webinar

webinarOctober 26, 2023

ACCESS WEBINAR: Elevate School Outcomes: 10 Steps to Building a High-Performing Data Team

We know that going back into the school year a lot of principals are facing increasing responsibilities. Decisions around resource allocation and budgets have already been made and as the year progresses ongoing initiatives will need to be put in place to support student growth. Often the sheer quantity of data that is produced from various assessment tools across the school makes it impossible to analyze it all. This is why we offered this webinar to school administrators.

Establishing a school data team early on in the year can help to build a strong, collaborative approach to school improvement, fostering shared responsibility. It establishes a school-wide culture of data enquiry that drives data-informed decision-making, and ultimately frees up principals time to make those important decisions.

Download 10 Steps to Establish a Data Team Checklist

Check out our new webinar with Meghan Bell as she discusses the knowledge and strategies necessary to establish a data team within your school.

webinarSeptember 21, 2022

WEBINAR: Accurately capture and measure school staff perceptions to foster strong and engaged teams

Education workers strive every day to put the needs of their students’ above their own. Their work is fuelled by a passion to ensure each child has the best opportunities in life and yet school staff are leaving the profession at unprecedented rates.

Check out our new webinar with Dr. Durepos as she discusses the factors that influence staff attitudes and experiences related to their job, school and work/life balance. Learn how having the right data from staff perspectives can help guide specific professional, emotional, and practical supports and target investments in programs that are most beneficial for staff.

Click here to find out more about the OURSCHOOL STAFF SURVEY!

webinar, webinarMarch 29, 2022

ACCESS WEBINAR: Support your educators to get students back on track

We know that educators are working tirelessly to ensure that students are learning as best they can, yet more and more students are disengaging. The question we need to answer immediately is “what can we do to support our educators?”

Check out our new webinar as Dr. Doug Willms discusses what we can do to change results, what is needed to support educators, and interventions that can be put in place to accelerate learning growth to get all our students back on track.

Click on the video below to find out more about the Confident Learners program

webinar, webinarDecember 3, 2021

ACCESS WEBINAR: Capacity building – the key to enhancing classroom practice and transforming instruction

Find out how capacity building and data informed decision-making can enhance your classroom practice and transform instruction.

30% of children are still leaving school with poor literacy skills. This number increases to 60-80% in areas of vulnerable lower SES populations. Recent research and major scientific advancements into literacy acquisition help to explain why. Our current curriculum and teaching practices have not yet aligned with science. So a key question now is ‘what can we do to better meet the needs of our students?’

Check out our new webinar as we discuss three elements that educators can focus on and develop to improve the learning outcomes of every child.

Click on the videos below to find out more about the Confident Learners program and Professional Learning courses we have available.

We will shortly be announcing our next webinar. Standby for new details!

Check out this webinar as we address common instructional questions related to teaching reading and strategies to support students at different stages of reading development. Common questions discussed include:

What are the differences between phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics and why are they important?

How do children learn to automatically recognize words and read fluently?

How do we teach children to comprehend texts they read?

These questions and many others around phonics instruction are addressed using the Confident Learners reading and intervention program. One of the key elements of the program is a structured and systematic literacy program, which guides educators through teaching children to read. The other key elements incorporated into Confident Learners Literacy Program are professional learning and leadership development, instructional coaching, and a simple assessment program, all designed to build educator knowledge and skills to improve the reading skills of all children.

About the presenter

Connie Freeman is the Senior Instructional Literacy Consultant at The Learning Bar. She has a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Education and has over a decade of experience in the classroom. Connie’s philosophy of education is grounded in a fundamental belief in the importance of equitable education for all and the critical role literacy plays in ensuring success for all students. As a literacy support specialist, Connie has experience supporting students and teachers in the classroom, as well as building professional learning communities in schools. She has been teaching for 10 years and previously used the Confident Learners Literacy Program to bridge the early literacy gap for her students.

