Change Library

by Aditi Sharma | Dec 7, 2023

Welcome to the Change Library!

This Change Library is a collection of real examples from teams who have created a process to address a problem, and it’s intended to inspire your team and spark ideas for changes in your own context.

Kids doing crafts with beads and decorations

Kids doing activities around a classroom table

Inside the Change Library



Improvement Guide

Learn more about how to organize and build your team, orient your team to a problem of practice, gain empathy for the children and families you’re serving, and go through the process of designing a change idea.

Improvement Guide



Change ideas

Change ideas are real examples from partner schools and culturally specific organizations across Oregon. They are informed by early learning research and promising practices.

Change Ideas

Resources

Get access to the latest resources and research related to equity and systems change in early childhood education and more!

Resources

Change Idea Process

The change idea cycle usually consists of three steps: the idea, the plan, and the measuring the data. Once a change idea cycle is complete, a new cycle starts. Following the adopt, adapt, abandon guidance, new cycles may build upon what has already been tested, or may start in an entirely new content area or grade level. Read more about the change idea process in our Change Library.

Continuous Improvement

The methodology we use as part of our Early School Success and Early School Success Academy work is improvement science. In this continuous, iterative process, participants identify opportunities for improvement within their systems to better meet the needs of students and families. Our work invites diverse positionalities that can speak to the classroom, school, and district levels. Through this process, folks identify and pilot small changes and measure their impact over time.

In Action

Strengthening Early Learning

Learning Loop

Discover the dynamic, iterative process of continuous improvement with the latest Early School Success updates, new change ideas, upcoming events, exclusive resources from our Change library and more. Let the journey of continuous improvement begin with you.

Reach out to us and be a part of our growing community shaping the future of early learning today!

Sign-up

The Latest Change Ideas

Playful Inquiry: Loose Parts

Mar 8, 2024

School : St. Helens School District Elementary SchoolsGrade : KindergartenStudents creating and exploring with loose...

Change Library

Dec 7, 2023

This Change Library is a collection of real examples from teams who have created a process to address a problem, and...

Consistent and Protected PreK Collaboration Time

by Eddy Deane | May 19, 2023

School: Tigard Tualatin School District
Grade: Preschool

Two students play with a flexible sphere in a classroom setting at Kinder Camp.

The Change Idea

Change would look like district leadership and principals that oversee PreK classrooms coming together to establish a plan, calendar, and schedule that supports teaming among PreK teachers and other shareholders. With this support and facilitation, all of the preschool teachers would meet together regularly as a team to discuss, share, collaborate and plan. There would also be occasional, consistent check-ins that include the entire early learning team (teachers, support staff, coaches and administrators). With this in place, the team hoped to see the further development of a culture of reflective practice, alignment and implementation of developmentally informed best teaching practices.

Status of Change Idea : The team is adapting its approach as it goes; however, they are yet to collect the data necessary to evaluate whether to adapt, adopt, or abandon this change idea.

Predicted Outcomes

Design and implement an effective schedule and structure based on input from teachers and other partners to support regular time for reflection and collaboration.
Consistent and clear communication
Strengthen the culture of reflective practice and work together to align the learning opportunities across all preschool classrooms.

What actually happened?

The team completed empathy interviews with all the preschool teachers and developed empathy interview questions to engage with preschool principals and leaders.
The team used this data to guide schedule design and structure for regular meetings.
The team also started meeting with principals to understand the constraints (time, union rules, etc.) better and brainstorm goals and structures they would like to see included in the design.

Key Learnings

From empathy interviews and informal discussions, the team learned that most, if not all, team members were eager and enthusiastic about this change idea.

Challenges

Scheduling was one of the biggest barriers faced thus far. It was unsurprisingly difficult to get all the principals together in a room (in-person or virtually) at the same time. Despite feeling discouraged, the team learned that with persistence, they were able to engage a growing number of team members, and that created an inertia that built participation and ownership.

How did the team navigate barriers to change? Who did the team partner with?

Scheduling stood out as one barrier that required some significant navigation. As mentioned previously, getting all the necessary partners together had been difficult. For some, preschool seemed like an “add-on” to their list of responsibilities, and with that mindset, it was therefore considered optional or a lower priority. The team focused on engaging with those who already understood the importance of developing a robust early learning program and leveraging their commitment and enthusiasm to draw in more partners.

Guided Questions

Coming soon!

Black Literacy Nights – Y.O.U.T.H

by Ashley Walker | Oct 25, 2022

Youth Organized and United to Help (Y.O.U.th) is disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline through our #BooksNotBarsOr programming. We use tutoring, advocacy, literacy, and training—as well as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion education—to create awareness around the issues that cause the school-to-prison pipeline and what we can do to end it.

Imagine being a student in a predominantly white space, with a teacher that doesn’t look like you and literature that doesn’t represent you. With more data showing the discrepancy in literacy rates for Black students, we wanted to find an exciting way to get our young readers and their families excited about literacy using culturally responsive approaches.

