Digging Deeper-Building Higher: Strategic Tools for State Planning

1. Digging Deeper-Building Higher: Strategic Tools for State Planning 2014 State Coordinators Meeting Arlington, VA Diana Bowman National Center for Homeless Education Phone: 336-315-7453E-mail: dbowman@serve.org

2. What we’ll do in this session: • Explore techniques to dig deeper into challenges in homeless education • Explore how these techniques can assist in the planning process for state level McKinney-Vento activities and/or State Plan revision • Discuss strategies for common challenges with your colleagues • Learn about logic model thinking

3. Some Questions We’ll Explore Today • How do you express a need? • How do you get to the root causes of the major challenges and barriers in your state’s MV program? • How do you craft clear, specific outcomes (goals), and intermediate outcomes or goals that will lead to the ultimate goals? • How do you select the most effective activities to reach your goals? • How do you make a plan logical and cohesive?

4. Expressing a Need Which of the following is the clearest articulation of need? • Liaisons need more training on determining eligibility of homeless students. • The graduation rate for students identified as homeless in their senior year in my state needs to increase from 56% to at least the state average of 85% for all students. • We need more home visiting programs so that preschool aged homeless children can have ready access to learning opportunities when preschool programs are at capacity.

5. What is a Need? • For planning purposes, a need should express a gap between what is and what should be • Specifies a specific group for which the need exists • Should be based on data that can specify the severity of the gap • Is based on a comparison • Suggests a specific outcome desired or goal to be achieved Planning and Conducting Needs Assessments: A Practical Guide Witkin & Altschuld, 1995

6. Benefits of Expressing a Need as a Gap, Not a Solution • Allows you to consider root causes of the need • Allows you to consider a range of options, not just the one • Facilitates the development of a measurable goal to achieve (outcome), rather than the completion of an activity (output). • What you need to achieve, rather than what you need to do • Describe where your program will be when the need is addressed

7. SMART Goals • Specific • Measurable • Attainable • Realistic • Time-bound The graduation rate for students identified as homeless in their senior year in my state will increase to at least 85 % by SY 2016. Need: The graduation rate for students identified as homeless in their senior year in my state needs to increase from 56% to at least the state average of 85% for all students.

8. Now You Try Over the past three years, you have conducted 15 monitoring visits in high-poverty LEAs that identified less than 10 students. Nine of the LEAs received findings for not conducting outreach activities to identify homeless students. Write a need statement on the worksheet with the pink star that expresses the gap between what is and what should be.

9. Now You Try Write a SMART goal based on the need you expressed. Is it: • Specific • Measurable • Attainable • Realistic • Time-bound

10. Getting to Root Causes • A need expresses a gap, but does not explain why the gap exists • Most situations are the result of a number of contributing factors • A strategy that addresses the wrong cause will not be effective

11. 5 Whys Identify a challenge • Attendance of students identified as homeless is 30% lower than that of housed students in my state 1. Ask why this challenge exists – develop hypotheses (and identify data sources to confirm) • Districts often take over a week to set up transportation to the school of origin (parent complaints, monitoring findings) • Homeless parents don’t re-enroll students quickly after they move (withdrawal and enrollment records) 2. Ask why the situations in the confirmed hypotheses exist – develop hypotheses and confirm with data • Follow the process of asking why 5 times

12. 5 Times, Really? • The idea is to explore all the factors that contribute to a challenge • You may not really need to do this five times • You can stop when you’ve gotten to a level of contributing factors over which you have no control or for which you could not create a strategy in your program to address • Because homeless education is not a legislative priority • Because of global warming

13. Now You Try We will deal only in hypotheticals today • Table member with the yellow “DO” sheet will facilitate the exercise • Read the scenario and ask why • Develop likely hypotheses • Select one of the hypotheses and ask why • Repeat the process as many times as necessary to identify root causes • Record your groups responses on the sheet provided

14. Now You Try • Table member with the yellow THINK sheet will facilitate a discussion of the questions listed on the sheet

