Kate Wright:
It’s my pleasure to also welcome you this afternoon or this morning, depending on where you’re located to this third part of our series of a three-part series talking about resource allocation review, which we know is a really hot topic and something that’s very important not just from our level at the at the regional state level, but also at the federal level.
So, we are happy to have such a broad span of participation in all three of our calls or our meetings up to this point. What you can see on your slide now is a representation of the Comprehensive Center Network. This is a collaboration between the Region 15 Comprehensive Center and the Region 9 Comprehensive Center. And I want to thank my colleague, Aaron Butler, who’s the director of the Region 9 Comprehensive Center for being such a good partner with us in this work.
And in a second, I’ll also take the opportunity to introduce our staff within both of those centers who have been working together for several months, actually talking about ways in which they can support not only the regions that they serve, but that they can sort of trickle up the learnings and the expertise that they’ve been developing in their region to support more of a national perspective around the resource allocation review process.
You can see by this slide that we are funded on a five-year cycle, so we’re headed into the fifth year of our comprehensive center network cycle and the purpose of the comprehensive center is to support their state agencies specifically in implementing federal priorities and federal requirements, as well as providing technical assistance and capacity building support on a multitude of other regional needs that support the SEAs across the country.
As I mentioned, this is a collaboration between a fantastic group of professionals who have been working with their state on this topic over the last several years of this funding cycle. So, for the last few years in particular, the Region 9 Comprehensive Center is led by Kevin Junk, who is on the call with us today and formerly by Isabella Hernandez.
And Matthew, and I’m going to I hope I get his name correct. His last thing I’m just going to say Matthew. Matthew for Region 9, you’ll be able to see it on his the way he’s named himself is just recently joining the AIR team and he’s here to support Region 9. He does a lot of work around data visualization.
The Region 15 team, which I know very well. They’re my team. They’re amazing experts in this resource allocation review process are Alicia Bowman, Corey Cornett, who welcomed you, and Tia Taylor, who will be taking over this welcome from me in just a second. Tia, I’m going to pass it to you.
Tia Taylor:
Thank you so much, Kate. And thank you all again for being here today. These convenings were designed with the intention of creating a space for you all as SEA leaders to engage in discussion on the resource allocation review process, which, as Kate shared, is near and dear to all of our hearts. And during session one, we listened to our panelists share their experience about how they were piloting and implementing the RAR process. Session two focused on where and how the RAR fits into the comprehensive school improvement planning process and the system of support. And building on those conversations, today’s topic is going to focus on ways in which the RAR process is influencing technical assistance and support that is provided to our districts and schools.
Today’s agenda and outcomes include our welcome and overview and purpose, which we’re doing right now, and then we’ll move into our panel discussion today where we will also open it up to some questions and answers from all of you. And then we’ll move into our breakout activity where you will engage in smaller group discussions on what you heard and what you’re learning and any ideas that you might have that you’d like to share.
And then we’ll move into our final reflections for this discussion series. On the right, you see our session outcomes, which again are to listen and engage in discussion on the RAR, to provide those opportunities for cross state small group discussion, and to share ideas and inspiration with each other. And real quick, before we go into our panel discussions, we also want to share some feedback from the our second session.
I think what stood out most to us is just how much you all echo and was echoed throughout all of the sessions is that your appreciation for just engaging in these discussions and learning from our panelists their experiences and sharing in small group discussion the things that you guys are learning. So, we really do appreciate that. You also appreciate this opportunity and again, some opportunities for us to improve.
You ask for a little more time to reflect or some reflection time, I guess you could say, before we go into those breakouts and an opportunity to share the tools that you all have developed. And we did change up the breakout activity a little bit today. So, to give you some more time to reflect and we’ll talk more about the resource sharing some resources later on today, please do continue to type your questions or thoughts or ideas in the chat as you’re listening to our panelists today.
And with that, I’m going to turn it over to my colleague Alicia Bowman, to lead today’s discussion.
Alicia Bowman:
Good morning, everyone. So, I am going to be moderating our panel this morning and or afternoon, and I’d like to introduce our panelists. We have from the Nevada Department of Education, Susan Ulrey, and Darryl Wyatt and from Utah State Board of Education, Holly Bell James Martin, and Tracy Vandeventer.
