Preferred Provider for Targeted Assistance During FY’16, LFDEF, Inc. once again worked with the Lawrence Public Schools (LPS) as an approved School Turnaround Operator. LFDEF, Inc. and is in its second year of a three‐year agreement for the dissemination of education improvement services to low‐performing, underperforming and chronically‐underperforming school districts. LFDEF, Inc. manages a LPS early education school for families in the Tower Hill neighborhood of Lawrence. The Lawrence Family Public Academy offers a free, full‐day PreKindergarten (K‐1) and Kindergarten (K‐2) program for four and five year olds. To maximize dissemination, two employees from LFDCS are assigned to leadership roles in this project. Like LFDCS, the school prioritizes: Parent Engagement, Respect for Language & Culture, Effective Teaching and a Leadership Structure which includes parents. The LFPA overall enrollment for SY’2015‐2016 was 199 (K‐1: 75 students, K‐2: 124 students) Quarterly meetings are held with LPS to share best practices, data and plan projects for continuous improvement. High Priority efforts in FY’2016 were: Professional Development sessions to enhance classroom behavior/management Cross‐training of staff and assignment of teacher specialists, as available, to general education needsbased groups Worked with LPS to prioritize students in need of special education services in order to meet the learning and/or social/emotional needs of LFPA’s diverse special education population. RTI for progress monitoring is used to measure students’ progress with Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) and First Sound Fluency (FSF). Lawrence Public Family Academy (LFPA), which is a Lawrence Family Development dissemination project, prioritizes high standards and low student-to-teacher ratios. Pictured here are LFPA students with their classroom teacher and paraprofessional. LFDCS values reflective practice by its instructional staff. It shares this priority with its partnership projects by having a mentor coordinator and teacher mentors available for external coaching and sharing ideas. The informal format of this mentoring program allows for conversations and classroom visits which support all teachers in the development of a portfolio of best practices. This year, Lawrence Family Development brought its mentoring format to the LPS Lawrence Family Public Academy through a new peer-to-peer teachers’ mentoring program. This partnership allowed LFDCS’ early childhood teachers to work directly with LFPA early childhood teachers through coaching, socials for conversations about teaching and classroom visits with demonstrations of techniques. The end-of-the-year surveys about the experience from both LFDCS teacher-mentors and LFPA teachermentees who were involved in this project were positive. LFPA teachers expressed interest in a continuation of this effort for SY’2016-2017 as well as teachers’ introduction to Schoology, LFDCS’ Learning Management System. LFDEF, INC FY’2015‐2016 ANNUAL REPORT PAGE 14
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