Teams from seven State Education Agencies from the Appalachian and Mid-Atlantic regions met November 12 and 13, 2007, in a Pre-Institute to develop plans for strengthening their state systems of support. [more] Charlene Rivera, Executive Director GW-CEEE and Director, MACC; Sharon Harsh, Director, ARCC; Gene Wilhoit, Executive Director, CCSSO; Caitlyn Howley, Associate Director, ARCC; and Marilyn Murphy, CII Communication Director; among others from ARCC and MACC were present.
Gene Wilhoit provided the keynote for the Pre-Institute and asserted that there are three main challenges for states trying to strengthen their systems of support: raising academic standards, aligning student, teacher, and administrator expectations, and building State Education Agencies (SEAs) capacity. He went on to discuss the creation of tiered interventions as a way to broaden SEAs’ focus from assisting failing schools to assisting all schools.
Sam Redding, Director of the Center of Innovation and Improvement (CII), introduced CII’s new Handbook on Statewide Systems of Support, which includes a framework for an effective statewide system of support and a self-assessment instrument for SEAs. The framework focuses on three components, each of which is essential for an effective statewide system of support—offering incentives, building capacity, and providing opportunity. Redding went on to describe eight premises for the theory of action that supports the framework.
SEA teams worked with their Comprehensive Center State Coordinators to discuss their beliefs about their states’ current capacity and to strategize on launching the self-assessment process─an instrument in the handbook that helps SEAs to shape the development of their framework.
[View or download Summary from Event]