Professional Learning Mission Statement, Goals, and Policies

To help achieve AppleTree Institute’s (ATI) mission of closing the achievement gap for children entering kindergarten, the Every Child Ready (ECR) instructional model was developed to give prekindergarten communities a comprehensive solution that ensures every child enters kindergarten equipped with the academic skills, social-emotional tools, and love of learning that will help them thrive. Along with its two-year differentiated prekindergarten curriculum and innovative assessment tools, AppleTree Institute (ATI) strives to provide industry-leading professional learning opportunities to our partners. Our team of subject matter experts, instructional designers, eLearning developers, facilitators, coaches, and consultants aims to empower early childhood practitioners through meaningful, high-quality continuing education and implementation support that meet their diverse needs.

Every Child Ready offers a diverse portfolio of professional learning experiences designed to meet educators and practitioners where they are in terms of staff credentials and experience, community needs, learner preferences, and budget. Professional learning is designed to:

1. Support implementation of the Every Child Ready curriculum in a developmentally appropriate, joyful, and culturally responsive way that meets the needs of the whole child;

2. Strengthen the use of assessment tools to drive differentiated instruction;

3. Enhance classroom and instructional quality by promoting sound, research-based pedagogy, sharing best practices gathered from a large and diverse network of practitioners, and encouraging meaningful use of quality measures; and

4. Stimulate family engagement and connection with the child’s community.

The professional learning program fosters communities of practice at the classroom, campus, local, state, and national levels. All professional learning offerings adhere to the highest industry standards for continuing education and training in early childhood education.

*Adapted from NAEYC professional development policy.

Professional Learning Policies

Below are the AppleTree Institute’s (ATI) policies related to professional learning. By participating in any training offered by ATI, you agree to these policies.

AppleTree Institute PD Privacy Policy

It is AppleTree Institute’s (ATI) goal to protect your privacy when participating in ATI professional development events (e.g., Summer Institute, Network Professional Development, On-Demand courses, etc.). AppleTree Institute will not share or distribute your identifying information gathered through the registration or feedback process, except that our team will use the information gathered about you for event communication, PD updates, and feedback and/or evaluation at the end of a session.

This policy outlines specifically how your personal information will be used and shared by ATI for professional development.

Throughout your professional development experience, AppleTree Institute’s PD team may gather the following information: your name, email address, school/campus, student achievement data, classroom quality data, and classroom demographic data. This information is collected to create a comprehensive picture of you and/or your campus’s professional development needs.

As part of our ongoing evaluation and assessment of our instructional model, you may be videotaped or photographed during in-person professional learning activities. ATI may revise, annotate, edit, and otherwise alter the recorded material to emphasize certain aspects of instruction or the classroom. These recordings and photographs may be shared with project staff, consultants, other educators, and the public, and they may be shown at teacher trainings and conferences or posted online. ATI owns all copyrights to these materials.

ATI reserves the right to photograph, videotape, and use the names of participants to reproduce such images or make available such names to promote, publicize, or explain ATI, its schools, and its activities. This includes the right, without limitation, to make available or to publish such images and names in newsletters or public relations/promotional materials such as marketing and admissions publications, advertisements, fundraising materials, and any other ATI-related publications. This also includes external publications and other media not under the control of ATI. These images and names may appear in any of a variety of formats and media now available or that may become available in the future, including but not limited to print, broadcast, videotape, and electronic/online media.

Personal information gathered by AppleTree Institute’s PD team will be stored in a secure database accessible only to necessary members of AppleTree Institute’s Instructional Quality (AIQ) team. Although we are committed to protecting your personal information, ATI cannot guarantee the security of any information you send to us (or from our online services), and you do so at your own risk.

This policy allows individual learners, employers in the AppleTree partnership, and AppleTree Instructional Quality team administrators to have access to learner records. AppleTree will honor third-party requests only with written permission from the learner.