15. Ultimate, Intermediate, Short-term Outcomes • Provides a sequence to show how you will attain the ultimate goal • Short-term and intermediate goals are necessary to lay the groundwork for attaining the ultimate goals • Attaining short-term and intermediate goals helps determine progress toward the ultimate goal • You know that you won’t see the ultimate goal for awhile, but if you are attaining the more immediate goals, you can feel certain that your are making progress

16. Ultimate, Intermediate, Short-term Outcomes Ask: • What needs to be in place before the ultimate outcome (goal) can be achieved? • What contextual factors need to be taken into account in achieving the goal? Or root causes that need to be addressed? • What are some short-term outcomes (goals) that will lay the groundwork for the intermediate and ultimate outcomes?

18. Now You Try • Table member with the green “DO” sheet will facilitate the exercise

19. Now You Try • Table member with the green “THINK” sheet will facilitate a discussion of the questions listed on the sheet

20. Selecting Activities • Are they related to the outcomes? • Specifically focus on short-term outcomes, since they will lead to the intermediate and ultimate outcomes • Are they likely to address the identified need - reduce the gap between what is and what should be? • Are they based in research or good practice? • Are they appropriate for the context in our state? • Are they feasible in terms of cost, training, resources? • Can they supplement or be supplemented by existing programs?

21. Outcomes vs. Activities • In 2013-14 all new liaisons will participate in a McKinney-Vento training • The State Coordinator will conduct a new liaison training at the annual federal programs conference • New liaisons will receive a memo upon appointment requiring them to participate in a NCHE MV 101 webinar and provide a certificate of participation to the State Coordinator • Before the end of the school year, the State Coordinator will follow up with new liaisons who have not received training Outcome (Goal) Activities

22. Now You Try • Table member with the blue “DO” sheet will facilitate the exercise • Read the scenario • Follow the instructions

23. Now You Try • Blue “THINK” sheet • Discuss each question

24. What Have We Done Here Today? Logic Model Thinking

25. Simple Logic Model Need Statement: Homeless parents wait on the average of one week before enrolling their children when they move to a new temporary location; to minimize educational discontinuity, homeless parents should enroll their children within two days of a move. Immediate Outcome In 2013-2014, 100% of local homeless liaisons receive training and resources to provide homeless parents support and guidance to help them enroll their children when they move to a new local attendance area. Intermediate Outcome In SY 2014-2015, 100% of local homeless liaisons provide homeless parents support and guidance to help them enroll their children when they move to a new local attendance area. Ultimate Outcome The gap between when a homeless student leaves a school and enrolls in a new school will be reduced to two days for 85% of homeless students by SY 2015-2016. Activities Trainers will provide parent outreach strategies for liaisons at the state conference &in webinars. The SEA will develop a brochure for homeless parents that underscore the importance of education continuity. Evidence of parental outreach will be included in LEA monitoring. Local liaisons will provide “Signs of Homelessness” to teachers and school staff to help them identify families who may be leaving the school area.

27. Basics of Logic Model Thinking • Needs are grounded in data and target a goal • Important to find root causes • Logical sequence to ultimate outcomes • Alignment of all parts and if-then thinking • Socially constructed Kellogg Foundation Logic Model Development Guide http://www.wkkf.org/resource-directory/resource/2006/02/wk-kellogg-foundation-logic-model-development-guide University of Wisconsin-Extension Program Development and Evaluation http://www.uwex.edu/ces/pdande/evaluation/evallogicmodel.html

28. McKinney-Vento State Plans • Required in the 2001 reauthorization; had to be submitted by July 2002 in order to receive annual funding • Specified activities for requirements that needed to be addressed • Not based on data • Did not require updates

29. Typical Format of State Plans Developed in 2002 B. Coordination – Such plan shall indicate what technical assistance the State will furnish to local educational agencies and how compliance efforts will be coordinated with the local educational agency liaison designated under paragraph (1)(J)(ii). Activities that apply across sections 723(g)(3) through (7) are found in the following table which outlines a plan of action to further address the requirement of Section 723(g)(2)(B).

30. Considering Application to State Planning • What activities today could you apply to your program planning? • What will you take away from the activities today that might apply to a revision of your state plan?