Evaluating the School as Hub Programming for Birth Through Grade 3

quick to identify families who needed additional support to meet basic needs, including those facing food insecurity, unemployment, loss of child care, and other stressors.

Utilizing multiple strategies to connect with families. Over time, in-person visits became more frequent during the 2021–2022 school year than in the early days of the pandemic. In addition to returning to in-person home visits and group socializations, home visitors and family facilitators continued to utilize various strategies to connect with enrolled families via phone calls, text messaging, and video conferencing to help support the individual needs of each family in the program.

Targeted supports for social-emotional development. Home visitors and family facilitators highlighted the need for more support in addressing children’s social and emotional challenges. The Institute prioritized family and community partnership engagement to connect families with community resources. By adding new staff positions with this expertise concerning relationships within the community, we now have strengthened support to build district capacity in this area. Efforts are in motion to link community resources and organizations to districts in order to provide essential services for children and families.

Adaptations in Professional Development for All

From the beginning of the Superintendents’ Plan, PD for All has offered a series of in-person events to engage educators in learning around exemplary practices and pedagogy for young children. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted new, innovative professional learning structures because the in-person events of the past were not an option due to health and safety concerns. In response to these challenges, Institute staff and partners shifted to providing virtual professional learning experiences. Two online webinar series were developed and facilitated during the 2020–2021 school year. Two online webinar series were again provided during the 2021–2022 school year in addition to expanded opportunities for early childhood professionals to engage with one another virtually through communities of practice and a book study.

EVALUATING THE SCHOOL AS HUB PROGRAMMING FOR BIRTH THROUGH GRADE 3

The Superintendents’ Early Childhood Plan evaluation aims to capture the degree to which the School as Hub programming for birth through Grade 3 is being implemented and observed across a range of districts and schools. The evaluation was designed to document, measure, and support implementation of the Superintendents’ Plan, and to provide information about shifts in practices and progress in school systems, leadership practices, instructional practices, and family processes and engagement. Findings from the evaluation are used to improve programming over time.

In 2021–2022, some of the evaluation methods were adapted to align with the adaptations in programming. In addition, the evaluation was designed to further inform the adaptation of the Superintendents’ Plan and support district-level planning for birth through Grade 3 policies and programming. Thus, some of the school-level evaluation data collected in previous years was not collected this year. Instead, the evaluation data includes administrative data shared by districts as well as survey, focus group, and interview data collected from families and district/school staff. In future years, data collection and evaluation will be responsive to the districtlevel action plans that are currently under development as part of the landscape assessment process.

New data collection efforts were implemented to help researchers and Institute staff better understand processes and outcomes related to the district-level landscape assessments; the three domains of the updated Birth Through Grade 3 framework, including Leadership Effectiveness, Instructional Excellence, and Family and Community Partnership Engagement; and the 2021–2022 PD for All offerings. These data collection efforts are outlined below.

Landscape Assessments Evaluation

• School and district workgroup teams who engaged in the landscape assessment process participated in focus groups to provide feedback about their participation and to assess the impact the work had on their districts’ Birth Through Grade 3

Approach.

Leadership Effectiveness Evaluation

• Qualitative analyses were used to summarize data logged by the leadership program administrator. • Principals participated in interviews designed to learn more about how being a part of the Superintendents’ Plan has impacted them and their schools.

Instructional Excellence Evaluation

• Qualitative analyses were used to summarize data logged by educational facilitators and the instructional program administrator. • Qualitative analyses were used to assess learning that occurred in workshops associated with the Essential Child Experiences Instructional Toolkit.

Family and Community Partnership Engagement Evaluation

• Descriptive analyses of home visiting enrollment revealed decreased enrollment numbers, which could be attributed to staffing changes. However, the data demonstrate success in socialization activities.

• Qualitative analyses were used to summarize data logged by the birth–age 5 program specialist. • Families enrolled in the early childhood home visitation and family facilitation programs participated in interviews and completed surveys about their experiences with the program. • District and school staff participated in interviews focused on what programs were offered, how decisions were made by schools and districts about program offerings, and barriers and challenges faced by participating families. • The Family Engagement Survey was used to assess families’ perceptions about collaboration among families, communities, and schools.

Professional Development for All Evaluation

• Surveys were used to gain an understanding of participants’ backgrounds, whether the opportunity resulted in learning, and whether the information was useful.