FAQs

From the list below choose one of our FAQ topics, then select an FAQ to read. If you have a question which is not in this section, please contact us.

Commitments & Expectations

Are schools participating in the pilot locked into four years of costs?

We do ask schools that are participating to commit to six months of co-design
and planning and three years of the Pilot Study. The costs associated with that
include the .5 FTE EOA paid for by the district and .5 FTE paid for by the PROMISE
Initiative, a yearly registration fee of $10,000 per district, release time
and substitute coverage for site, district, and county-wide meetings.

What is a PROMISE district agreeing or committing to do?

Advocate for and support the PROMISE vision with the pilot schools.
Utilize the PROMISE theory of change and core principles to inform any decision-making
that affects the pilot schools.
Support the alignment of the pilot schools’ curriculum and instruction to
the PROMISE core principles.
Incorporate PROMISE assessments into the district assessment system as it
affects pilot schools; provide accurate, timely, and meaningful data on English
Learner participation and achievement to pilot schools and the PROMISE evaluation
team; and, enhance local data systems to meaningfully measure English Learner
achievement and participation, and to support teacher inquiry and improved
instruction.
Support and release a full-time EOA, half paid by PROMISE, to work across
the pilot schools in each district to maintain the focus, broker supports
and professional development for the sites, and be a critical lens and change
agent.
Ensure that there is clear, coherent, and consistent communication between
the pilot schools and the district, and within and across the district, we
ask that PROMISE districts identify a district-level PROMISE liaison whose
primary focus/responsibility is English Learners.
In the name of greater coherence, we ask that where districts have EL coaches,
the work of those coaches be actively coordinated with the PROMISE EOA and
PROMISE county lead; and where districts have other coaches (i.e, literacy,
math, Reading First, AB 466), the work of those coaches that affects the pilot
schools be actively coordinated with the PROMISE EOA and the PROMISE county
lead.
Because PROMISE is a regional initiative, it will be critical to have pilot
schools across the six counties work together, so we ask that our PROMISE
districts facilitate pilot school participation in a PROMISE virtual district
infrastructure that crosses county lines.
Provide support and resources for schoolwide participation at pilot schools
in the PROMISE professional development; to incorporate PROMISE activities
into district calendars; and to participate in and honor any PROMISE agreements
made with CDE and USDE.

What is a PROMISE site agreeing or committing to do?

January – June 2006

Attend the Convocation and subsequent meetings—in your district and across
the six counties. Dates will be announced at the Convocation.
Work with the Educator on Assignment (EOA), who, after receiving intensive
training, will return to your site prepared to lead/support you through a
process including: student voice, dialogues with parents, finalizing your
plan, getting community buy-in, developing a co-design process to implement
PROMISE at your site.
Co-develop/co-design an initial plan for implementation starting in the
2006=07 school year.
Set aside time to plan with the PROMISE County Leads
Conduct initial assessments of existing site English Learner services.

July 2006 – June 2007

Participate in intensive professional development as designed in your plan.
Implement PROMISE co-designed PROMISE plan at your site.
Attend the annual Convocation.
Participate in ongoing professional collaboration through built-in time
during the regular school day.
Consult with EOA who will be meeting regularly with county PROMISE team.
Examine student data and make decision regarding modification/improvements
to the site PROMISE plan.
Commit one buy-back day annually for PROMISE reflection, plan revision,
etc.

