Instructional Services
Instructional Services has the goal to provide service, leadership, and professional development to improve student learning. There are three departments within Instructional Services: Early Childhood Services, Professional Learning and Leadership Support Services, and Student Programs. Instructional Services provides an array of training, support, resources and services for educators and families in Shasta County and counties throughout the North State. Support services such as preschool, juvenile court school, after school programs, special education classes, Independent Study, administrative credentialing, countywide counseling services, safety plan development, district support, charter school and charter authorizer support, assessment and accountability, curriculum and instruction, coordination of Foster Youth and Homeless Youth services, and professional learning opportunities are just some of the programs we offer to the schools in the north state. In addition, Instructional Services is uniquely positioned to share information from state level committees and the California Department of Education with schools, districts, and counties in the North State. We coordinate various programs and projects to enhance teaching and learning from preschool through high school. We are willing to customize our services to meet the needs of individual schools and districts. We strive to support and assist schools with building the necessary foundations to prepare students to be college and career ready.
For more information, see the web page:
https://www.shastacoe.org/instructional-services-division.
Professional Learning and Leadership Support Services
The Shasta County Office of Education Professional Learning and Leadership Support Services Department (PLLSS) aims to empower educators by providing guidance, support, high-quality professional learning, and resources to help our districts develop effective instructional systems to build capacity and improve student learning in our educational community.
Our team provides educators a broad array of resources, training and support. The goal is to strengthen and support the county’s educational foundation and meet student achievement needs. Department staff members work with teachers, counselors, instructional coaches, administrators, and other education leaders at both the school and district levels to develop the knowledge and skills needed to engage in a systematic and sustainable improvement process. Areas of support include, but are not limited to, content area proficiency in literacy, mathematics, science, history, arts, and Science Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM). Other focus areas are school attendance and behavior, social emotional & academic learning, career and college, and educational equity.
The principles of improvement guide our work with districts in Shasta County identified for Differentiated Assistance and our work as a Geographic Lead Agency for California’s System of Support. The shift to understanding the system and exploring options for improvement is a hopeful direction for positive change. As we provide professional learning opportunities for teachers, paraprofessionals, counselors, and administrators, we are building some improvement principles into the application of new knowledge as we ask, “What did you learn today that you will try? What are you hoping it will accomplish? What evidence will you gather to know whether it was an improvement?” Additional services include support for the development and the implementation of the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP), federal entitlement programs that include Title I, II, III, IV and V, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requirements, School Leadership Team professional development, policy and governance guidance, implementation of curriculum, improvement in instructional practice, and assessment support.
More information about professional learning is available on our website including a calendar and a catalog of professional learning opportunities provided by the Shasta County Office of Education.
Environmental Literacy
The Shasta County Office of Education is the lead for environmental literacy in the 31 Northern California counties. Through a three year grant from the California Department of Education, professional learning is being offered as a specific 12-month program. Rather than making environmental literacy “one more thing” to add, we have called out where it already exists in the standards and school goals/methods. The goals of the grant are:
1. Increase understanding of environmental literacy.
2. Increase use of environmental literacy as part of science education.
3. Improve Social-Emotional and Academic Learning through science and nature.
4. Increase integration of subject matter, such as ELA with science.
5. Improve science-driven equitable opportunities for all students.
Participating in the grant are teachers, expanded learning (after school) program staff, and nonformal environmental educators like park rangers and museum staff. We have 33 participants from 10 counties with an even split between teachers, expanded learning, and environmental educators. Our facilitation team includes experts from seven counties.
SHASTA SAFER SCHOOL COALITION
The Safer Schools Coalition of Shasta began in February of 2021 as a collaborative think-tank established by the Shasta County Office of Education to promote the safety and well-being of Shasta County’s school children. The Coalition is patterned after a similar model created in Kern County. The purpose of the Safer Schools Coalition is to meet quarterly to bring school administration, safety personnel, law enforcement agencies, fire departments, other first responder entities and community partners together for meaningful discussion, sharing of best practices, networking, planning, and support to address the many aspects that impact the safety and overall climate in Shasta County schools. Recent topics that the group has discussed include: workplace safety trainings, suicide prevention, mental health support, social-emotional learning resources, School Safety Plan development, and threat assessment protocols.
KELVIN
Kelvin is a school wellness platform that has been utilized by many of our schools across the county throughout the past year. The program has been built for educators with the purpose of being able to respond to the evolving needs and context of schools. The Kelvin platform creates an engaging cycle of real-time feedback through periodic surveys from students as well as staff and families throughout the school year. The survey data provides comprehensive, user-friendly reports to inform and improve school climate and culture, wellbeing, and family and community engagement. The surveys are a quick way to provide teachers and educational leaders with actionable feedback which allows them to then understand where their students and schools are thriving, as well as identify areas that might need some additional work.