So, we are going to ask you first to just share. Well, I’m going to go ahead and go on to the question. As you begin, just go ahead, and share who you are and respond to the question and your development and implementation of a RAR process. What have you learned and how is it influencing the technical assistance and support for your districts and schools?
Darryl Wyatt:
Hi, good morning, everybody. I’m Darryl Wyatt in Nevada Department of Education. I think for me, the process is really opened my eyes to how broad the personnel involved needs to be. When we started digging into this, probably about four months ago, our small team felt that we could contain the information and work with the schools and develop a pretty good comprehensive RAR process.
But the more we go into it and we kind of look to the letter of the law, the more we recognize that there are certain things we do not have the capabilities or the scope to be able to do. For example, there’s a large fiscal side of this. And, you know, for, you know, Dr. Ulrey and myself and the rest of our team, we’re on the program side.
We work with underperforming schools: CSI TSI ATSI. We help out with strategies. We make sure that, you know, the subgroups are getting the things that they need. But the more we dig into what’s really going to be needed and expected, the more we understand that we need to get to the fiscal side in terms of how is the money being allocated and expended with respect to the subgroups.
So, we need the cooperation of the LEAs and sometimes that’s not always the easiest to do is to get them to participate, because a lot of times they’re off doing their own thing. So, for us, we’ve been working with WestEd and I’m trying to make sure that we come up with the adequate questions to be asking of these CFOs and CEOs of these LEAs to make sure that we get the information that we need so we can be as productive as we need to be moving forward.
Susan Ulrey:
I’m going to piggyback on what Dr. Wyatt was saying as well. Yes, we have the program side. I would say in as much control as we can have control over and the principals at the school levels, we are helping to focus on things they can control, such as the organization of their time, the materials and supplies that they can provide, programs and services they can provide within their budgets that they are given.
So, we help them to implement those resources into their school improvement plans. But going back to what Dr. Wyatt was saying regarding the funding aspect, the school principals don’t always have control over where their funding comes from or their personnel. And so those are the areas where we definitely need to bring in our leadership, but also the LEAs, the leadership of the LEAs to discuss and talk about how are you allocating your personnel Are your Title 1 schools being offered the best teachers first?
Are you placing the best teachers there? Does your bargaining unit allow for that? There are so many different variables that go into how funding resources are allocated. So, it is a much bigger picture than what our small team can actually provide for the school principals. So those are going to be the bigger discussions and those are our next steps at the department.
Tracy Vandeventer:
My name’s Tracy Vandeventer and I am the director of the Center for Continuous School Improvement in Utah. And I consider Dr. James Martin to be really our expert.
Here in our team along with we build. But I want to say one thing that’s been an ah-ha for me through this process, either because I’m hearing about the experience of the RAR or just in my own participation, and that is how by simply asking people to pause and engage in the discussion and the conversation, people on their own are coming to some insight that I believe are going to result in changes in their practices and policies.
And the nice thing about the way that Dr. Martin has set this up is it is it’s a very positive, supportive, engaging dialog. There’s no gotcha. There’s no you’re in trouble and we’re going to bust you. Any kind of feeling that way. But by asking questions about how do they know in the data and what is the evidence that shows. People have come to some insights about, you know, maybe we really should look at the ways that we distribute access to these coaches, or maybe we should look at the way that we have our funds distributed to these student groups and that’s been there’s been a nice positive, I think, experience that we see that by simply even having people engage in the conversation, they’re coming to many of those insights on their own. Dr. Martin, I’ll pass it to you.
James Martin:
Thanks, Tracy. I think that one of the things that it’s made us realize is that there are resources available in all sorts of different lanes. And we just had a silo-busting meeting with the literacy department in our teaching and learning and there are schools. One of our goals in Utah is to have 70% of our third graders reading on grade level by 2027.
And so, in this meeting, we came to realize that in the resource allocation process, there are LEAs that perhaps need to be thinking about and schools thinking about how their literacy resources are differently aligned to reach this goal. And so it just got me thinking about, okay, how do we support our schools and our LEAs and asking some really good questions and coming up with some ideas for how they can focus on literacy, for example, because that is something that they’re working towards and maybe some of that resource reallocation might look a little bit different than for a particular student group or for another subject area.
