L3. Create and implement a data-informed plan for improving language and pre-literacy instruction.

In this lesson, you and your site/campus-based literacy team will learn about creating a plan for improving language and pre-literacy instruction.

In Part 1, you will learn about the purpose of a data-informed plan for improving language and pre-literacy and what it contains.

In Part 2, you will learn about using data to write a data-informed plan for improving language and pre-literacy.

To get started, download the Implementation Guide for this component and refer to the Action Step for this lesson. Review the Implementation Indicators for each level of implementation and note the Sample Evidence listed at the bottom of the chart.

In the previous lesson, you considered actions you will take to ensure that all children receive instruction that is aligned to their individual strengths and needs. Now you will consider how these plans will inform your site-wide data-informed plan for improving language and pre-literacy instruction.

Your site’s data-informed plan is a blueprint or roadmap that provides guidance and describes the steps that will be taken to achieve the literacy goals for children age 0–School Entry (SE). You and your team should develop goals that are developmentally appropriate for the children you serve. The state guidelines and other sources to guide your team in this work are listed in the To Learn More section below.

As you read through the scenarios included in your online course, you will see different kinds of centers and age groups represented. In the example below, the Pre-K team is part of a local school district. This team is beginning to develop its plan.

Scenario: Happy Hollow Early Education Center has assembled its site/campus-based leadership team to draft its data-informed plan for improving language and pre-literacy instruction. The team has brought several documents to guide its decision-making. These include the following:

• Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines (Updated 2015)
• Texas Infant, Toddler, and Three-Year-Old Early Learning Guidelines
• Developmental milestones
• Current data on children’s progress
• A sample of the current assessment tools
• Their school's calendar of events

Their team members have already read the introduction to each set of guidelines and come prepared to discuss them. Each team member takes the lead, guiding discussion about each of the guidelines, the data that is available, and the sample assessment tools. Following that review of information, the team shares ideas and brainstorms what should be included in the data-informed plan. The team stays focused on what skills children need to be ready for kindergarten, as outlined in the guidelines. As work on the draft begins, the team identifies materials, strategies, and the staff support that will be needed. The team discusses possible professional development for targeted areas and then completes the draft.

Based on the draft and timeline that have been developed, the team also sets a meeting time and place to complete the writing of the plan. For example, the plan might be completed by October 1 and be based on the results of beginning-of-year (BOY) assessments and universal screenings. Afterward, one of the team members collects and files the agenda, minutes, and sign-in sheet from the meeting.

TO LEARN MORE: These resources listed below may be especially useful in developing your data-informed plan for improving language and pre-literacy instruction:

The Texas Infant, Toddler, and Three-Year-Old Early Learning Guidelines are available in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

The Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines (Updated 2015) contain information about necessary skills for prekindergarten children in the areas of letter knowledge, vocabulary, and phonological awareness, as well as best practices for early childhood.

The Developmentally Appropriate Practice web page contains information on developmentally-appropriate teaching practices for infants through second grade.

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association website contains information about language developmental milestones in young children.

The plan you will develop is called a “data-informed plan” because you use data (information) to guide your planning. The goal of the plan is “to improve language and pre-literacy instruction,” so the data you use should help you know how well your site or campus is doing with language and pre-literacy instruction. You will also want to identify data that will help you measure your progress as you implement your plan.

In some cases, data will be focused on student performance. Like the school in the scenario in Part 1, you may identify sources of information about children’s early literacy skills, their language and vocabulary development, and age-appropriate milestones. These data sources may include the following:

1. Children’s work samples
2. Staff observations
3. Anecdotal notes
4. Portfolio entries
5. Informal and formal assessments
6. Parental surveys and questionnaires

An additional resource might be an evidence-based literacy curriculum. Many evidence-based curricula include useful guidance and strategies for teaching the language and pre-literacy skills that children will need to be ready for kindergarten.

When writing the plan, also consider information about staff skills, current teaching practices, and the possible effect of available resources on literacy outcomes and goals. Your team may also decide to focus the goals of your plan on the use of researched-based practices. This approach may work well, especially when serving children too young for valid assessment of language and literacy. In that case, data sources would also focus on instructional practice, such as teacher observation and lesson plans.

The components that make up the data-informed plan could include the following:

1. Goals that are specific and clearly stated, based on data
2. Action items to accomplish the goals
3. Resources to support the goals
4. Person(s) responsible for doing the action steps and/or monitoring progress toward the goals
5. Timelines for completing the action items
6. Criteria for evaluating progress

Once your team has completed the first draft, you are ready to share the plan with other administrators and stakeholders to receive their feedback. This feedback will be reviewed and discussed at future meetings as your team creates and revises a completed data-informed plan for improving language and literacy instruction.

TO LEARN MORE: At the links below, you can see two different approaches to creating a data-informed plan for improving language and pre-literacy instruction. Sample 1 uses student performance data to inform the plan and Sample 2 focuses on instructional practices. These are only examples; remember that there is no one correct way to create your plan. You may choose to use one of the blank templates from the samples here or you may decide to use a similar one that your team has created.

Sample plan 1: Ages 0–5 Template 1

Sample plan 2: Ages 0–2 Template 2

(This template may be used in all ages from 0 to school entry. The sample illustrates a site that serves only children ages 0–2).

NEXT STEPS: Depending on your team's progress in creating your plan, you may want to consider the following next steps:

• Identify what data sources to use for goal setting.
• Collect, organize, and analyze data from these sources.
• Create a timeline to complete the plan.
• Determine the format for your plan (see To Learn More above for examples and templates).
• Identify needed resources.
• Plan your next meeting.
• Solicit input from teachers and other stakeholders regarding your plan.

L3. Create and implement a data-informed plan for improving language and pre-literacy instruction.

With your site/campus-based leadership team, review your team’s self-assessed rating for Action Step L3 in the TSLP Implementation Status Ratings document and then respond to the four questions in the assignment.

TSLP Implementation Status Ratings 0-SE

In completing your assignment with your team, the following resources and information from this lesson’s content may be useful to you:

• Refer to Part 1 for developing an effective and efficient plan, including the collection of data.
• Refer to Part 2 for templates or blueprints that model how to use data in developing your plan.

Next Steps also contains suggestions that your site or campus may want to consider when you focus your efforts on this Action Step.

To record your responses, go to the Assignment template for this lesson and follow the instructions.