California Community Schools Partnership Program
Shasta County Office of Education partners with our districts, charter schools, early learning and care providers, community partners, students, and their families to build a cohesive county-wide system of support to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19, devastating wildfires, and high poverty rates on student learning, cognitive and social development, and mental health. Our current California Community Partnership Program Grant Consortium through the California Department of Education (CSPP grant) included providing services and support to all 25 districts within Shasta County for attendance, behavior/mental health, homelessness, and COVID-related needs and challenges. Our Shasta County Community Schools Consortium serves over 26,000 students spread over 3,847 square miles. All services and support in our original grant scheduled to end September 30, 2022, will continue due to funding sources from internal and external partners. All 25 districts within the original Shasta County Consortium CCSPP grant will continue to be supported in the identification of families who are struggling with challenges beyond the school site and/or district sphere of influence by referring families to CommunityConnect at the earliest possible opportunity. A referral to CommunityConnect connects families, who accept, with a Social Worker to help them connect to local community-based services and supports as determined by the family. Just under 1000 families have been referred to CommunityConnect in the 2021-22 school year from 69 of our schools. Over 70% of those families have been connected with and are engaged in over 50 community agency support services. All major community partnerships established within the original CCSPP grant will continue. The expansion efforts through the newly awarded five-year, $14.1 Million CCSPP Implementation Grant which began July 1, 2022, will help sustain current supports as well as provide a deeper layer of support focusing on our youngest students in PreK - third grade in nine districts, 20 SCOE California State Preschool Program (CSPP) sites, 80 Quality Counts California ELC sites, and 22 Project SHARE Expanded Learning sites housed within our current consortium of all 25 Shasta County Districts.
SELPA
The Shasta County Special Education Local Planning Area (SELPA) office provides training, dispute resolution, and policy development for all programs and fiscal aspects of special education for the 25 school districts and charter schools in Shasta County. The Governing Board of each district and many of the charter schools in Shasta County are a signatory to the Shasta County Local Plan that defines the governance of the SELPA. The SELPA office is the primary contact for the California Department of Education Division’s work in monitoring and supporting special education programs. The SELPA also supports the Community Advisory Committee, which is comprised of parents of children with disabilities enrolled in local schools, as well as other parents and professionals interested in special education.
Contact: (530) 225-0100
River's Edge Academy
River’s Edge Academy (REA) is a new in-custody commitment treatment and camp program. REA allows youth to remain in their community and stay connected to the pro-social and family support systems. This program facilitates a smooth transition back to their home school, allowing youth to continue to receive educational services and support from the Shasta County Office of Education.
Camp components such as a regimented schedule, physical training, environmental projects, and community service have been integrated into the curriculum. Children and Family Team (CFT) meeting and transition planning are an important component of the Academy to assure a continuum of educational services is available to enhance success as youth re-enter the community. Up to 15 youth will be served in this program each year.
Strengthening Families Collaborative
In 2011, 30 agencies in Shasta County joined forces to address the local challenges caused by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES). The objective of the group was to counter the impact of ACES in a systematic, deliberate, and collaborative way. As a result of that work, the Shasta Strengthening Families Collaborative (SFC) was established. The vision of the Collaborative is to build a connected community of safe and thriving families. Its mission is to strengthen all families to overcome adversity by building hope and resilience. Since its inception, a representative from the Shasta County Office of Education has served on the SFC Steering Committee. This committee works to plan and implement outreach programs and activities designed to promote and increase the local awareness of ACES, trauma and to teach families in Shasta County about the power of hope.
SOS - Behavior
What is SOS - Behavior?
SOS - Behavior is an extension of the School Attendance Review Team (SART) work through the California Community Schools Partnership Program Grant. Originally, many schools in the county came together to identify procedures to improve due to decreased student attendance. As the Shasta County Office of Education acted to help sites improve school attendance, it became a natural extension to begin working on improving school behavior. The purpose behind this project has been to bring different school sites together, review student behavior practices and policies and work to improve behavioral outcomes for all sites involved. During the 2021-22 school year, 34 different schools joined the project.
What are the goals that have guided this project this year?
• Be a source of Hopefulness and Helpfulness for Shasta County schools.
• Support the development of tiered behavioral interventions in our schools with the following focus areas:
- Data-driven decision making.
- Behavior support for each unique site.
- Understanding our Behavior Systems.
• Connect our students (and their families) to appropriate community resources.
Three focus areas from these goals:
Data-driven decision making: How do you know what a student who is needing behavioral support will need? How do you know that what you are trying should continue to be used as a behavior intervention? How do we get the right students to the right supports?
Behavior Supports For Each Unique Site:
Every site has varying levels of need, resources, and different areas of focus. We want to be responsive and help support initiatives that are already in place while embedding evidence-based and positive behavioral solutions.
Understanding Our Systems - Every site involved is working to address the questions:
• Can everyone on school staff articulate the system for supporting student behavior?
• If a staff member leaves, can the behavior system continue to function?
• What part of the system is working well and what part might need adjusted steps?
- Supporting Student Attendance
- Administrative Credentialing Programs
- HOPE Rising
- ReachHigherShasta
- Social, Emotional & Academic Learning Community of Practice
- STEM
- Programs and Workgroups
- Whiskeytown Environmental School
- Schreder Planetarium