So, it’s just changing our lens of how we’re thinking about improving systems in the state of Utah and just kind of how we’re coming about coming at that work.
Alicia Bowman:
So, as you’ve been as you’ve been starting with this resource allocation review process, how have you what have you noticed about the readiness of the folks that you’re working with and how is that influencing your thinking around the types of supports people need?
Tracy Vandeventer:
You know, Alicia, I just want to clarify that I understand your question. So, you’re wondering about how do our LEAs feel ready for this discussion and this movement moving forward? Is that what you mean?
Alicia Bowman:
Well, just thinking about, you know, how well did they understand what resource allocations are and then the types of resource allocations they can do. How well do they understand their status in and why they were selected for resource allocation review? And how are those things influencing how you’re presenting things, how your how you’re approaching your technical assistance as you go through this process?
Tracy Vandeventer:
My personal experience is that they don’t know it all, and they’re just full of questions and they’re like, well, why did you pick us? And I don’t understand. And now what is ATSI again? And I don’t understand how resources. What do you mean resources? And so, it is it is starting really from pretty close to square one in not only reminding either LEAs or schools about what that designation means and this requirement that we reflect on the resources to support the student groups that are identified.
Darryl Wyatt:
And from Nevada’s perspective, all I could say is, is data to what Tracy said. It’s pretty much the same exact thing. You know, it’s seems that despite how many times we’ve talked about this in collaborative meetings, or we’ve been talking about it for at least 6 to 8 months, as far as I can remember, it seems to be very new and a novel concept when we actually sit down to have that those discussions.
So, it is just, like she said, kind of starting from scratch and kind of going over the process. I’m currently working on providing some information through some informal training sessions, if you will, for some of the LEAs just to kind of give them the whole picture of what RAR looks like in one setting as opposed to pieces of information coming out every few days or a few weeks, just trying to get everything collected so that they can have a one stop shop to understand why they’re part of the process, what the process entails, the things that they need to be looking at as they work through the process, and just the relevance in terms of how important it is to make sure that we’re addressing those inequities.
Susan Ulrey:
Yeah, I think it’s just the fact that we’re using some new terminology consistently. Listening, so listening to the words resource allocations continually all the time and they’re going, but we have we allocate our resources, we give the Title 1 schools this, we give Title 1 schools that, we give them the funding, we allocate the 1003 little A funds. Those are the situations that they are used to year after year.
And now we’re using the words resource allocation review and we’re sitting down with them, and we are giving them options of looking at different types of resources. And we are asking them to look at these resources in a different way, which means they also have to look at their budgets in a different way. We’re asking them, is this working?
How long has this been working? Do you have data that shows this is working? If it’s not working, how long has it not been working? You know, how long have you been implementing this particular program? And you still don’t have data to show that? Well, now it’s probably time to switch, right? Switch resources here. So, it’s I think it’s the fact that it’s new terminology that the principals the LEAs have to get used to and that they are looking at a different way of allocating resources and they’re actually being held accountable now because somebody is asking them.
So, I think we have to give a little bit of grace to the LEAs and the principals. But at the same time, we have to reassure them that we’re here to support them and they we have to give them that push, though you are going to have to do a shift here. This is a mindset that you’re going to have to change because we cannot keep doing the same old thing.
And your Title 1 schools cannot keep doing the same thing because it’s not working. Our kids are the ones suffering, and so we have to make that change. So, I think it’s going to be a little bit of a give and take here.
Darryl Wyatt:
And it’s going to it’s going to require some, you know, hard conversations and some deep reflection on the part of the LEAs, because even as an SEA, as we see some of these inequities, we have absolutely no authority to make any kind of changes. So we have to rely on their willingness to try to amend some of these inequities that we see and I think, you know, kind of like what Susan said, you know, sometimes when they look at resource allocation, they think, okay, well, we get all the same funded dollars from the state, from the feds, and we’re giving them out equally to the schools.
All the schools get the same curriculum. They get the same programs. So, we’re doing everything. We’re meeting the needs where we’re allocating our resources equitably. And I think what they forget sometimes is some of the other important facets of resources, such as staffing which is huge or facilities which is huge, may not always be equitable. And I think that, you know, it’s a lot easier just to buy a big shipment of curriculum and make sure all the students at all the schools get it, as opposed to making sure that there’s a highly qualified teacher in every classroom for some of these subgroups of students that just are underperforming consistently year after year after year.
