At the first Eastside Pathways Collaborative Convening, the audience had the opportunity to ask and submit questions. The questions were thoughtful and engaging questions and the leads and facilitators of the collaboratives spend quite some time preparing the responses.
We invite you to scroll through the page to read the answers.
You can also read the highlights of the collabortive’s work and the audience questions by clicking on these links:
School Readiness | Summer & Extended Learning | Attendance | Career Pathways | Mental Health and Wellbeing | Business Engagement Group | Community Engagement for Cultural Integration | Eastside Pathways Racial Equity Team | Data Council
EASTSIDE PATHWAYS PARTNERSHIP
Why is disability not mentioned in any EP literature or covered in any collaboratives?
The Partnership is keenly aware of the importance of including all children in its scope of work including special needs children and youth. Though important in our overall scope of work, it is particularly critical in the collaborative work. As each collaborative looks at populations of children and youth for whom the systems are failing, looking at disaggregated data is an important practice. Including all organizations who are currently serving – and may not yet be serving – special needs students in the work of the collaboratives continues to be critical and something which the Partnership strives to achieve.
What’s the best way to stay involved, if my time is limited?
A key component of collective impact and the work of Eastside Pathways is to work with the organizations and people who make up the current systems which may not be serving all children and youth. Additionally, we strive to involve new partners who may not be part of the existing system and invite them into the work.
With that in mind, the best way to approach this work is to examine the current strategic areas of work for your organization. Theoretically, you are already doing work and have resources dedicated to achieve at least one of the five goal areas. Once you determine that area, it will be important to think about how to shift what you’re currently doing so that at least part of that work is done with the other stakeholders in the community also working in that subject area.
SCHOOL READINESS
Are there other languages/communities that are supported other than Spanish?
We are working toward outreach to other communities. At this time the Bellevue School District translates some material into other language but this is the first year they will try the Kindergarten Readiness events all in Spanish. We will chart a path to outreach to other communities, after we evaluate that effort.
Is all data collected (around school readiness) focused on academics or is there data collected on social emotional development?
One of the six domains of WaKids and TS Gold assessments is Social Emotional Learning.
What are other groups of students not doing as well on WAKids?
Other groups of kids not doing well on WaKids are Special Needs and Low Income.
Are you looking into supporting students with learning disorders, ADHD, autism, SPD, etc.?
A work group of the collaborative is working on an Early Developmental Screening grant from Best Starts for Kids. Catching learning disabilities early has been an important part of the school readiness discussions.
SUMMER AND EXTENDED LEARNING
How are foster students being served?
We have not created a campaign to specifically reach out to foster students at this time. Currently, we have been focusing on whole systems practices.
Are you looking into supporting students with learning disorders, ADHD, autism, SPD, etc.?
Students with learning disorders, ADHD, autism, and SPD, are welcome and participate in many of our summer and out-of-school time programs. However, we are not doing proactive outreach campaigns for these students at this time.
We are interested in reaching underserved students groups, and both of these questions give us a lot to think about moving forward.
ATTENDANCE
Do we know what is causing the tardiness and absences in lower grades especially?
There are a variety of factors that were indicated in our research: barriers to getting students to school for families with young children, awareness of expectations of the school system for families entering schools in the U.S. for the first time as parents, a misunderstanding of the importance of early education – play is learning.
Do you have data on attendance for kids who have IEPs or 504 plans?
Yes, OSPI’s Data and Reports website disaggregates chronic absenteeism by a number of student subgroups
Did the collaborative discuss having one-on-one conversations with families with high attendance issues, so there would be less pressure on the parents?
The collaborative attempted this last year and did not achieve a high response rate.
Do you include SEL when helping students transition to middle and high schools?
Both districts are in the process of implementing social-emotional learning in their secondary schools.
CAREER PATHWAYS
I continually hear from middle school students that they need teachers of color to help them feel connected. Have you heard this need from your focus groups?
Yes, our students have expressed this need too, and it was one of the main reasons for organizing the “Pizza with the Purpose” events. Getting more teachers of color will be a long process, so the students decided to connect with professionals of color in the community. This gave them the opportunity to explore different careers but also, and perhaps more importantly, allowed for informal communication and connected them to successful adults who look like them.
How do you track summer melt for outside of greater Seattle or local colleges?
Summer melt is mostly a local phenomenon because it relates to community and technical colleges that do not require a lengthy application process. For Bellevue School District (BSD) students all those schools are local, and about 80% of the students go to Bellevue College.
What is being done to increase vocational education for non-college bound students?
