Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 A Unifying Foundation (2015) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix C: Information-Gathering from the Field
Appendix C: Information-Gathering from the Field
Pages 589-632
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From page 589... ...
The locations, specific sites to visit, and interviewees were chosen by the committee and staff using purposeful sampling. The selections were based on the topics identified as priorities to explore using this approach and were designed to include a range of perspectives and experiences, example approaches, practice settings, and professional roles covering the range from infancy through the early elementary years.
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Tulsa De Diego Community Academy, Chicago Public Schools Educare Chicago Educare Seattle Educare Tulsa Erikson Institute Everett Public Schools George Kaiser Family Foundation Harold Washington College, City College of Chicago Healthy Families Chicago Illinois Action for Children Illinois State Family and Parent Association Illinois State Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development Infant Welfare Society of Evanston National Louis University McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership Naval Avenue Early Learning Center, Bremerton School District Oklahoma Early Childhood Program Ounce of Prevention Rosa Parks Early Childhood Education Center, Union Public Schools Rosa Parks Elementary School, Union Public Schools Rosia's K T C Family Childcare Spokane Public Schools Tulsa Public Schools University of Oklahoma–Tulsa Early Childhood Education Institute University of Washington College of Education Washington State Department of Early Learning Washington State Educational School District 105 Washington State Educational School District 189 Washington State Legislature, 16th District Washington State Legislature, 32nd District Washington State Legislature, 48th District Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
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APPENDIX C 591 Wee Are the World Home Daycare White Center Heights, Highline Public Schools Individual Participants Faith Arnold Diana McClarien Tracy Bayles Lynn McClure Michelle Boatright Andrew McKenzie Celeste Bowen Kellie Morrill Juliet Bromer Juliet Morrison Brendan Bulger Teresita Patino Caren Calhoun Vickie Pendleton Lexi Catlin Anne Reece Patricia Ceja-Muhsen Rosario Rodriguez Christi Chadwick Deborah Rogers-Jaye Gerard P Clancy Diana Rosenbrock Steven Dow Elizabeth Rothkopf Monique Draper Michelle Saddler Claire Dunham Diane Scruggs Libby Ethridge Ruth Slocum Amy Fain Julie Smith Donna Gearns Lorna Spear Leslie Gilbert Amanda Stein Linda Gilkerson Linda Sullivan-Dudzic Linda Hamburg Sharon Syc Theresa Hawley Teri Talan Jessica Hollingsworth Kathe Taylor Diane Horm Pat Twymon Holly Householder Annie Van Hanken Ross Hunter Karen Vance Cynthia Jones Jaclyn Vasquez Gail Joseph Erin Velez Ruth Kagi Maureen Walsh Kristie Kauerz Rosia Watson Karen Kiely John Welsh Susan Knight Paige Whalen Chris Koch Maria Whelan Lynn Lahey Shanel Wiley Vickie Lake Amy Williamson Tom Layman Cass Wolfe Chris Maxwell Vicki Wolfe Dona Maye
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A joint professional development system that is organized across content knowledge, cuts across ages, and allows educators to share content knowledge and discuss pedagogy. This also provides a clearer "line of site" on where the child has been and is heading.
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was seen as important. • Professional learning systems should be designed to accommodate the needs of the learners.
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. • In a school district where a birth through third grade system is in place, every time a new school board member is elected, school administrators need to reeducate him/her on its value.
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• Networks of peer support are developing, especially among family childcare educators, such as cohorts and communities of learners. Regional early learning coalitions that are made up of health care professionals, social workers, etc., have been set up in one site.
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§ indergarten educator goes to Head Start classroom to work K with children that will be coming to kindergarten the follow ing year. − reschool educators and kindergarten educators share some P trainings and mesh expectations and negotiate targets for the transition from prekindergarten to kindergarten.
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§ upport is provided through funding an educator on special S assignment. − childcare company connects principals/elementary schools A with childcare educators: § rofessional development is provided quarterly for educators.
