Stepping Stones
TEA requested assistance from the TXCC in revising its Pre-K program for 3- and 4-year-old migrant children. The existing curriculum, Building Bridges, was over 20 years old and is not available electronically. The TXCC and TEA enlisted the aid of university faculty, education service center staff, content center staff, and practitioners from across the state in the planning process. The revision evolved into an entirely new program that has been named Stepping Stones: A Texas Migrant Early Childhood Program for 3- and 4-Year Olds.
The home-based component consists of 100 lessons, in English and Spanish, which are aligned to the Revised Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. They heavily emphasize language and literacy development and follow a "gradual release of responsibility" model that empowers parents to be successful teachers of their children. In addition to the lessons, a program manual will be included for home educators and Migrant Education Program (MEP) coordinators. The manual will provide guidance for the use of the program, as well as resources and teaching tips. Training materials are also being created to train migrant-program staff in the effective use of the Stepping Stones materials.
Work in 2010–2011
Fifteen lessons were developed and field-tested in April and again in September 2011. Feedback from field testers was incorporated into final versions of the lesson. Completed lessons were reviewed by TXCC and TEA staff as well as by an expert in early childhood education from the Center on Instruction. The TXCC also conducted a walkthrough of the program, and the stakeholders attending that session provided additional feedback to refine the program.
Work in 2011–2012
During the current project year, the English and Spanish home-based lessons will be finalized, along with the manual and training materials. Following completion of the training materials, TXCC staff will assist TEA in launching the program at a day-and-a-half training session for the regional education service centers (ESCs). During the training, ESC staff will receive print copies of all Stepping Stones materials for the home-based component, in addition to the associated children's books. Finally, all program materials and training materials will be made available on the TEA document-sharing site, Project Share.
Previous Work Updates
2012
June
Dates have been set for the launch of the Stepping Stones program. Training of trainers will be provided for up to two representatives from each education service center on July 19 & 20. ESC staff with responsibilities for Migrant Education will learn how to train district staff to implement the home-based component of Stepping Stones.
March
The English and Spanish lesson units were reviewed and revised and are ready for final production. The only tasks that remain are for TEA to complete the review of the program manual and training materials and for TXCC to incorporate any suggested changes. After that has been completed, TXCC will be ready to provide the training for identified staff from the education service centers, who will then train school district personnel in the use of the program.
February
All of the Stepping Stones units have been translated into Spanish and are in the process of being reviewed internally and by TEA. The program manual and the first set of training materials were completed and are ready for review by TEA. Once all of the lessons, manual, and training materials have been reviewed and finalized, a date will be set to provide training for staff at the 20 education service centers so that they can train school district staff responsible for the migrant program in the use of the materials.
January
The English version of the Stepping Stones curriculum was completed and reviewed internally, as well as by TEA staff. The units are currently being translated into Spanish and will be sent to TEA for review as they are completed. The associated program manual and training materials are still under development.
2011
December
The work of formatting the final layout for the English lessons and the trans-adaptation of the English lessons to Spanish continued through the month.
November
Internal and external review of the content for all English lessons has been completed and the process of inserting the content into the formal layout with all pertinent illustrations is under way. An external translator has begun the process of trans-adapting the English lessons into Spanish. The Spanish lessons will be reviewed internally before being sent to TEA for review and approval.
October
The development of the Stepping Stones units has been ongoing, and internal review has been completed for the English content of all lessons. An external review has also been completed on the lessons in Units 1 through 8. The external reviewer is an early childhood expert from the Center on Instruction, a national content center that is part of the network of comprehensive centers supported by the U.S. Department of Education.