At the moment, BSD is offering some vocational CTE classes. However, the majority of effort is being spent on preparing all the students for college, and all students are encouraged to pursue post-secondary education. We believe that some students would benefit from a more targeted approach for vocational training, especially outlining its financial and development aspects.
Recent research shows students who have a career focus early in their educational career have a 9% increase in graduation. How early should we start this work?
Bellevue students can take CTE classes in middle and high school. The challenge is that not all students are aware of the offering or can take advantage of it. We believe that there should be age relevant career education at all school levels.
What defines a career, and why does it “end” at 26?
This is a great question and one that we spent a lot of time discussing. For the purpose of our collaborative a career is defined as a job that earns living wage. It is important to note that we are talking about a “career of their choice” which indicates that it is a job that the young person is trained/has studied to do.
We chose age 26 as the end of the spectrum because by that age the vast majority of our students will have completed their studies and had one year to find employment. Our key indicator is “the percentage and number of BSD alumni employed 1 year after completing post-secondary education.”
Are you going to incorporate Cascadia and LWIT in the summer melt program?
Yes, we are planning to roll out the summer melt program to other colleges after the Bellevue College pilot is completed.
MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Does mental health collaborative also include elementary aged students or is it focused on middle and high school students?
The collaborative is aligned with Eastside Pathways vision to support all young people from cradle to career. Our general focus is on elementary, middle and high school students. The age-focus of the SEL strategy that we are in the beginning stages of planning has not been determined.
What focus is given to elementary ages students in regards to mental health and wellbeing? Is their support for parents of students?
At the elementary level, BSD has adopted SEL curriculum that is taught in grades K-5: Second Step from Committee for Children and RULER—anchor tools that were developed at Yale. Both are aligned with CASEL competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Additionally, we have a VIRTUE of the month that is announced, discussed, and referenced throughout the days of the month in a variety of ways.
Any possibility of SEL being incorporated during school days?
SEL is currently incorporated during school days. The collaborative is also examining the role of SEL during out-of-school time.
What are you using to measure SEL?
This is TBD. Members of the collaborative (David Downing, Megan Kennedy, and Judy Buckmaster) traveled to a Strive Convening to learn from other communities how to measure SEL. We will continue to seek examples from other communities during this planning stage.
Does Bellevue Schools have an official SEL framework like CASEL competencies as referenced above?
SEL is focused on all students (preschool through 12th grade) and up to this point the CASEL competencies have been the framework (www.casel.org). We are working on aligning everything to the new Washington State SEL Standards and Benchmarks.
Our focus on SEL is inclusive of all these grades in tandem with work being done and evolving across the grades in the schools.
Our alignment of school-based behavioral health providers/services is inclusive of elementary, middle and high schools. The framework we are developing to help guide us in our strategic plan for which agency and which schools services are placed includes specific demographic/economic data and for upper grades where Healthy Youth Survey data is available, that is included as well.
Parent support and voice is important to our collaborative and we have always had parent representation in the collaborative. While it is not our role to provide direct support to parents, we have been identifying the need to have parents engaged in upcoming campaigns. Through our focus on SEL, we are in early phases of talking about how parents will have the right informing/education about this work. Through the work in aligning of behavioral health providers, we are identifying gaps and ways of being more obvious and transparent, so parents are better informed about how to engage with services. As a collective group of behavioral health providers, we all share a commitment to parents being involved whenever possible in a child’s/youth’s treatment through family work.
Is the collaborative also looking at SEL and the reality that there is so much pressure on kids in the schools today? Not only academics but also extracurricular?
Yes, we as a collaborative understand that there is a high level of pressure on children/youth including academic performance, social pressure expectations through avenues such as social media and “resume building” in which children/youth are overextended in extracurricular activities. We recognize that these factors are a major factor impacting and driving issues of stress, anxiety, and depression.
We don’t have a specific campaign planned for this area but rather see it as important information to convey, educate and advocate around to the wider community including schools and parents as part of education around why the need for SEL is so important and a prevention for, or way to mitigate the intensity level, for more advanced mental health challenges.
What work gets done at the policy level to ensure that families and students have access to behavioral health and treatment?
It’s a bit unclear exactly what is meant by “policy level” in relation to treatment. We are in an active phase of developing our strategic plan for where school-based treatment services occur in a collective group of the school district and behavioral health providers. This planning is taking into account access to those groups more at risk of not being reached.
