SIGnetwork: November 2021

Amy Gaumer Erickson, one of our esteemed SIGnetwork evaluators, and her colleagues produced a paper describing the co-teaching findings of the Kansas SPDG. “Do Co-Teaching Approaches Make a Difference? An Exploratory Study of the Association Between Co-Teaching Approaches and Evidence-Based Instructional Practices”

With SPDG support co-teachers participated in training, observation, and coaching to improve their implementation of parallel, complementary, and team co-teaching approaches as a method to increase their use of student-centered instructional practices in inclusive classrooms. Analyses showed that the use of multiple co-teaching approaches was associated with implementation of evidence-based instructional practices that increase student engagement and performance. Specifically, when co-teachers applied complementary, parallel, and team co-teaching approaches, they were more likely to check for understanding, provide prompts, reinforce behavioral expectations, and provide specific feedback.

REL Tool: Community Math Night Facilitators’ Toolkit

Research indicates that children’s early math achievement is associated with several success factors later in life, suggesting that a strong foundation in math can help all learners onto the path to academic and employment success. Sustained research also confirms the family’s strong influence on children’s development, with family involvement as a strong predictor of school success. However, many students receive and internalize negative messages about math that can impede their success in the subject.

REL Appalachia developed the Community Math Night Facilitators’ Toolkit to help K–5 elementary school educators plan and implement the Community Math Night program to engage families in interactive math activities, build positive math attitudes, and create a community of educators, students, families, and other caring adults to support math learning. The toolkit includes planning and organizational resources, relevant research, and step-by-step instructions, and printable materials for the interactive activities. It also includes a workbook that can be used as a professional learning resource on key research findings on math, mindsets, and family engagement and how to apply them in practice.

Access the toolkit at: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp?projectID=6685

Cultural Influences on Behavior and Classroom Management Plans:

Interviews with Expert Lori Delale-O’Connor

The IRIS Center has posted two new interviews with noted expert Lori Delale-O’Connor. In Cultural Influences on Behavior she explains the importance of re-examining classroom practices and perceptions of acceptable student behavior, discusses how demographic differences can lead to cultural gaps that negatively impact students, and offers examples of how teachers can implement culturally sustaining practices to create inclusive classrooms where all students feel supported.

The 2nd interview, Cultural Influences on Developing a Classroom Behavior Management Plan discusses why it’s important for teachers to consider students’ cultures when developing a behavior management plan and how a thoughtful approach to student culture can help teachers create culturally responsive statements of purpose, develop unbiased rules, and deliver fair consequences.

Comprehensive Inclusive Education: General Education and the Inclusive IEP | TIES Center

This resource guides IEP teams in a comprehensive inclusive education planning process based on the expectation that each student can actively participate, belong, contribute, and learn in the school and larger community.

Family Facilitator's Guide: Families and Schools Partnering for Children’s Literacy Success | National Center on Improving Literacy

This guide helps facilitators go through the family track of Families and Schools Partnering for Children’s Literacy Success Tutorial in-person as a workshop series and enable participants to achieve the learning objectives. The guide is organized by workshop session, each including: the intended learning objectives, needed materials and equipment, the big ideas, and the suggested facilitation procedure. Accompanying this guide are PowerPoint files with facilitator notes, resource/activity directions, and guiding questions.

REL Tool: Program Evaluation Toolkit

Program evaluation is important for assessing the implementation and outcomes of local, state, and federal programs. Designed to be used in a variety of education settings, REL Central’s Program Evaluation Toolkit provides resources and tools to support users in contributing to evaluations of their own programs. The toolkit comprises a series of eight modules that begin at the planning stages of an evaluation and progress to the presentation of findings. Resources in the toolkit will help users create a logic model, develop evaluation questions, identify data sources, develop data collection instruments, conduct basic analyses, and disseminate findings. By using the toolkit, users should develop an evaluation that provides easy-to-understand findings as well as recommendations or possible actions.

The 2021 Children’s Mental Health Report (also available in Spanish) focuses on the effects of COVID-19 on children’s mental health.

Scaling Up Evidence-based Practices

Elizabeth Newell, State Transformation Assistant Administrator with @mieducation, describes Michigan's teaming structure.

To hear the full interview visit: bit.ly/3qSIbHp
#impscience #implementation @MichiganCIFN