Alabama/Mississippi Community of Practice

SECC staff will continue its Alabama/Mississippi interstate community of practice that focuses on sharing knowledge and expertise between state education agencies. The Alabama/Mississippi Community of Practice (AMCoP) will continue to provide a forum for Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) and Mississippi Department of Education representatives and stakeholders to interact and collaborate with national experts and staff from other SEAs.

Latest Work Update

After the AMCoP planning meeting held on September 30, SECC state liaisons compiled the meeting notes and sent them to their respective states for feedback and any needed revisions. The meeting notes were finalized and sent to each state on October 31. The next AMCoP planning meeting is scheduled for January 4, 2017.
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College- and Career-Ready State Standards Resource Review

All five states in the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) region have adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as a vehicle for preparing college- and career-ready students. To assist these states with their implementation of the CCSS, program associates from the SECC do an exhaustive review of the CCSS resources in order to provide the best CCSS resources to the states in the SECC region. These resources are updated twice annually to provide SECC states with guidance in implementing the CCSS.

Latest Work Update

The partial list of suggested resources was reviewed for inclusion/exclusion by SECC staff. RMC and SECC staff met and made final inclusion decisions for the first list of resources. RCC staff continued the research and evaluation of additional prospective resources for inclusion in the winter edition. Distribution expanded to include SEA staff the are participants in the SECC Assessment and Accountability Network. 
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Related REL Southeast Work »   

Common Core State Standards for Mathematics Instructional Support Videos

The Common Core State Standards Mathematics (CCSSM) videos are designed to support states, schools, and teachers in the implementation of the CCSS for mathematics. The videos were created in collaboration with the states in the Southeast Comprehensive Center region based on their needs for professional development support for the implementation of the Common Core State Standards for mathematics. Each video is an audiovisual resource that focuses on specific standards and includes examples and illustrations geared to enhancing understanding.

Latest Work Update

Video on standard 7.G.A.2 Part 1 was corrected and captions edited and approved. Transcripts for videos on standard 7.G.A.2 Part 1 and 7.G.A.2 Part 2 were created and forwarded for review and approval. 
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Cross-State Community of Practice (CoP)

SECC staff will initiate an interstate community of practice that focused on sharing knowledge and expertise between state education agencies. The CoP will provide a forum for SEA representatives and stakeholders to interact and collaborate with national experts and staff from other SEAs.

Latest Work Update

The monthly project update will be added as work progresses.
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Ensuring School Readiness Community of Practice

SECC will establish a regional community of practice (CoP) focused on ensuring school readiness and success of preschool-age children in the five states in its region. This CoP will provide a forum in which SEA representatives can interact and collaborate with national experts and staffs from other SEAs to learn about research-based and emerging promising practices in the area of school readiness, analyze their state's use of resources to address this topic, and develop strategies for strengthening connections between services provided through funding sources and K–12 standards and expectations in the state.

Latest Work Update

On October 3, SECC and CEELO held their monthly conference call tocontinue collaboration and discussion of early childhood efforts in SECC’s region and nationally. The SECC early childhood team continued to update the virtual community site with current research-based information and practices as well as early childhood news and events. The site serves as a vehicle for collaboration and knowledge building to strengthen early childhood systems across the region. The SECC early childhood team also disseminated the monthly ECCoP E-Newsletter to sustain collaborative efforts and deepen awareness of early childhood activities and efforts across the southeast region and nationally. In addition, the SECC team shared several E-Alerts with information about upcoming webinars that are important to states’ work with ESSA. The team also sought feedback from CoP members concerning how SECC can better meet their needs and to learn about topics of interest. Presently, 90% of the members have participated in the survey.
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Federal Program Support

SECC will continue to provide co-facilitation and content expertise for the MDE Federal Programs Steering Committee. The committee provides a forum in which MDE staff can interact and strengthen connections with local school districts, obtain feedback from districts on key statewide topics, analyze state practices, and identify evidence-based responses. Additionally, SECC will work with MDE on enhancing the current Office of Federal Programs’ (OFP) internal plan of work to develop a three-year systemic plan and on building the capacity of OFP staff members to provide effective TA to school districts.