So, some of these are easy to address, others are much more challenging. And again, you know, because we have absolutely no authority to try to mandate or direct any of this, we’re going to have to rely on our conversations and their willingness to reflect and say, yes, I do see how we need to make some changes and then just make some of those critical changes that need to happen.
Susan Ulrey:
I love how Daryl put it. We do have to have those hard conversations. Definitely.
Alicia Bowman:
So how are you leveraging any existing professional development opportunities that you’ve already had or technical assistance opportunities you’ve already had to support the implementation of the RAR process?
Tracy Vandeventer:
Holly, I’d love it if you’d share the information about, yeah, go ahead.
Holly Bell:
Yeah, I can speak to that. Holly Bell, Utah State Office of Education. Utah State Board of Education. So, one of the things that we at one of the professional learning opportunities that we’ve been implementing since 2019, we call equity labs. I talked about that the last time we all met. And it’s a design thinking process that we use data and do a data deep dive with our LEAs and do root cause analysis and develop a theory of action and action plan.
And it’s just so we’re going to be looping this in. We’ve, we’ve built in a tier system for our ATSI schools. Jim was very helpful in helping us break down that data because we, you know, in order to conduct these labs, we’re putting together different teams from these ATSI schools and building out from districts to make sure that we’re incorporating, especially in our larger districts, our decision makers from the district and kind of building together teams to represent different element, you know, different roles in the districts to look at the data so that when we make decisions about our actions, we have voices from different members of this community of practice that can be
helpful in understanding all the different resources they can pull together. And so, we do have those coming up in November and December. And it’s honestly a very positive experience. So, it’s something that we can leverage that when these teams come to the table, they really tend to have a mindset where they appreciate the space to dig into the data and really look at the root causes behind the inequities that they see and it’s very driven by them rather than us driving it.
And that’s a very powerful experience for them to own. They own the data, they own what they’re going to do, and we just help facilitate and guide them through trying to help them. I have found that definitely when I’ve done these dozens of times, getting them to really dig deeper into root causes is really the key to helping to move the needle because they really get to the surface level, and you have to push them to think deeper about where the real root of the issue is.
And so that’s one of the things that we’re leveraging.
Alicia Bowman:
Thank you. All right. So, we are going to go ahead and transition now to our small group discussion. So, Darryl, I’m going to hand over to you. I’m sorry, with the others.
Kevin Junk:
I’m going to find my mute button. Okay. So next slide, please. We’re going to move into, as Alicia said, and to our small group discussion. And again, from our lessons learned, we’re going to take a moment here and collect your thoughts. Reflect a little bit about what you just heard from our panelists and their experiences. So that when we move into our breakout rooms, we’ll be able to get into and have our discussion.
So, take a moment and just kind of jot some notes down of what your main takeaways from the panel were. Were those key points that you’d really like to look into more, how they how that’s going to work for you? How might you apply what you heard in the panel to your own work and what questions do you still have?
Open up your mic. We want to hear from you now. What was that highlight that you talked about in your breakout room?
Tracy Vandeventer:
Kevin, I’m going to jump in. I know you’ve already heard a lot from us as panelists, but I but I have to just say that I had this ah-ha as we were leaving our group that we ourselves because we all the panelists were in a room. And I think that we ourselves are actually struggling with our own resource allocation review.
How are we using our state resources to try to do this work? And it was kind of an interesting moment for me to say we ourselves have to really start looking at how we’re braiding our own resources to provide them with the tools and the support. So just an ah-ha for me.
Kevin Junk:
Tracy, I appreciate that. That’s the one thing as a as we started going down these paths of resource allocation, sometimes we had to look at our own house, right to see how we are, if we’re properly funding everything or do we need to think about putting funds differently. I agree with that. Who else? Please jump off turn your camera on, open your mic up.
Luke Corry:
Okay, This is the Luke from Illinois State Board of Education. I think a pattern that’s kind of emerged in the conversation today. But over the last few sessions is that states are in all different places when it comes to resource allocation reviews, building this program. And so, I think there’s time for effective practices to emerge.
