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New Member Spotlight!
The Collaborative Welcomes Gunnison!
Gunnison School district consists of seven schools located in Southwest Colorado. The total student population is 1,929 with over 100 classroom teachers. Gunnison School District offers a variety of pathways for students to learn skills and create experiences to be college and career ready. Some of the pathways they offer are:
- Advanced Placement Classes
- STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Science Courses
- Concurrent Enrollment
- Online Classes
- Blended Learning
- Outdoor Education
- Leadership Programs
- Summer Experience
- Work Study
- Internships
- GED Programming
- Credit Recovery
- Expulsion Programming
- Home Bound Instructing
- Carls Perkins Programs
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Announcements!
Save the date:
National Forum to Advance Rural Education is coming to Denver, October 11-13th, 2018!
Join education leaders and others from across the country to explore ways to improve rural education to reshape the economy and prepare rural communities to be successful in a highly competitive, complex, and ever-changing world.
Please mark your Professional Development (PD) calendars for your district as Friday, October 12, 2018 will be featuring a track for and designed by rural teachers, including getting to hear the National Rural Teacher of the Year speak.
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Genesis Groups - Connecting our Efforts Across the State!
The CREC is connecting diverse groups of leaders, educators, and partners across the state to discover, share, leverage resources, and plan action around the following high priority areas. See below for some group updates:
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Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and At-Risk Students -
SEL Presentation at San Luis Valley BOCES!
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Itinerate staff participating in an SEL related activity
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On October 20th, Ellen Sarkisian and Maggie Mather gave a Professional Development training on Social and Emotional Learning and Mindfulness to the itinerate staff of San Luis Valley Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES). The training covered the basics of Social and Emotional Learning, including Generation Schools Network's curriculum. Also included in the training was an overview of Mindfulness and an example Mindfulness activity in the form of a guided seated meditation.
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College and Career Readiness (CCR) -
Medical Pathways
AmeriCorps Vista member Abbie Specht has been leading efforts in Southern Colorado around the development of Medical Pathways. Based in Pueblo, she has been meeting with key stakeholders including local AHEC offices, sector partners, BOCES representatives, companies, and Colorado school districts that have successfully created career pathways for their students.
Through her efforts, Abbie has begun compiling relevant industry partners and programs. Additionally, Abbie attended the 2017 talentFOUND Sectors Summit to continue to build partnerships and explore how the rest of the state is addressing the gap between education and employers.
The Summit gathered K-12 education, higher education and industry representatives to discuss the challenges preventing Colorado students from reaching their career goals. Abbie was able to talk with industry partners on potential apprenticeships for students in Southern Colorado and will follow up on those opportunities with school districts once the apprenticeship start dates are confirmed. Abbie continues to work on efforts to connect school districts in Southern Colorado with medical pathway opportunities and sector partnerships.
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STEM -
San Luis Valley (SLV) STEM Professional Development Kicks Off and more!
Kirk Banghart and Lisa Leith recently kicked off a year-long STEM
Professional Development Project with the San Luis Valley Board of
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Teachers in SLV BOCES tinker with STEM materials from home and school
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Cooperative
Educational Services (BOCES). This project will include four day-long sessions,
o
rchestrated
with input from the BOCES leadership and its member schools. The
first session took place at Sangre de Cristo school district and featured motivational speaker,
Dave Davlin and sessions
including "Defining and Quantifying S
TEM" an
d "Visioning the STEM-Possible." Kirk and Lisa are looking forward to presenting at the next sessions!
Save the date for the next STEM PD days!:
January 19th
March 9th
Nita McCauliffe, SLV BOCES Director, is generously inviting other CREC member schools/districts interested in learning more about STEM integration to come as a guest. Please contact Kirk Banghart at [email protected] if you are interested in attending!
Project Tomorrow Survey!
Check out the Speak Up Research Project for Digital Learning facilitated by Project Tomorrow
here!
- Student-Centered Accountability Program (SCAP) - System Support Review (SSR) and more!
