II.

District Programming Information

1. Programs: What programs in your district are unique to the developmental age

group you are investigating?

Preschool programs are designed to prepare three to five year olds for success in

Kindergarten. There is Wake Pre-K which is publically funded and under which HeadStart in

nestled. There is also Smart Start which is a federally funded preschool program. These

programs do not function within a public school setting, so for the purposes of this paper, we are

looking only at the preschools that are a part of Wake County elementary schools.

A program in Wake County that is unique to PreKindergarten/Preschool is ​The Creative

Curriculum for Preschool​. This curriculum adheres to the standards as outlined in ​North Carolina

Foundations for Early Learning and Development.​ Additional resources include: ​Letterland;​

Second Step; Music and Me; Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (SEFEL);

Opening the World of Learning (OWL)​; and ​Treatment and Education of Autistic and

Communication Related Handicapped Children (​TEACCH) ​Curriculum​.

Wake County uses ​Teaching Strategies GOLD (TSG)​ as an assessment tool for

preschool programs. Other assessment tools are: ​Cottage Acquisition Scales​; ​Auditory Learning

Guide​; ​Infant-Preschool Play Assessment Scale (I-PAS)​; ​Carolina Curriculum for Preschoolers

with Special Needs (CCPSN)​; ​Social Skills Improvement Skills (SSIS);​ and developmental

checklists.

2. Vocabulary: What terms and definitions are unique to the developmental age
 group you are investigating?

In Wake County Academic Vocabulary is categorized into Tier 1,2, and 3 words for

elementary schools. Teachers are trained to identify Tier 2 and have the autonomy to choose

which specific words to teach.This is done with a professional learning community. Tier 2

academic vocabulary are words that are more sophisticated and used across disciplines. In the

Figure below, you can see that Pre-K academic vocabulary focuses on commands and colors;

Kindergarten focuses on simple verbs, pronouns, and nouns; 1st Grade uses subject specific

nouns; and then 2nd Grade gets into more complex nouns that have multiple meanings or can be

used cross-curricular.

Terms and Definitions Sample from Beaverdam Elementary Observation

Pre-K Kindergarten 1st Grade 2nd Grade

Purple- color I - pronoun Addition - math verb Rainforest - science

noun

Three - number Fall - season Narrative - adjective Xixuau, Brazil -

geography noun

Go - command See - verb Detail - writing noun Remote - reading/

multiple means

Stop- command Can- verb Punctuation - writing Electricity- science

noun noun

Red - color Fire - noun Environment- science Problem -

noun math/writing noun

3. Parents: What are the programs for PreK-2 Elementary parents in your district?

How can or how should parents be involved in PreK-2 Elementary? How are

parents kept informed about what is happening at the school? Does the PreK-2
 Elementary (s) have an established system to communicate with parents? Does the

communication system or plan seem effective? How do you know? What data did

you use to determine if the communication with parents is effective?

There are two public school preschool programs in Wake County: Title I Education and

Special Education. There are 164 preschool classes in 104 elementary public schools. The

requirements for Title I Preschool is demonstrated educational need based on teacher observation

and the results revealed on the Brigance Preschool screening of four year olds. A parent will

need to complete a parent survey, and the student needs to turn four years old on or before

August 31st of the school year in which the student will be enrolled. The requirements for

Special Education are that the student meets the eligibility requirements of disabilities as

outlined in ​Policies Governing Services for Children with Disabilities​.

There are eight different types of Preschool classes in Wake County. These classes meet

the different needs of preschool students. They target either regular education or special

education students or a combination of both. They are either full day or part time. The classes

are: Blended 1; Blended 2; Structured Teaching; Social Emotional Learning; Wake PK; Title 1;

Part Day Structured Teaching; and Part-Day DD.

Ready To Learn​ and Pre-K ​Project Enlightenment​ are two Pre-K to 2nd grade programs

Wake County offers to parents. These programs help parents with educational resources for their

students as well as with parenting tips and ideas. Parents learn that it is very important for them

to be an active participant in their child’s education. They learn that parents should be partners

with their child’s teachers in their child’s education, and learn the ways that they can be
involved such as by volunteering in the school or the class, going to Open House, and joining the

PTA, et cetera.

Parents are kept informed by teachers about what is happening at school and how their

child is doing in school primarily through DOJO. Parents are also listed in an automatic phone

chain so that they can receive pre-recorded phone messages from their school or the district. The

communication system seems to work well as is evidenced by the high parent turnout for school

meetings. A questionnaire was given to a few parents and/or the questions verbally asked to

parents and a few teachers regarding the perceived effectiveness of the communication system.

