Live, Online Professional Development Opportunity
Family-School-Community Partnerships: Powerful Support for Student Success

Wednesday, August 27, 2008
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM

The Pennsylvania Departments of Education and Public Welfare, in partnership with the Center for Schools and Communities, are privileged to offer a one-hour, live, online professional development opportunity entitled, “Family-School-Community Partnerships: Powerful Support for Student Success” with presenter Karen Shanoski, Family-School-Community Partnership Project Manager with the Pennsylvania Parent Information and Resource Center (PA PIRC) based at CSC, on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 from 2:00 PM until 3:00 PM (EST).

A synopsis of this session is as follows:

Parent involvement in their children’s learning and education is paramount to a success in school. Parents and schools sometimes have different views on what parent involvement is or could be. This session will provide ways that families can be effectively engaged with their child’s education and how family-school-community partnerships create a powerful support for student success.

The presenter, Karen Shanoski, is a Family-School-Community Partnership Project Manager with the PA PIRC. Her current work focuses on family-school-community partnerships with an emphasis on effective family engagement. It includes development of training and tools that support cross systems work and meaningful participation of consumers, parents and residents in community collaborative partnerships. Her work experiences include: director of a private non-profit that helped low income people meet basic human needs, a planner with a county children and youth agency, and a home visitor.

Ms. Shanoski is the recent recipient of the prestigious 2008 Patrick F. Toole Kudos Award, an annual award that recognizes a full-time Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit staff member for achievement, dedication and service to schools, children and the community at large.

This professional development opportunity is for program coordinators and program personnel.

The following workshop objectives were established for this session:

Increase participants’ understanding of NCLB, particularly about parent involvement regulations
Enhance parent involvement in school and community based settings that is aimed at improving student achievement
Coordinate and disseminate research-based parental involvement information and practices

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Act 48 Credits

The Center for Schools and Communities, as a division of the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit, offers Act 48 professional development credit for those with Pennsylvania teaching or administrative certificates. Participants must attend the workshop from beginning to end to receive credit. If you are interested in receiving Act 48 credit, please check the appropriate box on the registration form.

Please note: In order to receive Act 48 credit you MUST list your Professional ID # on the appropriate Act 48 paperwork supplied at the event. If you are unsure of your Professional ID # you can look it up prior to the event, by going to the Pennsylvania Department of Education website (www.pde.state.pa.us) and clicking on the "Act 48 Reporting System" link under the Access Services column and then click on the "Get Your Professional Personnel ID" link and complete the required information.

21st CCLC Grantees Live, Online Session: 21st CCLC GranteeParticipation in the PPICS Pilot Program on Student Data Collection

The Pennsylvania Department of Education, in cooperation with the Center for Schools and Communities, will provide a required live, online training. The program, entitled 21st CCLC GranteeParticipation in the PPICS Pilot Program on Student Data Collection, will be held on September 9, 2008 from 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Pre-registration is required.

The presenters will be Susan W. D'Annunzio, Student Services Supervisor, Pennsylvania Department of Education and Neil Naftzger, Senior Research Associate Afterschool Programming, Learning Point Associates.

The information presented will help grantees understand how to use the new Profile and Performance Information Collection System (PPICS) pilot system. At the end of the session, you will be asked to fill out a questionnaire which will include your contact information. Each person who views the session will be asked to complete the questionnaire. One person per grant is required to view this session.

REGISTER FOR THE SESSION NOW

We realize that all of you may not be able to attend the live session on the 9th, so the session will be recorded and it can be viewed at your convenience. If you are unable to have one person from your program attend the live, online session, please send an e-mail to Shelby Line, Afterschool/Youth Development Coordinator at sline@csc.csiu.org. We will then forward a link to the recorded session.

Completing the Pennsylvania 21st CCLC Grantee Report

On Thursday, June 26, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, in collaboration with the Center for Schools and Communities, offered an online training session entitled "Completing the Pennsylvania 21st CCLC Grantee Report." Presenters were Yolanda Yugar, Evaluation Specialist, and Leslie Kirby, Grants and Evaluation, from Allegheny Intermediate Unit #3.

In this live, online training session, the 21st Century state evaluators from Allegheny Intermediate Unit presented the Pennsylvania 21st CCLC Grantee Report for the 2007-2008 program year. Evaluators also reviewed the content of the report and provide guidance to grantees for navigating the new reporting system. Grantees were given an opportunity to ask questions about the report and how it applies to their program.