July 2007 – June 2008

Participate in intensive professional development as designed in your plan.
Implement PROMISE co-designed PROMISE plan at your site.
Attend the annual Convocation.
Participate in ongoing professional collaboration through built-in time
during the regular school day.
Consult with EOA who will be meeting regularly with county PROMISE team.
Examine student data and make decision regarding modification/improvements
to the site PROMISE plan.
Commit one buy-back day annually for PROMISE reflection, plan revision,
etc. July 2008 – June 2009
Participate in intensive professional development as designed in your plan.
Participate in press conference and public announcement of Pilot Study results

Benefits to Districts & Schools

Facilitate an annual Superintendents’ Colloquium.
Facilitate communities of practice and professional learning communities with your district leadership staffs
and PROMISE facilitators.
Sponsor common professional development opportunities to support development of cross-county
expertise.
Facilitate the use of technology to support collaboration and enhance communication within and across the
schools, districts, and counties.
Provide access to national and international English Learner researcher and practitioner experts.
Build your capacity for implementing and sustaining systemic reform for English Learner success.
Support the co-design with your school and district staffs of customized tools and processes to support
your specific English Learner reform efforts.
Assist you in aligning your district data system to the PROMISE vision, process, and outcomes.

Buy-In

The PROMISE Initiative is dedicated to the full inclusion of teachers, students, parents, and administrators as it
strives to reach the ultimate goal of ensuring that all English Learners achieve and sustain high levels of academic, linguistic, and multicultural competency and are successfully prepared for the 21st century. We ask that you specifically bring members of these groups to look at the PROMISE Initiative and to openly discuss the
needs of English Learners at your school site and the potential of applying for the PROMISE Pilot Study. The Self Reflection Rubric found in the Core Principles booklet is a great way to engage members of your school community in dialogue on how EL students’ needs are being met while becoming familiar with the Core Principles that PROMISE is based on. All of the presentations and publications that were presented at the Invitational can be downloaded from the PROMISE website at www.promise-initiative.org and can be shared with teachers, students, parents, and administrators. If you need support, feel free to call your County Office Lead:

Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE)

- Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, (562) 922-6699
- Carla Herrera, herrera_carla@lacoe.edu ,(562) 922-8883

Orange County Department of Education (OCDE)

- Estella Acosta, (714) 966-4389
- Olivia Yahya(714)966-4389

Riverside County Office of Education (RCOE)

- Sylvia Lomas, (951) 826-6460

San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools (SBCSS)

- Erin Mason, (909) 386-2620

San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE)

- Donna Heath, (858) 292-3523
- Laurie Nesrala, (760) 510-4724

Ventura County Superintendent of Schools (VCOE)

- Diane Dempwolf, (805) 388-4409
- Martha Herna?ndez, (805) 389-9731

Costs

What is a PROMISE district agreeing or committing to do?

COST TO PROMISE DISTRICT/SCHOOL

	Yrly Reg Fee	Facilitator
Spring 06	$0	$20,000	.25 FTE
2006-2007	$10,000	$40,000	.5 FTE
2007-2008	$10,000	$40,000	.5 FTE
2008-2009	$10,000	$40,000	5 FTE
Total	$30,000	$140,000

Relationship of PROMISE to Current EL Programs

Relationship of PROMISE to Current EL Programs

How will participation in PROMISE affect the program for English Only students?

The core principles are designed to be implemented schoolwide. While
the development of bilingualism and biliteracy may be focused initially for
English Learners, the core principles are to be applied to all programs for
all students. For example.

In implementing PROMISE, does this mean that every student in the school
will be

No, not necessarily. The expectation is that the school will design programs
that intentionally build bilingualism and biliteracy for all English Learners
across all grades served by the school. This will be a developmental process
that begins by enhancing the current program and takes into consideration parental
choice.

Does PROMISE mean revamping our current EL program for all English
Learners?

Yes. The expectation is that current programs will become aligned fully to the
PROMISE core principles, so the degree of restructuring or redesigning will
depend on the current status of existing programs.

Selection Process

What criteria will be used to select schools?

