San Diego County Office of Education to Lead Region’s ASPIRE Program
The San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) was recently awarded a one-year, nearly $1.4 million grant form the California Department of Education (CDE) to lead the Achieving Success in Positive Interactions, Relationships, and Environments (ASPIRE) program in Region D, which includes eight counties: Imperial, Inyo, Los Angeles, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego.
“We are honored and excited to have been chosen to lead this important work of creating welcoming and inclusive spaces for our youngest learners throughout the region,” said Dr. Rita Palet, executive director of Early Education Programs and Services at SDCOE. “This grant is directly in line with our North Star goal of increasing belongingness in public education.”
The purpose of the grant is to support continuous quality improvement and responsive teacher-child interactions in the California State Preschool Program (CSPP). Responsive teacher-child interactions require intentional work to address potential implicit and explicit adult bias to transform environments and ensure that the culture and climate of all CSPPs reflect inclusion and a sense of belonging for all children, regardless of any disabilities and the race, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation of the child or children and their families. This is particularly critical for children from historically marginalized Black and Tribal communities, children with disabilities, and children whose home language is not English.
The ASPIRE program supports California State Preschool Program contractors in building the capacity of their staff on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) tools: CLASS 2nd Edition and CLASS Environment.
As the regional program lead, SDCOE will collaborate with all eight counties to:
- Conduct a regional needs assessment to identify the needs of observers and trainers on the various CLASS tools
- Develop a regional coordination plan balancing the needs throughout the region
- Create a timeline for how capacity will be built to support CSPP programs in the region on CLASS 2nd Edition and CLASS Environment tools
- Support CSPP providers on inputting CLASS observation data into myTeachstone
- Recruit CSPP program staff and administrative staff throughout the region to participate in educator events
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