But I think it speaks to sort of the importance of convening groups like this periodically to check in and see how other states are doing. I think it’s a great opportunity for us to connect with the folks that are doing this work in other states, and it’s still early days. It sounds like, based on where a variety of states are.
And it’d be worthwhile to continue to convene groups like this in the coming years, see how these programs evolve. It sounds like the topic of today, which is sort of how are you supporting districts after the resource allocation review? A lot of us aren’t quite ready to fully answer that question because we’re still in the program design phase of this. And as we design those programs, roll them out, learn from our experience with districts, I imagine we’ll have more specific things to say about how we can support districts afterwards.
Kevin Junk:
So, Luke, real quick, follow up to that go ahead stay on not to put you on a spot here, but as I’m listening to you and understanding that all of you at the state department have sometimes limited time to be on calls like this. But is this something that, given the right topics, as we continue to move through this, that you feel that monthly every six weeks, something to that effect to have conversations or quarterly somewhere in there to have this 90 minute to get you all the state departments together to talk about this and troubleshoot through what’s going on in your own state to work through issues according to your resource allocation idea.
Luke Corry:
It has been really interesting to me to hear from experts in other states who are doing this work and then to participate in these panel discussions where people are maybe in very different places than the panelists were in terms of where they’re at with their programs. You know, when I think about what would be useful for me, you know, I don’t think six weeks, monthly anything like that. But I think, you know, maybe twice a year convening a group and just checking in. Sort of, we have a conception of what our program is going to be. We’re sort of on a track where we’re going to sort of run this program in the way we’ve designed. I’m not going to have too much of a, you know, any reflection on that until it’s over. So, but six months from now, we’ll have done this activity with a number of new districts, and we’ll have more to reflect on. And I think that’s probably the case for a lot of other states.
So, once we kind of get and I realize states are in different cycles in terms of when they run this, but once we get through, the next cycle of these, I think would be interesting to convene the group again and hear from folks about how they want it.
Kevin Junk:
Perfect. Thank you. Anyone else want to put your camera on? Jump off mute.
Alicia Bowman:
I’m looking at the questions on the Padlet, and there’s one question for SEAs. Upon completion of RARs, how do SEAs continue follow the follow up support to assist LEAs? What will cycles of support look like? And so, I just yeah, I think that just thinking about that, you have the continuous improvement cycle, but what is the cycle of support for that technical assistance?
And you know this, and you know that, that for me just makes me think about, you know, not just taking advantage of the structures that are in place, but really sort of thinking about what is that for resource allocation review, what is the follow up? What is the cycle? How does it how does that come back into that continuous improvement cycle and connect to it. Just an ah-ha I had from reading the Padlet.
Kevin Junk:
Thank you for bringing that in, Alicia.
James Martin:
I would say just to throw something out there in Utah, we are following resource allocation reviews that we do in person with LEAs, and we have some scheduled because the LEAs are serving a large number of ATSI schools. So, we’re having some in-person conversations and we’re using some discussion prompts and having some really great we ask a lot of questions and do a lot of listening and the LEA does a lot of talking about the resources and the way that they prioritize those resources, and they have ah-ha’s through that process.
James Martin:
We follow that up with a report to them within two weeks, but also, we’re trying to connect them with opportunities. For example, in the last resource allocation review that I was part of, the LEA had created a whole district wide math intervention program. And, you know, they were really proud of what they had created. They’re just in the process of rolling it out and they have had an opportunity to collect implementation data like how it’s working.
But I asked if they had collaborated with anyone on that, like, for example, anyone at USBE because we have a math department at our agency, and they haven’t. And so, I just thought, you know, wouldn’t it be great if we were being tapped more and we were able to collaborate more or set up collaborations that could exist. And so, one of the things this LEA does need to start working on is literacy.
And so, I’m trying to set up a meeting between the LEA and our literacy department so that they can start to have some conversations about what is possible and what kinds of support can come from the state level. So anyway, that’s one way that we’re trying to follow up with our resource allocation review process and provide support.
Kevin Junk:
Thank you, James, for jumping in there with that. Appreciate that.