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§ tructured drop-off routine for families and children because S it is not developmentally appropriate for young children to ride the bus. § t the Early Childhood center, they have family support A specialists/liaisons who are available to speak with families/ parents as they arrive during child drop-off.
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• A need was expressed to release money from the silos and braid Head Start and childcare funding. • Because of the increase in early childhood programs and QRISs, there is an increased demand for highly qualified educators, but the supply does not meet the demand.
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Specifically, educators do not understand poverty. § n example was given of Head Start educators going on A home visits as a way to overcome this barrier.
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− ocus on training educators together in birth through age 8 F continuum. Professional Learning During Ongoing Practice • An example of a statewide professional development system in cluded a registry of providers, professional development advisers, core competencies, credentials, scholarships/wage supplements, and processes for approving training programs/trainers.
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• Professional learning communities, which include activities such as book reading, peer-to-peer learning, and joint professional develop ment, were reported to be used in several school districts to align across preschool and elementary school. • Learning to use the data to improve instruction is new to the field.
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− Time for early care and education and K-12 collaboration, pro fessional development. Practitioners Knowledge/preparation of workforce • Knowledge gaps in the workforce: − Fundamental knowledge of child development was identified as a knowledge gap in childcare educators.
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− Becoming a "resilient learner" includes educators' care for their own health and well-being. − Family childcare educators networks: especially active in tak ing care of each other and advocating for legislative changes to benefit profession.
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• Diverse populations − Family childcare educators discussed working with cultural di versity, religious diversity -- no preparation but they had their resource network (among family childcare educators) which helped, along with developing a good relationship with the families.
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− The assessment of family childcare educators measures the im pact of their work as reflected in the children (e.g., "Is the child comfortable in her skin? Social competence and self-regulation?
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− Some have seen the KEA improve shared understanding between early childhood educators and elementary school educators. − The KEA requires a "cultural transformation" about teaching, learning, and assessment.
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− Legislators expressed the desire to turn state funded childcare from a welfare program into an education program. − Contrast seen between a birth to age 5 center funded through a public–private partnership, which provides access to social ser vices, and the public elementary school, which does not provide similar services.
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. • Other examples were seen of educators and children doing class room visits across ages (e.g., educators of children birth to age 3 visit 4-year-old classrooms at a center serving birth to age 5)
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A list of interviewees and organizational affiliations is provided below. This is followed by highlights of key themes from the information gathered, including a brief summary of major overall themes, profiles of professional learning supports by professional role, and ideas for reenvisioning professional learning.
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University of Pittsburgh Virginia Home Visiting Consortium Washington State Department of Early Learning WestEd/First 5 California Early Education Effectiveness Exchange Key Themes from Interviews Overall Themes: Current State of Professional Learning Supports A number of the interviewees commented about the "nonsystem" that is birth through age 8. These interviewees mentioned the need for a fundamental rethinking, and even creation of a birth through age 8 system.
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Profile of Professional Learning Supports for a Home Visitor The degree of sophistication and amount of home visitors' professional learning varies widely depending on the employing organization and the home visitor's career track (e.g., social worker, nurse, high school graduate)
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Among the menu of professional learning supports, family childcare educators are most consistently accessing licensure and credentialing, and to some extent, participating in state quality assurance programs or going through an accreditation process. The most common ongoing professional supports are in the form of trainings and workshops that are often made available through childcare resource and referral networks or state agen
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However, she was quick to note that pursuing formal coursework while working as a family childcare educator with long days and the responsibilities of owning and operating your own business is not without challenges. • Credentialing/Licensure: Credentialing and licensure are the most consistently available professional learning supports for family childcare educators/owners/operators.
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To the extent that quality assurance programs or quality rating systems rely on assessments for quality improvement, there are limited opportunities for childcare educators to reflect and engage in quality improvement processes beyond the act of being assessed. • Ongoing Professional Support: Ongoing professional supports for family childcare educators largely exist in the form of trainings or workshops that are required to maintain their license or credential, or are required as part of an accreditation program or state quality assurance system.
