Robla Elementary School district and The James B. McClatchy Foundation have partnered to address the unique needs of their district’s diverse English Learner population. In order to align instruction with their K-6th grade counterparts, all preschool teachers will be trained in the same instructional strategies and programs used in the higher grades.  For example, preschool teachers are now trained in Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD), a program that has shown great success in Robla’s elementary schools. To engage parents, Robla has hired a Bilingual Community Outreach Assistant to help spread the word regarding all of the resources for parents provided by the preschool.

Their goals include

• Increasing K-6th alignment by ensuring that all preschool teachers receive the same instructional strategies and programs used in the higher grades.  
• Training preschool teachers in Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD), a program that has shown great success in Robla’s elementary schools.
• Increasing parent engagement fostered by a Bilingual Community Outreach Assistant to outreach resources to parents provided by the preschool.

Snapshot plans for years 2-3: The grant will partially fund a new School Readiness Coordinator, who will oversee data collection, analysis, and dissemination.  As such, Robla will grow their capacity for using data in-house, rather than hiring outside consultants.