We will shortly be announcing our next webinar. Standby for new details!

webinarAugust 26, 2021

WEBINAR: Bridging the early literacy gap: Working hand-in-hand to build educator capacity and improve efficacy of instruction

Access our webinar to hear Neil Debassige, former principal of Lakeview School in M’Chigeeng First Nation and award-winner of the Meritorious Service Medal by the Governor General of Canada, present how he bridged the gap in early literacy. Using a three-year intervention and reading program he put education back in the hands of educators; empowering them with the knowledge, skills, assessment tools and resources to reach more children effectively.

Find out how the Confident Learners Literacy Program is supporting school districts across Canada to:

advance capacity building for educators through aligning the science of reading, teaching and assessment with classroom practice;

implement a systematic and explicit step-by-step approach to literacy development; and

employ a structured assessment and monitoring system to ensure full visibility of student progress.

Schools can meet the goal of teaching all children to read by the end of Grade 3. Working together we can help you transform the lives of your students, and give all children the opportunity to thrive.

NEW WEBINAR: Teaching Children to Read

The next webinar in our early literacy series takes place on Sept 20th, 4 PM EST. Join us as we address common instructional questions related to teaching reading and strategies to support students at different stages of reading development.

Common questions to be discussed include:

What are the differences between phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics and why are they important?

How do children learn to automatically recognize words and read fluently?

How do we teach children to comprehend texts they read?

Find out the answers to these questions and more!

webinarAugust 11, 2021

WEBINAR: Getting all children on track to read by the end of Grade 3

Access our webinar as we discuss some of the key challenges facing the public school system and the priorities school districts can adopt to overcome these.

Our speaker, Lorna Cameron, administrator and teacher for over 20 years discusses what our education system looks like today; are we meeting our students’ needs? Look at some of the key factors that school districts can target to get all children on track to read by the end of Grade 3. Finally she provides an overview of Confident Learners Literacy Program, a reading and intervention program developed by The Learning Bar that is being used to create a better future for our children.

Let’s work together to change the status quo in K-12 education and ensure that all children have the opportunity to thrive. Contact us now to learn more.

Confident Learners Program Overview

The Confident Learners framework was developed over the course of a three year research partnership with 32 First Nations communities to develop a scalable program, informed by best evidence, and designed to meet the literacy needs of each child, school and community. To outline some of the key challenges we addressed through our research, and evidence underlying the program’s approach and design, we have developed the Confident Learners Program Overview. To receive the Overview directly in your inbox please provide us with your contact details below.

School monitoring programs and national and international studies such as PISA provide trailing indicators of student’s outcomes. The primary aim of trailing indicators is to assess changes in system performance across schools and districts, and over time.

Educators need leading indicators to inform timely school policy and instructional decisions. Leading indicator data allow you to not only focus on what is happening in your school now, but also to predict what will happen as a result (e.g. high bullying rates now will lead to high anxiety rates later). Leading indicator data are collected before learning occurs or as it is occurring. They typically employ short tests and administer surveys more frequently. The data can be used to:

provide a framework for intervention (i.e., a response-to-intervention (RTI) program);
guide school policy and practice in order to improve school climate;
stimulate discussion about school reform;
identify issues relevant to particular students or groups of students;
identify students who need extra support;
involve parents in meaningful ways; and
increase student and teacher engagement.

We enable schools to continuously monitor several leading indicators that can help guide school policy and practice and assess the effects of school reforms.

High accuracy of reported measures is best achieved by having 100% of students participate. However, a reasonable estimate can be achieved by having as few as 30 students participate.

Click here to get more details on the data accuracy generated by the OurSCHOOL survey.

Validity refers to whether a set of survey questions is measuring what it is intended to measure.

Steps for establishing the validity of an OurSCHOOL measure

Determine a theoretical definition of the construct by reviewing literature, and by seeking expert opinion.
Identify the questions that reflect the construct through thorough discussions with experts, as well as teachers and students in focus groups, and a review of other instruments.

