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NWESD 189: PreK-3 Alignment

The NWESD has been working hard to develop and grow the PreK-3rd Alignment program in the state.

In 2009, the Northwest Educational Service District 189 (NWESD) received a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to take promising practices of PreK-3rd Alignment occurring in Nooksack Valley School District to scale in a five-county region of Northwest Washington State. Nooksack Valley demonstrated success integrating early learning and partnering with community programs as part of a strategic approach for increasing student achievement. Their model includes a cycle of learning and implementation, in classrooms and in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), to support teacher inquiry and to increase administrative understanding, ownership, and leadership for quality early learning.

NWESD built on that approach, starting with just three school districts in 2009. Today that work has grown to systems-partnership with Child Care Resource and Referral to expand professional development opportunities to licensed community child care providers. The work has also grown from a grant funded project to a fee-for-service model, with districts and partners contributing resources for shared professional development and systems building county coalitions, fifty organizations including early childhood educators, child care licensors, social service providers, public health officials, community organizations, business and community leaders, and other stakeholders. NWEL provides the leadership necessary to build partnerships to develop www.nwesd.org/early-learningkhugo@nwesd.org


~Rachael Willett, NWESD 189
Communications Specialist