The behavioral health providers do have various contracts and funding sources to respond to needs inclusive of city, county, state and federal funds. Access to treatment is also an area that the behavioral health providers advocate for specifically in the way services are organized within King County. With the current evolution of healthcare integration, the system overall is in a period of dramatic change, and all five of the organizations are key players in having a voice to represent Eastside needs. Advocacy around issues such as reimbursement rates and continued funds for what are called “non-Medicaid tiers” for those that do not qualify for Medicaid is an ongoing action.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT FOR CULTURAL INTEGRATION
How are the needs of Asian American students being addressed by CECI?
We are seeking and currently, have Asian and Asian American representation in our collaborative. Our current focus is ensuring all kids feel safe and supported in and outside of school, with a focus on cultural competency. Beginning this fall, we will begin to develop a partnership with the youth in SOAR to ensure the issue is addressed from their perspectives.
Recent community conversations in Bellevue revealed many community members believe in assimilation vs. integration. How do we move towards integration together?
Our first step in creating community is developing shared purpose and language. As we dive into the variables and impact of assimilation vs. integration, we discover a pathway for collaboration.
How might arts organizations help?
I have a personal passion for the arts, so I am biased. Arts can help represent different lens of intelligence, learning styles and communications. Our schools have a focus and foundation in logical and linguistic learners/ intelligence.
How are other collaboratives integrating or working with you?
CECI checks in with EPRET to leverage their scope to support partner organizations in stepping into the work. One of the challenges in making strides in culturally responsive practices is having clearly defined purpose in equity, diversity, and inclusion. As we unearth challenges that are within the scope other collaboratives we meet to discuss any overlap and strategies to move the work forward.
Can we have an Equity Day in the Eastside?
Yes. But as a person of color, I would love to caution that many of these spaces are geared towards folks on the “color blind” or Caucasian. I would like to encourage us to have a variety of topics and a continuation of current threads with actionable items and measurement of success. Many folks in the work know how repetitive this spaces can be. Perhaps in the intake process, we can do some self-assessment of where people are in their journey and what they would like to learn more about. So we know if we have we can support folks where they are at.
EASTSIDE PATHWAYS RACIAL EQUITY TEAM
As a white male, what can I do to support and strengthen your mission?
You can start your equity education by reading/watching online (especially Robin DiAngelo) and attend racial equity events. Then volunteer in some community service where racial equity work is being done. On the Eastside you could volunteer with Eastside Race & Leadership Coalition (ERLC) or EPRET or one of the EP partners.
So we could come to your collaborative for help with board and staff training? Do you perform the training or do you provide resources for training?
EPRET will come to an organization when they have requested our help to determine the level of work they have already done and the commitment level to equity work. We do not evaluate nor perform the training ourselves but help the organization develop an outline for their next steps and can offer suggestions for trainers and facilitators.
Does EPRET have specific race equity recommendations and training opportunities for partner organizations?
EPRET is developing a training and opportunities list that EP members can use. We are researching organizations such as Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and encourage EP members to attend the upcoming Pacific Education Group (PEG) training that will be held in Bellevue on June 27 & 28.
What articles or readings would you recommend as a starting place to better understand how racial equity can be built into our organizations?
EPRET is working with the Bellevue School District – Equity Department to develop a listing for organizations, but would suggest that “Under Our Skin.” and “Civil Rights History in Seattle” may be a good education/discussion point.
EPRET believes training events rather than readings, since there are two discovery journeys, intrinsic and organizational, are critical to growth. Both are required for education and successful organizational change.
BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT GROUP
How much has the Businesses Engagement Group liaised with the Career Pathways collaborative? It seems like there are many logical connections.
I have spoken with Stephanie about potential collaboration. BEG focused on internships and broader connections to businesses in Bellevue. CP focused on mentorships. I definitely think these two collaboratives could work well together.
How has the Bellevue and Redmond Business Chamber been involved with this effort? Does this collaborative connect with the career pathways?
The President of the Bellevue Downtown Association is a part of the BEG, and we are expecting more interaction going forward.
It is important to note that an intern is not free labor. It takes time and resources to properly support an intern.
Agree.
Can we broaden the internships beyond Big Picture School?
The ultimate goal is to expand internships beyond BPS.
DATA COUNCIL
About collecting data around our goals – we get data around student behaviors like graduating, but we aren’t yet collecting data on system changes. Can we start?
There are two reasons why Eastside Pathways exists, 1) to ensure that ALL children and youth succeed, cradle to career, and 2) to change the way the community works together to create better systems to support all children. To ensure we’re “moving the needle” in both areas, we track currently track academic outcomes for children and youth. To track progress on systems change we look to the Theory of Change developed by StriveTogether (attached). To date, we have made significant progress, and we still have work to do. In the future, when we’re able to garner the capacity, we’d like to develop a measurement on how individual partners are doing as it relates to the work in the Eastside Pathways partnership.