Change Idea:

Y.O.U.th partnered with Kairos PDX to bring Black Literacy Night to their families and staff. We provided books that were written by Black, Brown, and Indigenous writers. We invited guests to read books to students. Some students read to their families. We provide educational activities and a panel of educators, tutors, and parents to share tips and field questions from families.

Through Black Literacy Night, we hoped to create a safe space for marginalized families to ask the hard questions and be vulnerable about where their young reader was at. We hoped to spark curiosity and excitement in our young readers and families. We hoped to give literacy resources that were representative of the families that were there.

We didn’t encounter barriers. The school was open to what we had and allowed us to execute our plan. We partnered with other literacy-focused organizations and parenting groups to help support our parents.

The event was a success. Teachers were excited to learn of an outside organization that supplements and supports their teaching strategy and values. We learned that when you create a safe affinity space for families to share their fears, concerns, but also their wins, we can work together as a village to help achieve the goals of our youngest readers.

Although this change came about right before COVID, we have adopted the change and hope to expand. We received really good feedback from the school and community and we will continue what we’ve started.

Status of the Change Idea: Adapted, Adopted, or Abandoned?

Adopted

Conscious Discipline – Yoncalla Elementary

by Ashley Walker | Oct 4, 2022

Our system in Yoncalla wasn’t designed to teach children and adults skills in self-regulation, self-reflection, empathy, and problem-solving. Children were acting out physically instead of verbalizing needs or feelings and experienced high rates of punishment. Teachers and administration identified ongoing behavioral problems as a barrier to overall academic growth.

Change Idea:

We taught children the strategies of self-soothing, breathing, and calming their bodies as part of Conscious Discipline. We learned to focus on the function of behavior and ask why.

We hoped that students would learn skills to be more successful in the classroom, eventually contributing to student academic outcomes.

Initially, staff and parents were reluctant to adopt, as it required the adults to be self-reflective and understand how their own biases and beliefs may contribute to children’s lack of success. We partnered with Douglas ESD and the Ford Family Foundation to provide trainings, and in time, teaching staff began to report decreased high-needs behaviors, and students began to show incremental academic success.

Teaching staff began to approach behavioral issues differently. They began seeking root causes and thinking of preventative approaches to misbehavior. The key to changing behavioral issues in the classroom is to work closely with the adults to understand their own biases and triggers. Developing a self-reflective practice and network of colleagues with similar understandings and beliefs about children and families is key to changing practices.

Status of the Change Idea: Adapted, Adopted, or Abandoned?

We continue to adapt the conscious discipline framework to meet the needs of the community and classroom.

Wiring the Brain for Success – Dr. Becky Bailey

The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Trauma and Adversity – Nadine Burke Harris, M.D.

Social & Emotional Development in Early Childhood – Dr. Bruce D. Perry

The Whole-Brain Child – Daniel Seigel and Tina Payne Bryson

Community Baby Showers – Yoncalla School District

by Ashley Walker | Oct 4, 2022

In the Yoncalla school district, our system wasn’t designed to provide opportunities to see kindergartners until they showed up on the first day of school. This made it tough to get to know their strengths and needs. We wanted to know their families earlier and share school resources and guidance.

Change Idea:

We started having a yearly evening baby shower in honor of every new parent in the community. Parents invited guests and we invited partners who could provide needed resources like library cards, WIC, medical and dental services, breastfeeding support, etc.

We hoped to come together as a community and celebrate new babies. We also hoped to have an ongoing connection to families, prenatal through the school years.

To recruit families, our AmeriCorps worker walked around the neighborhood with her babies seeking out other parents to invite. We asked young families we saw in grocery stores if they lived in the community and asked them to join. We partnered with doctors, dentists, the breastfeeding coalition, the family relief nursery, and early intervention.

At the showers, we celebrated with food and provided each parent a basket with baby gifts: nail clippers, boogie blubs, diapers, wipes, books, and front-pack baby carriers. We recruited local farmers to model wearing the baby carriers and reading to babies. We invited the families to an infant/toddler playgroup so we would have an ongoing connection through preschool into kindergarten.

We built new relationships with families long before kindergarten and helped families connect with resources. We also connected parents to each other, emphasizing their children would be together for the next 18 or so years.

This process helped us learn to ask questions like, ‘How do we get to know parents?’ ‘Who in the community might know and authentically engage with those families?’ ‘Where are the babies?’ and ‘What services are already being provided?’ We learned to focus on community and support and provide information in a non-judgemental, approachable way. We also learned to center the celebration, keeping the resource providers on the periphery.

The baby showers ended during COVID, but may start again in another form with a literacy focus and engaging older siblings and classmates to develop the baby baskets. Douglas County now also holds baby showers at the fairgrounds; they have far more resources and a greater reach.

Status of the Change Idea: Adapted, Adopted, or Abandoned?

Adapting

Additional Resources

The Perry Preschool Project and the Heckman Equation
The P-3 Framework – National P-3 Center
Reframing Our View About Our Families – Dr. Karen Mapp

« Older Entries

Next Entries »