The Tulare County CHARACTER COUNTS! (CC!) office has been supporting local schools for over 25 years with the tools to develop and sustain ongoing character education programs on campus. The program offers proven practices to help schools create cultures of kindness through lesson plans, campus-wide messaging, parent engagement, student recognition programs, and sportsmanship. Additionally, the program advocates for the importance character education through its annual CHARACTER COUNTS Week celebration in partnership with the Visalia Times-Delta and a partnership entitled "Your Character Matters" with KSEE24 TV.
°Õ°ä°¿·¡â€™s&²Ô²ú²õ±è;Central Valley Networked Improvement Communities (CVNIC) consist of two improvement science groups – one focused on improving math instruction and the other focused on improving college readiness. CVNIC Mathematics is a community of teachers in numerous Tulare County school districts working collaboratively to improve learning experiences and achievement for students in grades 3-8. The network is currently comprised of district leaders, coaches, and teachers from 10 Tulare and Kings county school districts. CVNIC College Ready focuses on significantly increasing the number of Black, Latinx, and low-income students who are college-ready as determined by acceptance into a four-year university with a six-year graduation rate of 50% or higher. There are currently 14 high schools in Tulare, Fresno, Merced, and Madera counties participating in CVNIC: College-Ready.
Educational Resource Services (ERS) offers support to districts and schools that have identified key areas of needed improvement. This support can be offered as a part of contract services in response to eligibility under California’s accountability system or through a locally-developed needs assessment. ERS education consultants in all curricular areas are trained in systems improvement to provide guidance to leaders and teachers on standards implementation and research-based instructional practices.
Leadership Support Services (LSS) offers assistance to districts and schools that are eligible for technical assistance under California’s accountability system. Support includes specialized coaching for district and school teams to uncover root causes in areas of student need and to work with teams to develop change ideas that lead to improved outcomes for students.
Within California's System of Support, ÁùºÏ»ÊÁÏ leads the Mid-State Collaborative (MSC), which encompasses the eleven counties of Inyo, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Mono, Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus, and Tulare. MSC is one of nine regional collaboratives working to support county offices, connecting them together and to other initiatives within the system of support. This is done with continuous improvement of student performance within the eight state priorities, addressing achievement and equity gaps, and improving outreach and collaboration with stakeholders to ensure that goals, actions, and services as described in school districts and COE Local Control and Accountability Plans reflect the needs of the community, especially for historically under-represented or low-achieving populations.
In 2021, ÁùºÏ»ÊÁÏ’s pilot, five-district Readership literacy project received a three-year, $5 million Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) grant from the California Department of Education. Readership is multi-faceted literacy program that provides teacher/librarian trainings and increases the amount of books students have access to so that they perform better on English language arts portions of the state assessment tests. The new CLSD grant expands the reach of ÁùºÏ»ÊÁÏ’s literacy program in Tulare County from schools in five districts to schools in 11 districts, and includes partnerships with county offices of education in Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, and Merced counties.