Texas District Learns The Building Blocks Of Pre-K

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Texas district learns the building blocks of pre-K

By Betsy Fox, Irma Jean Gaona and Larrisa Wilkinson

Categories: Change management, Collaboration, Early education, Implementation, Leadership, Learning communities, Learning systems/planning, System leadership

April 2021

Picture a noisy room full of elementary principals building towers with play dough, straws, and toothpicks while laughing, talking, and sharing ideas — and competitively checking the progress of other table groups. In a yearlong program with school and district leaders from East Central ISD in San Antonio, Texas, we begin with this activity to engage principals in understanding how playing to learn supports social and academic development of young children. This is just one of the components of our district’s early childhood professional learning system, which is part of our overall early learning quality improvement process. We support elementary principals in early learning pedagogy so they can better support quality instruction in district programs serving 4- to 5-year-olds. We believe the impact on teacher

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Building early childhood leadership across all levels

2018-19

All elementary principals, director of curriculum and instruction, and the coordinator of curriculum complete nine-hour early learning pedagogy series.

2019-20

New principals, five academic facilitators, two assistant principals, and the coordinator of early childhood programs complete nine-hour early learning pedagogy series.
Coordinator of early childhood programs completes Early Learning Leadership Program.

2020-21

Five academic facilitators and two assistant principals complete nine-hour early learning pedagogy series.
Elementary principals and the coordinator of early childhood programs participate in the Early Learning Institute for Elementary Leaders (six half-days; school visits).
Academic facilitators, seven pre-K teacher leaders, and the coordinator of early childhood programs complete professional learning to facilitate pre-K PLCs.

EAST CENTRAL ISD, San Antonio, Texas

7 elementary schools,
10,000 students
75% Hispanic; 9% Black; 15% white; 1.5% 2 races or more
68% economically disadvantaged
56% at-risk
24 pre-K classrooms
24 teachers;
27 teacher assistants

References

Louis, K., Leithwood, K., Wahlstrom, K., & Anderson, S. (2010). Learning from leadership: Investigating the links to improved student learning. The Wallace Foundation.