Another communication mode utilized is Remind. Many teachers use this and administration

also as Remind is efficient in blasting out information quickly to staff.

4. Community Connections: What community agencies are involved in your district

(and how) in regard to the developmental age group you are investigating?

Some of the community agencies that are a part of Wake County are: Head Start; Smart

Start; Child Care Subsidy; Telamon Head Start; and Wake Connections. ​Wake Connections

helps families find the services that help them. Wake Connections works with twelve partnership

programs. These are: Care Coordination for Children; Early Head Start Home Visiting Program;

HIPPY USA (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters); Catholic Charities of the

Diocese of Raleigh; Moms Supporting Moms; Nurse-Family Partnership; Parents as Teachers

Affiliate; Pregnancy Care Managers; Safe Child Parenting Groups; Secure Path; Safe Child; and

Women, Infants and Children (WIC).

 5. Curricular Scope & Sequence: What is the district’s curriculum guide for the

grades you are investigating? Do they align to the state? Are they appropriately

paced? Were they easy to access? Easy to understand?

Wake County’s guide for curriculum is formed from the Common Core standards to

develop the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for K-12. The ​North Carolina Standard

Course of Study​ introduces the scope and sequence as “the appropriate content standards for

each grade or proficiency level … to provide a uniform set of learning standards for every public

school in North Carolina. These standards define what students should know and be able to do.”

The course of study objectives and standards directly infuse the state’s standard into the

curricular.

The pacing of NC Standard Course of Study is appropriate as it is categorized by grade

level and then further organized by skill or standard. For example, the Department of Public

Instruction publishes the following:

The English Language Arts (ELA) standards provide a framework

for preparing students to effectively meet the literacy demands of a

text-saturated and communication-driven world. The standards

foster: ​critical consumers of text​, who engage thoughtfully and

purposefully with text to build knowledge on a topic and collect

evidence to make decisions or support a claim; ​communicators,​

who are able to articulate and share ideas with others as well as
 listen actively; and ​writers​, who can clearly express their thoughts,

opinions, and ideas (K-12 Standards).

The standards are divided into strands: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and

Language. Each strand includes a set of Career and College Ready(CCR) Anchor Standards that

are identical K-12. The CCR Anchor Standards provide a broad CCR expectation and correspond

directly to grade-specific standards. The grade-specific standards provide the end of grade

expectations for the grade (K-12 Standards).

1. The Reading strand includes standards for reading literature and for reading

informational text. Also, included for K-5, are standards for foundational skills. The

standards support students’ exposure to a wide range of texts and tasks through the use of

high-quality increasingly complex literary and informational texts throughout the grades.

2. The Writing strand places an emphasis on the writing process. The Standards include

three types of writing: argument, informative/explanatory, and narrative. The writing

standards support research and the use of digital tools to write and publish original

writing.

3. The Speaking and Listening strand requires students to develop and apply a wide range of

oral communication skills including those needed for formal presentations as well as

those needed in collaborative settings.

4. The Language strand includes two continuums, one for grammar and one for

conventions. The skills within each continuum are arranged by grade band rather than by

grade to allow for multiple years of practice, differentiation and scaffolding, as needed. In

the lower grade of the band, the teacher is introducing and modeling the skills. In the
 higher grade of the band, students are applying the skills to more complex text as they

work toward mastery.Mastery is recognized when students apply the skills to their

writing and speaking. Application of the knowledge of language to develop writer’s craft

and style is also emphasized. Vocabulary acquisition, especially Tier 2 and Tier 3 words,

is also an important part of the Language standards.

To access the formation, visit DPI’s website for ​K-12 Standards for Curriculum and

Instruction​. While there is a multitude of information provided, it is presented in a user friendly

brochure that you are able to read either by grade level or by subject area.

6. Literacy/Reading: What specific literacy/reading programs are used for this age

group? How do they differentiate or provide accommodations for various learning

styles or challenges? Are their methods of identifying these students? How do

they track student progress?

According to a first grade teacher for this group, programs that are used for

literacy/reading are Letterland, Moby Max, Mclass, IReady and, newly, Istation. To provide

differentiation and specific accommodation for various learning styles and challenges teachers

can use reading groups and the Florida Center for Reading Research. One method of identifying

these students could be using Letterland for intervention. In addition, student progress is tracked

through the beginning of the year assessment, progress monitoring, and testing.