On September 25th and 26th, S-CAP held it's first SSR of the 2017-2018 school year with Buena Vista school district! Representatives from Buffalo, Monte Vista, Kit Carson, Holyoke, and La Veta school districts, as well as partners Generation Schools Network, University of Colorado Denver, and the Colorado Education Iniative, CDE, and CU Boulder attended the review. The SSR provides Buena Vista leadership with comprehensive data and an executive summary which, can be used to drive forward student achievement and increase accountability at the local level. S-CAP aims to use an accountability system that considers the whole child and engages community stakeholders. For more about S-CAP, or to sign up for an upcoming SSR, please visit the S-CAP
website!
The second S-CAP SSR will take place on the 25-26th of October in Kit Carson, Colorado. If you are interested in being part of the review team, please click
here!
CREC attends the National Rural Forum!
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S-CAP Superintendents Lisa Yates, Bree Lessar, Bob Webb and Rob Sanders presenting at the National Forum to Advance Rural Education.
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Four S-CAP Superintenden
ts had the great opportunity to present to a national audience
at the National Forum to advance rural Education in Columbus, Ohio, November 12-14, 2017. The S-CAP Superintendents focused on lessons learned and processes developed.
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Teacher Recruitment and Retention -
The Teacher Crisis in Rural Colorado
To read and learn more about the teacher crisis in Colorado, click
here!
- 5th Day Learning Opportunities - Antonio Pares shares an update!
To read about the update from Antonio Pares, click here!
If you would like to join the conversation, please contact Kirk Banghart at
[email protected].
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Upcoming Grants for School Improvement:
Diagnostic Review (DR) and Unified Improvement Planning (UIP)
For the last year the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) has been writing and, now, implementing the states ESSA plan. Through this process, CDE is working to bring together and align various supports for struggling districts and schools in the state by creating a single application. Districts will apply for supports, services, and grant funds to use toward improvement efforts with their federal and state-identified schools (EASI). Under ESSA, schools may be designated as Comprehensive Support (CS) for lowest 5% or low graduation/completion rates, Targeted Support (TS), and Additional Targeted Support ratings through the state accountability system.
There is some overlap of ESSA designations and state designations, however there is a significant gap. CDE believes that considering district and school needs through the EASI will allow CDE and districts to better match unique needs districts, with the supports and funding available. The
EASI
should become available to districts next week and will be open until the end of November. CDE will review application proposals in December and intend to make decisions known the beginning of January.
CREC members through Generation Schools Network (GSN) can provide onsite leadership development, coaching and technical assistance to schools in each of these categories, to support robust growth in systems design, teacher quality, and student success.
If you are interested in learning more about support around the recent changes to the CDE ESSA application process, and the unique funding opportunities available, please contact us by phone 719 207-3858 or email Kirk Banghart at
[email protected]
.
To learn more about how GSN's program can help you, click here!
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Upcoming Events:
S-CAP Professional Development Opportunities!
The Student-Centered Accountability Program (S-CAP) is actively looking for people to attend and participate as a Reviewer or Observer at the upcoming events listed below!
The Student-Centered Accountability Program (S-CAP), is a collaborative effort by six rural districts in Colorado to create a more comprehensive system of accountability than the state DPF system and to focus on "whole child" accountability through continuous improvement of the system. The program is focused on providing parents and the community accurate, well-rounded information to be used for strategic and continuous improvement.
To find an S-CAP event happening near you, check out the links below:
- Kit Karson S-CAP SSR, for more information, click here!
- Buffalo Merino S-CAP SSR, for more information, click here!
- Monte Vista S-CAP SSR, for more information, click here!
To learn more about S-CAP, click
here!
SEL Professional Development Days:
November 10th
8:30-12:00 pm
Introduction to SEL Presentation
Sargent Early Learning Center
7090 N Road 2 E
Monte Vista, CO 81144
Please contact Nita Mcauliffe at [email protected] for more information.
STEM Professional Development Days:
November 10th
8:30-3:00pm
Sierra Grande School District
17523 Highway 160
Blanca, CO 81123
For more information, click here!
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Get Involved with CREC!
Kirk Banghart, Chief Facilitator - Colorado Rural Education Collaborative
Colorado Rural Education Collaborative |
http://www.coruraledcollab.org
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See what's happening on our social sites:
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