OUR TEAM'S WORK: EDUCATION

Education

Colorado Safer Schools Initiative (CSSI)

In the Spring of 2023, Confluence convened the Colorado Safer Schools Initiative (CSSI) in partnership with the Public Education Business Coalition (PEBC). Built upon the framework published by Abramson for a community led exploration of the full range of issues affecting school safety, CSSI quickly attracted statewide interest and participation. CSSI is primarily focused on developing strategies to support action at the school, school system and community levels to respond to and reduce incidents of violence involving students. The stakeholder coalition and research initiative is bringing together system leaders, educators, students, parents, government officials, mental and behavioral health experts, law enforcement, security experts, counselors, community leaders, communications experts and other stakeholders to discuss a broad range of issues affecting school safety and climate. CSSI is a multi-year initiative is meeting monthly as a full group and makes use of multiple sub-groups and learning sessions to allow participants to dig more deeply into specific topics. Within the first three months, the initiative grew to over 180 stakeholders from across the state including educators, school leaders, mental and behavioral health experts, community leaders, members of the business community, students, families and government officials.

Education System Resilience & Innovation Initiative (ESRII)

Abramson formed and led the Education System Resilience & Innovation Initiative (ESRII) in partnership with the Public Education & Business Coalition (PEBC). ESRII assembled more than 80 education system leaders, educators, government officials, and stakeholders from within and outside the education system to develop new approaches to improve support for the teaching workforce, deliver instruction that better prepares all students for the challenges of an ever-evolving world, and address issues within the education system that perpetuate inequities and achievement gaps that were only exacerbated during disruptive events like the COVID-19 pandemic. The coalition published a comprehensive report detailing a set of 16 recommendations aimed at strengthening teacher support and initiating system-level change. Those recommendations served as the foundation for multiple pieces of legislation including over $12mm approved unanimously by the Joint Budget Committee to support initiatives contained in the ESRII recommendations.

ESRII Early Childhood Education Workforce Workgroup

In partnership with the Public Education Business Coalition (PEBC), Abramson formed a sub-group of ESRII to explore challenges to recruiting and retaining the top talent in early childhood education and childcare. The workgroup, comprised of more than 20 leading practitioners and experts met throughout 2021 and 2022. Led by Abramson and the policy director of PEBC, the group explored challenges to recruitment and retention in the workforce, heard from local, regional and national thought leaders and explored state and national research on the topic(s). The workgroup published its recommendations in the fall of 2022 and continued its work by supporting pilot programs at the local level based on the group recommendations

Colorado EduPIC

Abramson created and facilitated a joint-partnership of a leading national education non-profit and a Colorado based organization that pulled together experts and key stakeholders in education to explore new and innovative models and partnerships for educator preparation at all levels, from Early Childhood Education (ECE) through K-12, and the partnerships between preparers and districts to support the continuum of learning during formal teacher preparation and the first years of teachers’ careers. Led by Abramson, the Colorado Educator Preparation Innovation Coalition (COEduPIC) was a collaborative effort that brought together stakeholders involved with the training, employment and support of new teachers together with educators, experts in the field, government and business leaders to explore ways in which the teacher pipeline could be expanded and improved with attention to specific areas of need including ECE, STEM, diversity of the workforce and the differing needs of urban, suburban and rural schools. The Coalition identified a series of pilot programs in Colorado to gather data to improve teacher preparation models. Our goal was to model and replicate exemplary practices that are scalable in teacher preparation in Colorado. By doing so, every school district will be given the tools to meet the specific needs of their teaching professionals, students, and community.

Colorado School Safety Work Group

In January of 2023, Confluence was selected by the Colorado Department of Public Safety (CDPS) and the School Safety Resource Center (SSRC) to manage, support and facilitate the Colorado Interagency Working Group on School Safety, more commonly known as the School Safety Work Group (SSWG). The SSWG was formed by legislation and tasked with convening representatives from multiple state agencies with other specific stakeholders to examine the effectiveness, transparency, public awareness and collaborative approach of all state supported programs relating to school safety. Confluence’s team designs each meeting of the SSWG in collaboration with the Director of the Office of School Safety, including the topics, agendas, meeting materials, facilitation of meetings and identification of any outside experts or resources for the group’s work. Confluence has also worked with the SSRC Director to determine the appropriate use of subcommittees, to establish and manage those subcommittees and integrate their work and findings into the full SSWG initiative. As part of this work, Confluence’s team is working across state government to conduct a comprehensive inventory of all programs, resources, grants or other endeavors of any state agency to support school safety. With Confluence serving as lead author, the SSWG will publish a report at the end of 2023 containing recommendations for system level changes to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and transparency of state programs relating to school safety, strategies to improve continued collaboration across state agencies and recommendations for improving awareness and utilization of these programs.

Colorado Blended Learning

Building on past work together, in 2022, the Blended Learning Initiative (BLI) at the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) asked Abramson to design a multi-component stakeholder engagement strategy to gather family, student, educator and system leader input on the use of blended and online learning. In partnership with the School Finance and Operations Unit and the Schools of Choice Unit, Abramson conducted stakeholder engagement outreach activities to educators and families to share perspectives on online and blended learning in Colorado. The goal of this 2022-2023 listening tour was to gather understanding of different forms of instruction as well as insights into what works well, what are the challenges, and what are the opportunities in different forms of instructional delivery.

Colorado Department of Education ESSER Listening Tour

In the summer of 2021, as Colorado Department of Education (CDE) and State Board of Education (SBOE) leaders continued their work of supporting local system leaders and educators preparing for the 2021-‘22 school year and to leverage every resource available to maximize the recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, a third round of funds and associated uses was being rolled out from the federal government as part of the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief fund (ESSER). As CDE’s leadership prepared to craft and submit the state’s plan to the federal government for the ESSER III funds and districts developed their own strategies for funds they received directly under ESSER, a straight forward but complex question existed: How could CDE, the SBOE and the State of Colorado maximize the impact of the state education agency (SEA) set-aside of these funds? To help answer that question, CDE engaged Abramson to convene a series of meetings to hear directly from educators, families, students and stakeholders about their experiences during the COVID-19 interruption of our public education system. The ESSER Stakeholder Listening Tour was designed to gather this input and to help CDE leaders prioritize spending of the approximately $111 million in ESSER III funds and the remaining $21 million of ESSER I and ESSER II funds. ESSER Stakeholder listening sessions were scheduled across a variety of stakeholder groups who would all offer a unique perspective from their experiences and who would represent the diversity of Colorado’s communities.

STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGED

WORK GROUPS/TASK FORCES MANAGED

MEETINGS PLANNED & FACILITATED

REGULATORY & POLICY CHANGES INFORMED

Confluence PSG partners with government and private sector leaders to support policy and system change.