Latest Work Update

As previously noted, in response to an MDE-generated request, SECC developed and submitted a proposed plan of action to the interim executive director of Office of Federal Programs (OFP) for a series of OFP trainings on federal program rules and regulations. In October, a revised schedule of trainings, which incorporated MDE feedback, was submitted and approved by OFP’s interim executive director. Potential dates for the November-January sessions also were identified by the interim executive director. Upon confirmation of the revised schedule and potential dates, SECC initiated identifying presenters and dates for the upcoming Title programs’ professional development sessions. A summary of the session presenters and proposed timeframes identified to date was submitted to the interim executive director for review and feedback.
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Related REL Southeast Work »   

Mississippi Educator Evaluation Systems

SECC will continue to provide technical assistance to MDE with the implementation of its multiple metric principal and teacher evaluation systems that meet federal ESEA Flexibility Waiver requirements. The MDE currently is fully implementing statewide the Mississippi Principal Evaluation System (MPES) and the Mississippi Teacher Evaluation System (MTES).

Latest Work Update

On October 5, SECC participated in a virtual meeting with MDE and the Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL) Center at AIR regarding an equity institute MDE is planning for administrators in the Mississippi Delta region at Mississippi Valley State University. The session will focus on research on eight conditions leaders can influence to foster the cultivation of strong leaders who will strive to achieve equity as well as related easy-to-use tools and resources. Draft session ideas will be shared with MDE for review and feedback prior to finalization. Subsequent to the October 5 meeting, GTL Center staff identified the session presenter, and MDE selected November 7 as the date for the equity institute. MDE staff and the presenter communicated regarding logistics. A follow-up conference call between SECC staff and the presenter occurred October 28. Additionally, Mississippi was selected to participate in the Talent for Turnaround Leadership Academy, which will allow the state to collaborate to design and implement innovative talent management strategies to attract, support, and retain excellent educators in the highest need, lowest performing schools. SECC notified MDE of the SECC staff member who will be supporting the state in the T4TLA work. Furthermore, SECC shared with MDE the new GTL Center resource, Defining Ineffective Teacher Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA): A Discussion Guide.
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Mississippi English Learners

SECC will continue to assist the Office of Federal Programs in expanding state support to school districts in the area of ELs. The SECC will work with the Mississippi EL personnel and other key MDE staff to build the state’s internal capacity to implement Title III legal requirements and to facilitate the state’s provision of evidenced-based support to schools and districts serving EL students.

Latest Work Update

The MDE EL literacy specialist met with a SECC staff member via conference call on September 27 to develop a plan for the second MDE EL Advisory Panel which is scheduled for November 2 in Jackson, Mississippi. This panel meeting will follow up on the previous meeting held on August 23 to allow members to share the feedback and input they received from their stakeholders at the local level regarding the ELPA 21 standards. MDE staff sent SECC staff an outline of possible engaging activities discussed during the September 27 meeting for their review. SECC project staff members followed up with an internal meeting on September 29 to discuss and augment the work session activities and create a facilitators agenda. The SECC project team is planning to meet with MDE via GoToMeeting on October 4 to discuss the plans for the work session. 
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Mississippi Internal Program Evaluations

SECC staff will support SEA staff as they design the newly instituted Office of Program Evaluation, which will reflect centralization of information regarding program evaluations administered by MDE.

Latest Work Update

There was no activity on this project during the month of September.
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Mississippi Low-Performing Schools Performance Management and Planning

SECC staff will continue to work with SEA staff in the delivery of support services to low-performing SIG, priority, and focus schools.

Latest Work Update

The SECC continues to be a resource to MDE in an effort to share relevant literature, specifically pertaining to rural school turnaround; advancing equity through ESSA, how states work with districts for turnaround, and moving the achievement needle per the Center for School Turnaround; and several beating the odds resources per the Institute of Education Sciences this month. SECC staff have held pertinent discussions to inform the way in which the state works with its low-performing schools. SECC will be meeting with MDE staff soon about the Year 5 plan of school improvement work around which the two entities will collaborate. Ultimately, use of the information contained within the shared resources and exchanged in discussion could result in improved practice by adults in the most needy schools as well as heightened performance on the part of students most in need. 
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MS Academics, Skills, Knowledge V (MS ASK V)

The Mississippi Academics, Skills, and Knowledge in Career and Technical Education pilot project offers six districts the unique opportunity to participate in professional development training using a coaching model, which focuses on research-based strategies designed to increase literary skills in respective CTE content areas.