Data are analyzed using two psychometric techniques: factor analysis and item response theory (IRT). The analysis provides an indication of how well the questions hold together to provide a measure of a single unified construct, and whether each question contributes to the reliable measurement of the construct.

Click here to delve deeper into validity in the OurSCHOOL context.

Reliability refers to the consistency of the measurement process and is one of the key criteria for a sound measure of a schooling outcome or school process.

High reliability is dependent on having multiple well-formulated questions contributing to a measure.
Reliability is usually assessed with a coefficient that ranges from 0 to 1.0, with 1.0 being perfectly reliable. Most of the measures used in our surveys have reliability coefficients ranging from 0.80 to 0.95.

Learn more about the level of reliability in the OurSCHOOL Survey.

Join the OurSCHOOL Engagement Team in one of our personalized interactive sessions. Each session was designed to reach all levels of data literacy, meaning you don’t need to be a data expert or statistician to attend. Let our team of experts guide you in finding your data story!

PRE-SURVEY

STRATEGY SESSION

DATA

DEEP DIVE

ASSESSING

YOUR IMPACT

BUILDING A

THRIVING SCHOOL

Explore topics such as:

In this year-end online debrief, the

Engagement Team will provide

you with tips and resources you

can use to:

A school is thriving when teachers,

students, parents / guardians, and

the community are working together

toward a common vision of success.

Take a deep dive into your data!

• Data-driven planning,

• goal setting, and

• using survey measures and

custom questions to capture

actionable evidence.

Our experts will:

• Review your data

• present notable highlights, and

• identify areas for further

investigation.

• Review your progress,

• assess the impact of your

implemented strategies, and

• discuss ways to help your team

adjust strategies and set

priorities for the coming year.

In this session you will:

• Explore strategies for how to

engage your whole school

community and build a culture of

consultation and collabora-tion

between all stakeholders, and

• learn how to triangulate the

perspectives of students,

teachers and parents to gain

deep insight into your school

communities' alignment.

• This session is available for

schools that use the OurSCHOOL

suite of surveys (Student, Parent,

and Teacher).

Leave the session with:

Participants will:

• Strategies and resources to

generate excitement for the

OurSCHOOL survey, and

• ideas you can use for a

successful survey

implementation.

• Learn to interpret and share

their OurSCHOOL findings,

• identify areas to celebrate,

• pinpoint opportunities for

improvement, and develop

achievable action plans

for further success.

Leave the session with:

• Knowledge and resources to

assess the impact of your

current strategies, and

• tips and resources for creating

a plan before your next survey

implementation.

* Sessions are available in both online and in-person format with up to 50 attendees. Pricing is based on session details and availability may be limited.

The RTI classification includes three tiers, which are based on a prediction model derived from longitudinal data that estimated the likelihood of a child being a successful reader at age 8 or 9, based on his or her EYE-TA domain scores. Children with a greater than 80% chance of becoming a successful reader are classified as having Tier 1 learning needs; those with a 50% to 80% chance of becoming a successful reader are classified as having Tier 2 learning needs; and those with less than a 50% chance are considered to have Tier 3 learning needs. The prediction model takes into account the age of the child at the time of the assessment and his or her skill level in each of the five domains. The results derived from the model weights some skills more heavily than others. Skills in the Cognitive and Language and Communication domains figure most prominently; children’s Awareness of Self and Environment, Social Skills and Approaches to Learning, and Fine Motor skills also contribute to the classification.

An RTI classification is not permanent or necessarily long term, nor is it a label assigned to a child. As children are developing their literacy skills, their progress should be monitored on a regular basis, using a variety of formal and informal tests. In practice, teachers use the domain-specific results to plan their instruction. Schools with more than one kindergarten or 1st grade classroom can use the RTI score to ensure the prevalence of vulnerable children is evenly distributed among classrooms.

Also, children with Tier 2 or Tier 3 learning needs do not necessarily have a specific learning or intellectual disability. The classification simply indicates that a child may need extra instructional time and resources during the primary school years.