April 28 & 29, 2014
Pre-Reading on the Website:
- Profiles of organizations
- Summary of RBA Approach
- Background Materials
Monday Opening Session 2-5
2:00 Who Are We?
- A chance for everyone to get grounded with equal knowledge.
- Assume profiles on website have been reviewed. Give sample questions.
- Divide into paired matches “organizationally” (12 teams local teams count as an org).
- Rotate through speed dating with 5 minutes for each side to ask questions about the kind of
- work the other organization does.
3:00 What is the Problem?
Goal is to level set, get clear that we all do see it the same. Expect strong alignment with different dimensions of the problem. Will also serve to identify and disconnects.
If we look at the issue of measurement and results oriented practice What is the problem
- we face?
- write individually
- share and discuss in small groups but don’t try and reach agreement
- share all 30+ definitions of the problem
- theme and sort,
- Do we have a common, shared definition of the problem? Where do we have disagreement or misalignment?
3:30 Aspirations for Progress
What are your aspirations for this effort? What will be a good sign that we have made
- progress?
- write individually
- share in small groups, create chart lists
- Share small group results and talk about what this means for our work
- Big ideas common measures, common tools or tool library
- Compare against Draft Scorecard
4:00 Birth to 8 as the starting point
- Why is this the starting point? Nina
- Discuss briefly, be sure all agree.
- Handout and discuss common results:
- Healthy children
- Developmentally ready to enter kindergarten at age 5
- Access to quality early care and education
- Physically active children
- Children are in positive language rich environments
- Children regularly attend pre-school/school
- Children experience fewer discipline occurrences
- Children read at grade level by age 8
4:15 p.m. The View from the Communities (3)
- Each community does short presentations about the approaches they have worked on for
- birth to 8
- What are the the problems they have faced?
- Where have they made progress?
- What makes the difference in moving forward and what role has outside support and
- technical assistance played?
5:00 p.m. Adjourn
Tuesday Working Session 9-3
9:00 Warm up exercise Peg Game
9:15 RBA as an Organizing Approach
- What is RBA and how can it help us?
- A simple level set presentation by Erica and Frank
- Q and A, discussion. Be sure everyone understands how and why we are trying to use
9:30 Common Indicators Getting Started
- Our end goal is a small number of indicators that can be collected widely across the country
- Team competition 4 teams Write down possible indicators/benchmark (not result or outcome).
- Each team has two results see Monday agenda. (don’t worry about overlapping indicators)
- After 20 minutes each team step back. Review your work. Decide together which three your think are the best for consideration.
9:50 a.m. Finish exercise
- Groups then rotate 10 minutes at each of the other stations to review the work
- Add any indicators you feel are missing
- Consider if you would add any to the recommended list
10:20: a.m. Break
10:35 a.m. Criteria What did we Learn
- Review Pathways list how aligned are we?
- Review together the work of the teams
- Discuss Why did something make the recommended list? (Harvest for criteria)
- Review work accomplished. What do we take away from the exercise?
- How was it to have to work together to agree on limited set of indicators/goals?
- Does it feel like an expanding conversation or one that can coalesce?
- Given our aspirations and the definition of the problem we face (Monday’s work), what is our take on what it will take to move forward with our work?
11:00 a.m. Supporting Communities
- Large group brainstorm When you think of great T.A. experiences what elements were key
- to successfully supporting implementation in local communities?
- What will be needed to support local implementation of common indicators?
- Use simple rank voting to see what the group thinks is key to providing in this effort.
- Step back and discuss If we are going to provide this as a collaborative how will we make
- it happen?
- Goal is list of key elements for t.a. and possible strategies for moving ahead.
12:00 Lunch
12:45 p.m. Documenting and Sharing
- Divide into two groups with leaders. (Turn the Curve Strategy) Goal is draft strategies for
- discussion and review by leadership group.
- One group focuses on Documentation and Measurement issues. How do we structure collaborative
- approaches to documenting and measuring the impact of our work?
- Second group focuses on Gathering and Sharing tools and resources. What are the best
- strategies for collecting and sharing tools and resources? What already exists that we can
- tap and grow?
1:45 p.m. Sharing and Committing
- Each group shares possible next steps
- Make asks of each other for follow up to make commitments
- Clarify pathway forward
2:15 p.m. Organizing for Next Steps
- Summarize and catalogue biggest decisions/priorities from the retreat
- Discussion about how to organize to get work done Do Nina/Bob others from leadership
planning lead this? How position decision makers to do this conversation?!