Item	Indicators	Comments	Score (1 to 5)
vidence of site commitment to support engagement in professional development and to use professional development resources to focus on the PROMISE work (Assurances, item 3)	Collaborative time is already built into the regular daily/weekly schedule for the school site – or will be; Site leadership has agreed that professional development resources will be devoted to a PD plan that centralizes the PROMISE work;
chool reform conditions are sufficient for a new schoolwide initiative to be able to take-hold (Items 3 and 4B)	Teachers and administrators at the school believe change is possible; The school is not involved in other major school-wide reform efforts that might conflict or distract from the PROMISE vision and process; Teachers have a contract and there is not major antagonism between management and teachers union; District and site leadership have a history of good collaborative relationships;
Among the teaching staff and administrators, the school has basic expertise and capacity upon which to build a program focused on biliteracy (Item 2)	School site has sufficient number of bilingual teachers in Pre-K, teachers with BCLAD/CLAD in K-12 to begin a program focused on biliteracy; Top school leadership has a critical mass of people with understanding of ELL issues and bilingual language development;
chool site understands and agrees to participate in the research, assessment and data collection aspects of the PROMISE Initiative (Assurances)	Site leadership agrees to support teacher inquiry by ensuring the time (collaborative) and resources and training needed; Site leadership agrees to provide access, time and support for data collection on site – and to facilitate access to curriculum embedded assessments and student work;
District understands and agrees to participate in the research, assessment and data collection aspects of the PROMISE Initiative (Assurances)	District and/or site has the data systems and capacity to produce the data needed for the evaluation; District agrees to incorporate PROMISE assessments into the district system and to provide accurate, timely and meaningful data to pilot schools and to the project on ELL participation and achievement;
Evidence of district cooperation and commitment to support PROMISE implementation at the site (Assurances)	PROMISE activities are incorporated into the district calendar so administrators and teachers on the team will be able to participate; District has agreed to supporting the alignment of the site’s curriculum and instruction to the PROMISE core principles ;
	Districts agree to provide support and resources for schoolwide participation in the PROMISE professional development at the sites – and for participation of the site PROMISE team in the broader PROMISE learning community.

Pilot Study, And Data Collection

What is the pilot study?

A three-year PROMISE pilot study will be conducted to focus on systemic school reform with six school districts (2-3 schools per district) with high English Learner concentrations, and will be followed by a five year field test with up to 100 schools. The PROMISE pilot study will include district as well as site leadership with purposeful inclusion of students, parents, teachers, and other staff. Each participating district will have a dedicated site facilitator EOA who, along with the County Working Team Leads, will provide direct support to the participating schools and build their internal capacity to enact powerful English Learner programs. Districts and schools that participate will create a customized principle-based design for effective change that aligns to the PROMISE core principles.

Schools/districts will be selected through an application process, which includes a site affirmation visit. Schools will be notified in December 2005 if they have been chosen. Schools/districts that participate will create a customized design for effective programs that focus on English Learners and align to the PROMISE core principles. Pilot sites will be led collaboratively through the following processes: School Assessment, School Design, School Design Implementation, and School Design Evaluation.

Overview of the PROMISE Research and Evaluation Design
An important and integral part of the PROMISE initiative is for us to learn
together about the quality and impact of PROMISE through rigorous research and evaluation. We will use an external research and evaluation team to conduct a three-year pilot study followed by a five-year field trial that use rigorous research designs and methods based on the Institute of Educational Sciences
(IES) standards for research. These standards require that research conducted on educational interventions use experimental designs, preferably randomized trials. Our experimental research in this initiative is designed to make claims about whether or not PROMISE works and with what impact on schools, classrooms teachers, parents, and most important on student achievement and performance.

The PROMISE pilot study, in which you may be involved, is a preliminary study to try out or test the implementation of the eight core principles in schools and the support necessary for their implementation. The pilot study is designed to discover what works and identify any problems that need to be addressed before the main field test begins. The pilot study enables PROMISE staff and school communities to make necessary adjustments, improvements, and further development to implementation and external support to schools. The pilot also provides an opportunity to test all the research instruments and procedures. This pilot study will involve those schools selected to be part of the pilot and a set of matched schools not in the pilot as part of an experimental design. Researchers will collect data on schools, classrooms, teachers, students, and parents before the PROMISE pilot begins and again two times a year throughout the three years of the pilot.