Latest Work Update

On September 26, Senior TA Consultant Ramona Chauvin and Chandrea Walker, MDE’s office director II in the Secondary Education Department, were co-leaders of the Mississippi ASK-CTE Literacy Project 5’s Follow-Up Webinar 1. ASK-CTE 5 participants from CTE centers in Clarke County, Jefferson Davis County, Vicksburg County, and Yazoo City County were reminded of the project’s tasks (e.g., administration of the Gates MacGinitie Third Edition Forms S or T as a pre-test, lesson plan implementation, selection of focal students, and follow-up webinar participation). Several sites shared lessons on safety units and automotive tools that had been implemented using anticipation guides, word sorts, and the initial construction of word walls. Follow-Up Webinar 2 will take place using GoToWebinar on October 4. 
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Related REL Southeast Work »   

MS Early Childhood

SECC will continue to provide TA with the implementation of SB 2395 and to work with MDE early childhood staff to provide appropriate school readiness resources and services to early childhood stakeholders and program providers.

Latest Work Update

SECC and CEELO held the monthly conference call with Dr. Jill Dent, MDE director of early childhood, on October 27. A consultant from the Build Initiative also was present to understand MDE’s current need to expand its reach beyond the collaboratives by working with other preK agencies to build teachers and principals’ knowledge of the foundation of child development. Dr. Dent will be bringing a team to the Build Initiative’s Learning Table Meetings. The second cohort has been established with 10 collaboratives. Fifteen school districts are a part of these collaboratives. On October 28, the SECC early childhood team conducted a phone conference with Dr. Dent to discuss work tasks for Year 5.
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MS Strategic Planning

SECC will continue to provide technical assistance with strategic planning, as requested by MDE, including strategic planning work with the Office of Communication, Office of Accreditation, and the Office of Special Education.

Latest Work Update

In response to an MDE-generated request for feedback on its first draft of an online SSIP District Survey to evaluate MDE’s SSIP district implementation process, SECC staff served as a thought partner in reviewing and providing feedback on the survey questions. Subsequent to the SECC staff member’s review, the document was submitted for Quality Assurance review. The feedback comments were emailed to MDE and the remainder of the review team on September 21. In support of MDE’s ESSA planning efforts, the following ESSA resources were shared with key leadership staff: High Stakes for High Achievers—State Accountability in the Age of ESSA; Better Evidence, Better Choices, Better Schools: State Supports for Evidence-Based School Improvement and the Every Student Succeeds Act; Non-Regulatory Guidance: Using Evidence to Strengthen Education Investments; Evidence-Based Programs: New Guidance Details What ESSA Means for Research; and ESSA's Non-Academic Measure: What States Should Know About School Climate.During MDE/SECC planning conversations regarding the Year 5 Work Plan, MDE determined that this project would be concluded at the end of Year 4 (September 30), and would not be a part of the MDE/SECC Year 5 Work Plan.
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Promoting Equitable Access at the State and Local Levels Regional Institute

Each year, the SECC provides a regional institute in an identified priority area for SEAs. The SECC will support the attendance of a team from each state for the institute. Additional follow up will take place after the institute to aid statewide implementation efforts.

Latest Work Update

Two SECC states, Georgia and Mississippi, were selected to participate in the Talent for Turnaround Leadership Academy’s first cohort, which will allow them to collaborate to design and implement innovative talent management strategies to attract, support, and retain excellent educators in the highest need, lowest performing schools. The states were notified that the first T4TLA national conference will be December 1–2, with the introductory T4TLA webinar for RCC/SEA/LEA teams set for November 1. The two states were asked to work closely with SECC to ensure that they named and confirmed district partners and named a complete team of staff to participate. Submission of completed tables to the Great Teachers and Leaders Center (GTL) at AIR was requested by October 14. In support of the cross-department collaboration encouraged by T4T, states were asked to identify a minimum of two SEA staff and two LEA staff from each participating district, with a focus on staff who are responsible for school improvement and educator effectiveness/equitable access. 
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