When contemplating a new initiative, the district team must assess its fit and feasibility before deciding to move forward. Completing a Readiness Assessment will help you determine if the new initiative is a good fit with other district priorities, discover gaps in your readiness, and identify what would make the fit even better before implementation begins.
The District Implementation Team determines whether the initiative:
Fits with current district initiatives, priorities, structures and supports and parent/community values, and the feasibility of reaching the future vision
Might enhance or diminish other relevant initiatives
Will be easier or more difficult to implement with other initiatives
Aligns with the current priorities of your state, district and school
Supports the current organizational structures
Has been adapted for use within culturally and linguistically specific populations and/or if there are there recommendations for gathering community input into culturally specific enhancements
Provides guidance on core features that can be modified or adapted to increase contextual fit
Is being successfully implemented at sites that are willing to be observed
Meeting Minutes Exploration - Assess Infrastructure
Citation: National Implementation Research Network (2020). Implementation Stages Planning Tool. Chapel Hill, NC: National Implementation Research Network, FPG Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
When districts embark on a new initiative to initiate or increase preschool inclusion, it requires team to engage in thoughtful consideration of how it will fit with current programming and how feasible it will be to address the changes needed. In essence, answering the question is this the right time for our district to begin this initiative will require teams to examine the following:
What is our Need for this initiative?
What data informs this need?
Does the initiative Fit with other initiatives currently in process?
What is the Evidence of the initiative?
What levels of Usability does the initiative have in our district?
Does our district have the Capacity to go forward with this initiative at this time?
What is the required System Supports needed for this initiative and can we provide them at this time?
School-level change must reflect the goals and intentions of the entire staff. Once the Literacy Team has analyzed the data and proposed an evidence-based practice to focus Professional Development on, this focus should be proposed to the whole staff for feedback and discussion.
The Literacy Team conversation to Assess Fit and Feasibility considerations:
We as the Literacy Team have analyzed our literacy data and conducted a self-study needs assessment. We found that Vocabulary Instruction would be the best next step for staff professional development. We want to hear your thoughts about this:
What are your preferences for knowledge-building? Articles? Videos? Books?
What are your thoughts on peer-peer observations? Literacy coaching?
Who might feel comfortable being a Lab Classroom?
What will you need to begin to engage with this work?
What potential obstacles will we face?
How will we know when we've met our PD goals and need a new learning focus?
Making a Case for Equitable Preschool to Grade 3 Literacy Practice