AppleTree Institute – CEU Maintenance & Release Process

As an organization accredited to grant CEUs, AppleTree Institute maintains a database for all approved training for a minimum of seven years on AppleTree’s Canvas Catalog platform. This database contains participant information, training and course information, CEUs offered, and CEUs granted. Participants who have successfully completed a training or course are awarded a certificate, which is available through AppleTree’s Canvas Catalog system.

For additional information related to training or course completion and CEUs, participants should use the following process:

1. Submit a support ticket to ecrsupport@appletreeinstitute.org detailing your request.

2. After submission, members of our team will review professional development records to obtain the requested information.

3. Within 48 hours, you will receive an email with the requested information or an explanation of why the information cannot be granted.

After receiving the requested certificate and/or information, participants have the following rights:

• The right to inspect and review their certificate and information at any time

• The right to seek correction of the contents of the certificate

• The right to file a written appeal, if necessary, for fair consideration of such a challenge

• The right to place an explanatory note in the record in the event that a challenge of contents is unsuccessful

Anti-Discrimination Policy

AppleTree Institute (ATI) does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions, or breastfeeding), age, marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation or preference, gender identity or expression, family responsibilities, genetic information, disability, matriculation, political affiliation, or military or veteran status (all as defined and protected by applicable law).

Similarly, harassment of individuals on any of these bases is strictly prohibited. Harassment includes, but is not limited to, jokes, verbal abuse, epithets, degrading comments, the display of offensive objects or pictures, and other conduct that an individual might reasonably find offensive.

If you believe you have been harassed or discriminated against, please speak—on a confidential basis—to any member of AppleTree’s staff, who will in turn direct your concern to the appropriate person.

Confidential & Proprietary Information

During our professional development sessions and related activities, you may have access to AppleTree’s confidential or proprietary information of varying types. Confidential or proprietary information includes, but is not limited to, AppleTree’s proprietary instructional model (Every Child Ready); child information; parent/family information; financial information; data or statements; the existence and contents of agreements, proposals, and grants; organizational or school strategies; donor lists; membership lists; personnel data; and activities that are not public knowledge.

Any such confidential or proprietary information is being disclosed to you solely in connection with professional development sessions and related activities. Your disclosure or use of confidential or proprietary information for any other purpose is strictly prohibited and would cause irreparable harm to AppleTree and others. You agree not to improperly disclose or use such confidential or proprietary information at any time—either during your professional development sessions or afterward. If you are in doubt as to whether certain information is confidential, always treat such information as confidential.

Instructors must inform the AppleTree Instructional Quality (AIQ) Team of any proprietary interest they may have in the products, instruments, devices, services, or materials that are to be discussed during a session prior to the learning event being approved for CEUs.

AppleTree facilitators will disclose to participants, prior to the start of any professional development, AppleTree’s proprietary interest in products, instruments, devices, services, or materials that are to be discussed, as well as the source of any compensation related to the presentation.

Proprietary Information & Intellectual Property Policy

The AppleTree Professional Development (PD) Facilitator acknowledges that AppleTree is the owner of all rights, titles, and interests in and to AppleTree’s curriculum, assessment, and training materials, including but not limited to all copyrights and intellectual property rights therein. The AppleTree PD Facilitator irrevocably assigns, transfers, grants, and conveys to AppleTree, its successors, and assigns any and all of the Facilitator’s rights, titles, and interests in and to any and all content contributed by the Facilitator to AppleTree’s curriculum, assessment, and training materials in connection with their services. This includes, but is not limited to, all copyrights and other intellectual property rights therein, in perpetuity, the same to be held and enjoyed by AppleTree, its successors, and assigns, to the same extent that such right, title, and interest would have been held and enjoyed by the Facilitator if this assignment had not been made.

Except as limited by the above, the AppleTree PD Facilitator hereby assigns partial rights, title, and interest in the same to AppleTree Institute. Inventions, discoveries, developments, and innovations conceived prior to the term of this agreement and utilized by the Facilitator in rendering services to AppleTree Institute are hereby licensed to AppleTree Institute for use in its operations for an indefinite duration. This license is non-exclusive and may be assigned by AppleTree Institute, without the Facilitator’s prior written approval, to a wholly owned subsidiary of AppleTree Institute.