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From page 616... ...
Similar to their peers in center-based childcare settings, family childcare educators are generally missing the criti cal formal mentoring and coaching support that allows them to apply what they may have learned in formal coursework, trainings, or workshops to their own practice. Opportunities for reflective practice or reflective supervision are extremely limited for family childcare educators as they are often the only adults in their setting.
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• Generally speaking, family childcare educators are able to leverage some amount of public funds, or they use their own funds to pay for professional learning supports. In most states, a combination of federal and local funds go to a state agency in which a portion of the funds are dedicated to quality improvement and may be used to support professional learning for family childcare educators.
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are one of the main avenues through which training and other ongoing professional learning supports are delivered to center-based childcare educators. As such, quality assurance systems like QRIS can be an important lever for improving the quality of practice for center-based childcare educa tors.
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How are professional learning supports funded for this role? • Similar to center-based prekindergarten educators, center-based childcare educators in centers that are participating in state quality assurance programs (e.g., QRIS)
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Similar to center-based childcare educators, formal coursework requirements for center-based prekindergarten educators and credentialing/licensing requirements at the center level vary both by state and within states depending on the type of organization (e.g., Head Start center, state prekindergarten, private prekindergarten) or whether the center is accredited or participates in a state quality assurance system.
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• Ongoing Professional Support: Ongoing professional supports be yond "single-shot" trainings and workshops that may be required through licensing standards, quality assurance systems, or accredi tation programs are generally limited and highly dependent on the type of organization and the discretion of the center's leadership. For national programs like Head Start, workshops and trainings and professional learning resources are provided through the na tional office and thus have more consistency across centers in
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• Funding of professional learning supports for center-based prekin dergarten educators depends on the type of organization they are working in. In general, funding may be more variable by center and more inconsistent over time when compared to their school-based counterparts whose funding largely comes through the school dis trict.
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hinders professional development. Profile of Professional Learning Supports for an Elementary School Educator2 Elementary school educators are, in general, ill prepared in the area of child development through the available formal coursework and licensure requirements.
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What motivations or incentives to access professional learning supports exist for this role? • Incentives in K-12 settings are gaining adequate tests scores at the end of third grade.
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What do professional learning supports look like for this role? • Credentialing/Licensure: Credentialing and licensure requirements for center directors vary by state.
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Profile of Professional Learning Supports for an Elementary School Principal Elementary school principals have an opportunity to connect the prekindergarten and elementary school systems. A principal's job is multifaceted, and requires instructional and operational leadership capabilities.
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What motivations or incentives to access professional learning supports exist for this role? • District leadership needs to incentivize and provide the space for principals to bring together the elementary and prekindergarten systems.
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For example, joint professional learning might take place between − Family childcare educators and center-based childcare educators. − Public prekindergarten educators and Head Start educators.
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For example, an ideal professional learning support system "does not assume that [the world of] childcare educators is a homogenous world." − Interviewees also mentioned content, skills, or opportunities that would ideally be made more available:
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One interviewee suggested that community colleges are particularly well suited to serve as a "hub for professional learning" both for formal coursework and other professional learning supports. − significant barrier for practitioners that work outside of the A school district system is not having the infrastructure to support time away from their classrooms for professional learning.
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Many practitioners, espe cially family childcare educators and smaller, center-based child care and prekindergarten educators, are paying out of pocket for professional learning supports beyond any state-subsidized learning opportunities. Government and private funders have an important opportunity to support professional learning by providing much needed funding for supports identified as critical to improving practice among birth through age 8 practitioners.
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Interviewees want to get information into the hands of the families and communities who are raising children and to build their knowledge and skills around the science of child development. One Head Start educator described engaging in learning alongside the family as akin to "treating the source of the problem, not just the symptoms." Another interviewee discussed ways to incentivize learning opportunities for family, friend, and neighbor caregivers and family childcare educators who tend to have less access to pro fessional learning supports such as conducting community learning events while providing food, free toys, and free childcare during the event.
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