The Center for the Study of Education Policy (CSEP) participated in the Annual Statewide ESSA Conference in Chicago on February 13–15, 2017.

Thousands of educators gathered to share up-to-date information about innovative classroom and district practices, as well as national and state educational policies and programs. As the state is developing plan for the implementation from NCLB to ESSA, the conference theme was “Turning Point.”

Lisa Hood and Pam Rosa (Rosa Educational Consulting and The Danielson Group) presented “Maximizing Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching Evaluation in Early Childhood.” This session presented the results of the PreK-3rd Danielson Framework Validation Study. This was an interactive session that used the results of the study to strengthen early childhood leaders’ and teachers’ knowledge of the Framework, research-based practices in teacher evaluation, and how the Framework can be used in developmentally appropriate ways to grow early childhood teachers’ practice. Learn more about the study and professional development resources or contact Hood at lhood@ilstu.edu.

Ashley Long and Pam Riley, the co-directors of the Illinois Birth-to-Third (B3) Grade Continuity Project, also presented about B-3 work happening throughout the state. The Illinois B-3 Project was created to strengthen communities’ ability to develop a high quality, intentionally aligned education system from birth through third grade. This is accomplished through one or more B-3 approaches led by a team of community stakeholders. This workshop informed participants about the B-3 strategies and highlighted why it’s important to ESSA implementation.