Promoting Quality Early Childhood Education Programs: The Challenges and Opportunities of Preparing

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Promoting Quality Early Childhood Education
ProgramsThe Challenges and Opportunities of
Preparing ALL Children for a Successful Future

• Mark R. Ginsberg, Ph.D.
• NAEYC
• Washington, DC

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Introduction and Goals

• NAEYC brief overview and introduction
• Critical view that the early years are learning
  years a mantra for the field and advocates
  for children
• Quality Matters Key predictors of quality
• Description of the recent update by NAEYC of
  developmentally appropriate practice
• Accreditation and Related Initiatives
• Evolving critical issues in early childhood
  education
• Discussion

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NAEYC Who and What We Are

• Largest early childhood professional organization
  in the world nearly 90,000 members
• Professional development and resources for early
  childhood educators
• Advocacy, policy development and position
  statements about critical issues
• Accreditation of center-based early care and
  education programs and higher education
• Focus on development and education of ALL young
  children and families

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The Early Years are Learning Years

• Early Care
• IS (and must be)
• Education

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ECE Today Key and Critical Issues that Predict
Quality

• Focus on quality an aspiration and a goal --
• Availability, accessibility and affordability of
  services
• Teacher and staff qualifications and workforce
  challenges
• Administration and management of ECE
• Group size and ratio issues
• Cultural and linguistic diversity and associated
  challenges
• Attention to children with challenging
  behaviors and special needs
• Accountability and assessment
• Linkages of ECE School Family Community
• Research to Practice to Policy (and back again)
• Fragile economics for the ECE field (and the
  nation and world)
• Impact on ECE programs
• Impact on ECE training and professional
  development
• Impact on research

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Developmentally Appropriate Practice
(DAP)(Revision in Fall 2008)
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Young children are born learners. Although
individual differences are present at birth, most
set out to explore their world with unbridled
eagerness and curiosity. Perhaps, more than any
other time of life, early childhood is a period
of never ending possibilities. (Copple
Bredekamp, 2008)
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The Context for Developmentally Appropriate
Practice (DAP)

• Historically important construct for the ECE
  field
• Recent advances in understanding of human
  development and neuroscience (brain science)
• Practice rooted in child development theory
• Evolution and development of the ECE field with
  advances in understanding of and practice of DAP
• Historic commitment to young children and
  families, and an affirmation about the importance
  of the early years

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Historically Critical Concepts

• Appreciating early childhood as a unique and
  valuable stage of the life cycle
• Emphasis on child development research
• Importance of the partnership with the family
• Recognition of the importance of understanding
  the child in the context of the family,
  community, culture and society
• Group size and ratio issues important in a
  practical sense for optimal learning and linkage
  with quality

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2008 Statement Builds on Earlier Statements
(1986 1997)

• Core Themes of the 2008 Revision
• Excellence and Equity
• Intentionality and Effectiveness
• Continuity and Change
• Joy and Learning

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The purpose of DAP is to promote excellence
inearly childhood education
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DAP Requires

• Meeting young children where they are enabling
  children to reach goals that are challenging
  achievable
• Applies teaching practices that are age and
  developmentally attuned to children and
  responsive to social cultural contexts
• Best practices based on knowledge and evidence
  about curricula and teaching

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Comprehensive Effective Curricula

• Focus on ALL domains of development
• Interrelationships of and sequence of ideas
• Scaffolding of ideas and concepts
• Knowing that the rate pattern of learning is
  different among children
• Learning experiences are aligned across the
  early childhood period
• Linkage between ECE and Elementary School
  programs
• Individual, family, school and community
  development

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Effective Curriculum

• Multiple teaching strategies
• Focus is on multiple domains
• Coherent and sequential
• Emphasis on teacher capability and pedagogy
• Assessment driven curriculum based on needs and
  challenges of each child
• Resources available to all children there is no
  one curriculum that is best of ALL children

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Improving Teaching Learning

• Teacher behavior is critical essential
• Teachers are INTENTIONAL (critical for learning)
• