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Being able to prepare all your staff at a depth level on an identified "pain-point" within six to eight weeks is game changing professional development. KDS provides you with the preparation you require to lead this game changing effort.

The KDS "chain of evidence" connects accountability with support, enabling educational leaders to:

• Implement a classroom observation system tailored to specific district initiatives
• Deliver focused professional development that relates to each teachers specific needs
• Align all professional development efforts with professional standards in a competency based model, so that improvements in instructional practices can be monitored and supported
• Connect observed desired changes in teaching practices to student achievement
• Use data from multiple measures to guide continuous growth of administrators and teachers at all levels

Below are funding strategies you can use to support your professional growth as a school leader.

Remaining ARRA Funds (can be used until September 2011)

As your strategic partner, KDS supports your implementation of four essential areas of reform:

• Making improvements in teacher effectiveness and ensuring that all schools have highly qualified teachers
• Making progress toward college and career-ready standards and rigorous assessments that will improve both teaching and learning
• Improving achievement in low-performing schools, by providing intensive support and effective interventions in schools that need them the most
• Gathering information to improve student learning, teacher performance, and college and career-readiness through enhanced data systems that track progress.

Title I Funds

Purpose: To improve teaching and learning for students most at risk of failing to meet State standards and to close the achievement gap
Potential uses of Title I ARRA funds allowable under Title I and consistent with ARRA principles:

Charlotte Danielson, Robyn Jackson and Karyn Wright School Improvement courses

• Establishing a system for identifying and training highly effective teachers to serve as instructional leaders in Title I schoolwide programs
• Establishing intensive, year-long teacher training for all teachers and the principal in a Title I school in corrective action or restructuring status

Digital Educator Courses

• Providing new opportunities for Title I schoolwide programs for secondary school students to use high-quality, online courseware
• Establishing sustainable extended learning opportunities for Title I-eligible students, (before/after school, summer, or over an extended school year.)

Lee Jenkins and Victoria Bernhardt Data Courses

• Providing PD to teachers in Title I targeted assistance programs on the use of data to inform and improve instruction for Title I-eligible students
• Using longitudinal data systems to drive continuous improvement efforts focused on improving achievement in Title I schools

IDEA Funding

Purpose: To ensure that children with disabilities have access to a free appropriate public education that meets each childs unique needs and prepares each child for further education, employment, and independent living.
Potential uses of IDEA funds allowable under IDEA and consistent with ARRA principles:

• Provide intensive district-wide PD for special and general education teachers that focuses on scaling up, through replication, proven and innovative evidence-based school-wide strategies in reading, math, writing and science, and positive behavioral supports to improve student outcomes
• Provide PD to teachers on the collection and use of data to inform and improve instruction for eligible students.
• Develop or expand the capacity to collect and use data to improve teaching and learning and to monitor progress

State Administered Funding Sources (contact your SEA)

Improving Teacher Quality State Grants (Title II-A)

Purpose: To increase academic achievement by improving teacher and principal quality. This program is carried out by: increasing the number of highly qualified teachers in classrooms; increasing the number of highly qualified principals and assistant principals in schools; and increasing the effectiveness of teachers and principals by holding LEAs and schools accountable for improvements in student academic achievement.

English Language Acquisition State Grants (Title III)

Purpose: To improve the education of limited English proficient (LEP) children and youths by helping them learn English and meet challenging state academic content and student academic achievement standards. The program provides enhanced instructional opportunities for immigrant children and youths. Funds are distributed to states based on a formula that takes into account the number of immigrant and LEP students in each state.

New Federal Funding Sources

The proposed Excellent Instructional Teams authority would have 3 components: the Effective Teachers and Leaders State grants program, the Teacher and Leader Innovation Fund, and the Teacher and Leader Pathways program.

Effective Teachers and Leaders State grants would make formula grants to States and LEAs to promote and enhance the teaching profession; recruit, prepare, support, reward, and retain effective teachers, principals, and other school leaders, especially in high-need LEAs, schools, fields, and subjects; design and implement strong teacher evaluation systems; ensure the equitable distribution of effective teachers and principals; increase the effectiveness of teachers and principals; improve the preparation of teachers and principals by developing, supporting, and expanding effective pathways to the education profession; improve instruction and help ensure that teachers have the knowledge, skills, data, and support needed to be effective in the classroom; promote collaboration and the development of instructional teams that use data to improve practice; and improve the management of human capital in States and LEAs.

The Teacher and Leader Innovation Fund would make competitive awards to States and LEAs willing to implement bold approaches to improving the effectiveness of the education workforce in high-need schools by creating the conditions needed to identify, reward, retain, and advance effective teachers, principals, and school leadership teams in those schools, and enabling schools to build the strongest teams possible.

The Teacher and Leader Pathways is a new program with a focus on student outcomes that would support the creation or expansion of high-quality pathways, including university- and LEA-based routes as well as alternative routes, into the teaching profession, and the recruitment, preparation, and retention of effective principals and school leadership teams who are able to turn around low-performing schools. The request would almost triple funding for the antecedent programs in order to increase the number of effective teachers serving in high-needand low-performing schools and high-need fields and subjects.

School Turnaround Grants (currently School Improvement Grants) program would help provide the significant resources LEAs need to turn around their lowest-performing schools by implementing a rigorous school intervention model. While States and LEAs would have new flexibility under the reauthorized ESEA to develop their own improvement strategies and interventions for most schools, they would be required to implement specific, meaningful intervention models in their very lowest-performing schools and would receive school turnaround funding for this purpose.

21st Century Community Learning Centers focuses the 21st CCLC program on (1) providing students with additional time to engage in activities that directly improve their knowledge of core academic subjects and improve their academic achievement; (2) providing students with additional time for enrichment activities and opportunities to experience a richer, fuller curriculum, (3) providing students with access to comprehensive supports that promote academic achievement as well as mental and physical health, and (4) providing families and caregivers opportunities for active and meaningful engagement in their children's education. In addition, the redesigned program would support efforts to implement full-service community schools that coordinate and provide access to comprehensive services at the school site that address the developmental, physical, and mental health needs of students, their families, and, as appropriate, their communities.