badges—I have no idea how many I have or for what.)
5. Track behavior since it will provide many more opportunities to positively reinforce improvement as reflected by the measure.

See more at: http://aubreydaniels.com/blog/2015/01/13/measurement-friend-foe/#sthash.0Va3DaPL.dpuf

 

ACS Vice President, Scarlett Bouder presented before  Franklin County Jobs and Family Services (FCDJFS) “emerging leaders” program on Monday April 6^th. Emerging Leaders is an effort by the agency to provide professional development opportunities to a select group of employees that seek to be supervisors and/or managers in Franklin County. Bouder presented Advocacy & Communication Solutions’ “Give Jargon the Boot” workshop about how participants can better communicate about themselves, their skills, and what they seek in the future as leaders at the agency.

On March 27, 2015, The Columbus Dispatch published The Ohio 8 Coalition’s Letter to the Editor in response to the paper’s editorial “A big step forward” that called on members of the Ohio House to further support efforts to ensure financial transparency for public charter schools. That editorial noted the national ridicule the Ohio’s charter-school system has been attracting because of its accountability loopholes and steps that Ohio House Bill 2 should include to address charter school accountability and transparency. As also mentioned in the editorial, The Ohio 8 believes that the legislation is a good start but should go a few steps further by requiring chapter school operators to disclose how they spend millions of tax dollars to run their schools (as is also required of traditional public schools).

As House Bill 2 moves on to deliberation in the Ohio Senate without inclusion of components that The Ohio 8 Coalition recommended, ACS will continue to push this critical legislative reform and engage local media to keep such reform at the forefront.

On March 23, 2015 ACS Policy Associate Cassie Gaffney prepared approximately 75 members of the Junior League of Cleveland to engage with elected officials. The two-hour training covered the basics of Ohio’s legislative process, what is and is not lobbying, and how to effectively engage policymakers.

The Junior League of Cleveland, Inc. is a group of women volunteers dedicated to community change. The group is composed of diverse, creative, compassionate, and action oriented women who are committed to promoting the League’s mission of promoting volunteerism, developing the potential of women, and improving the community through the effective action of trained volunteers.

The Junior League of Cleveland is supporting the passage of HB 50, which is currently in the Ohio House Community and Family Advancement Committee. The bill would expand foster care and adoption assistance to persons up to age 21 who meet a number of qualify criteria.

This training served to prepare members who are interested in engaging advocacy efforts with the tools they need to connect with policymakers related to HB 50.