Session Slides (PDF format)

View the recorded online presentation

In order to view these recorded presentations, you must have the Elluminate Live! Java application downloaded to your personal computer. There is no cost to download the software. To configure your computer, visit the Elluminate support page at: http://www.elluminate.com/support/

Planning for Evaluation of 21st CCLC Programs: Evaluation Handbook and Resources

On Friday, June 13, The Pennsylvania Department of Education, in collaboration with the Center for Schools and Communities, hosted an online training session entitled "Planning for Evaluation of 21st CCLC Programs: Evaluation Handbook and Resources." Presenters were Yolanda Yugar, Evaluation Specialist, and Leslie Kirby, Grants and Evaluation, from Allegheny Intermediate Unit #3.

In this online training, the 21st Century state evaluators reviewed the 07-08 program year evaluation requirements, including an overview of the content of the PPICS and state reporting systems. Evaluators reviewed in detail a number of tools and resources they created for grantees that will increase grantee capacity to manage and organize data needed for effective program implementation and reporting. This included the 21st CCLC Evaluation Handbook, 21st CCLC Survey Builder, spreadsheet tools, and data protection templates.

Session Slides (PDF format)

Evaluation website for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program

View the recorded online presentation

First Monday Series Recorded Sessions

In 2007/2008, 21st Century Community Learning Centers Grantees were offered a series of year-long, one-hour online organizational development seminars designed for staff and management professionals of non-profit and grant- funded organizations.

This series was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Departments of Education and Public Welfare in partnership with the Center for Schools and Communities.

Access the archive of recorded First Monday Series sessions and the PowerPoint slides.

The State Education Data Center (SEDC)

The State Education Data Center (SEDC), SchoolDataDirect.org, is a new online service providing current and historical data as well as the tools needed to inform decisions, drive reform, and conduct quality research on public schools and districts from a single website!

With information for all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, educators, researchers and policymakers can access and download comprehensive data on: Student Performance, District Spending, Revenue and Taxes, College Prep, School Environment and Community Demographics. For more information, click here.

Mott Releases, A New Day for Learning, a Report of the Time, Learning, and Afterschool Task Force

The report is intended as the first step towards catalyzing conversations and initiating the development of actions among key decision makers across the country. On January 17 in Washington, DC, the Task Force will discuss what it takes to implement a new day that maximizes children's learning opportunities.

A New Day for Learning, a report from the Time, Learning, and Afterschool Task Force was funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Task Force members include researchers, foundation leaders, afterschool experts, education leaders, municipal officials, business, and school reform experts. To view a copy of this report, please click here. For additional content, including a cover story from Edutopia Magazine and documentary film segments on afterschool programs, please visit www.edutopia.org.

Sustainability Planning for 21st CCLC

The Center for Schools and Communities (CSC) in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Education sponsored orientation on Sustainability Planning for 21st Century Community Learning Centers Cohort I Grantees. 60 persons from over 24 sites attended one of three orientation sessions held in Erie, Pittsburgh, and Camp Hill between September 7 and September 14, 2006. Lynn Reinhold and Michael Brand from the Center for Schools and Communities presented an orientation that provided a basic introduction of Financial Sustainability Planning using six modules developed by The Finance Project. The orientation provided the participants with information about understanding the value and benefits of sustainability planning.

After thoughtful and careful consideration of the internal management structure, implementation of 21st CCLC, and assessment of overall readiness, Erie School District, Allegheny County Department of Human Services, RSVP in Newport School District and Bethlehem School District are participating in a larger Sustainability Planning process.

Family and Community Development Coordinators are working intensively with these sites through Spring of 2007. Their assistance involves:

Six to eight facilitated team meetings.
Eight to ten on-site technical assistance visits with the sustainability planning team and sub-committees.
Regular consultation via telephone and e-mail.
Professional development sessions via on-line training.

Participating in this process will help sites to:

Clarify where they are and develop a focus on where they want to go.
Demonstrate the value of their work to their community.
Convince investors to support their work.

Additionally, Bedford and Farrell School Districts are facilitating this process through their own leadership with follow-up and assistance from Michael Brand, CSC Family and Community Development Coordinator.

More information about the Finance Project is available at www.financeproject.org

Summer Learning Programs with an International Focus

The Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University is conducting a survey to find out what summer learning programs are currently doing to help kids and young people learn about international issues and gain a global perspective. They are looking for model summer programs that can help us shape future work in this area. Please take a moment to fill out a very brief survey and share with us a little about your program. We will use survey responses to help us identify potential partners for an upcoming project of the Center for Summer Learning. Take survey!

What Does It Take to Invest in Summer?

Summer represents a time of year when public education resources dramatically decline. Yet we know that summer learning programs are critical in providing youth with safe, nurturing, and engaging environments that accelerate achievement and promote healthy development. Despite the well-documented need for summer programs and significant public and private investment, very little is known about the actual costs of running varying types of programs and the likely benefits of participation. Read More...

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