Tracy Vandeventer:
And another thought is we’ve also tried to embed it into our plan our school improvement plan template so that we’re asking on a regular basis for them to be reflective and to include resources. What are the obstacles to resources that they may face? What are some changes that they may be making to resources and really emphasizing it’s not just money.
We’re talking about schedules. We’re talking about access to highly qualified teachers. We’re talking about all kinds of ways that the resources are available and possibly could impact student success.
Kevin Junk:
Thank you, Tracy.
Tia Taylor:
All right. Well, thank you all so much for engaging in today’s discussion. And as we close this discussion series, and as you all move forward with implementing and continually improving your resource allocation review process, we would just encourage you to consider ways in which you as an SEA, can ensure that this process strives and becomes a standard practice to address resource inequities for our most vulnerable students.
This is just the beginning of a fabulous journey, an exciting journey, and how we plan and allocate resources and how we define and structure our resources that we provide for our students and the supports we give to our educators in addressing resource inequities across the entire system. And as other panelists shared, you know, we do need to give ourselves some grace and some space to learn and grow through this process.
We are going to learn so much about ourselves, about our LEAs, about our schools, and about our kids. And we just encourage you all to think of ways in which you can sustain this process as that best practice and embed it wherever possible. And so please, you know, reach out to any one of us or each other throughout the design and implementation and share what you’re learning so we can all grow in this space.
Before we go, I’m going to pass it over to Corey to lead us through a closing activity and yeah, Corey, you want to help us out here.
Corey Cornett:
Thanks Tia. I appreciate it. And for those that are still on the call with us, again, we want to say huge thank you. I echo Tia’s excitement because this does provide us a great opportunity to make sure to serve our kiddos. Thinking about applying—what is it—personification, the thoughts of human feelings to animal faces you’re seeing in front of you.
How are you feeling today? I’m looking at number four right there. That that that cat. The cat looks like he’s ready to pounce. Or maybe he’s ready. Or maybe he’s like taking action and applying those human kind of feelings. Regardless of the way you think that those faces on those cute little animals are, how are you feeling today regarding the resource allocation review?
Now feel free in that Zoom chat to drop a number. And if you want to even go so far as to highlight and say looks like, for example, number one, the tortoise maybe, maybe nervous or maybe scared, maybe timid or whatever word you would like to do, you can feel free to drop that in there, or just the number would be as well.
I know there’s a lot of folks and some folks are taking the opportunity to use the stamp feature on Zoom. If you don’t have access to the Zoom chat, you can also turn your stamps on and you can put a little stamp. Somebody on there put a couple of hearts because I think they’re seeing number five. It looks like the dolphin is smiling.
You know, maybe he’s excited. I don’t know. So that’s really great. I’m just looking through the Zoom chat. Some folks are feeling inspired. Some folks are feeling curious. Some folks are like just keep moving. You know what? That’s okay, too, right? Like, this is a process that we’re going to go through together. So really appreciate those folks who are providing that feedback as well.
And just as a reminder, we do have and I think one of our peers is going to re-drop it back into the Zoom chat. Thank you so much, Brianna. We do have our Padlet as an ongoing resource for you. And if we could ask you to complete the survey.
At this particular point, I would just point you there and turn it back over to my colleague Tia for final thanks.
Tia Taylor:
And part of that survey is not just to get feedback about this session, but to, excuse me, my dogs are barking, but to find out if you want other discussions you might want to engage in around this space. There is a lot to learn. And as we shared, and we want to support you in that learning and, in that growth, so please do fill out that survey and share with us your ideas around there.
And again, the Padlet does have resources. If you have resources you want to share with each other, please put them in there or if you want to share them with us first and then we can get them out to the group, that would be great. And just thank you again to our panelists for being so vulnerable and sharing their experiences throughout their RAR process and via discussion series.
Susan, Darryl, thank you so much. Luke, thank you for chiming in today. Holly, James, Tracy thank you so much. And I know Max is here or and or what was here but thank you all so much for all the work that you’ve been doing in this space. And thank you again to Brianna, who’s been helping us with registration and Zoom and all the things to get this off the ground.
And to Kevin from Region 9, thank you so much. And to my colleagues, of course, Alicia and Corey, it is an honor to work with you. And thank you so much for everything. We’ll see you all next time. All right. Bye.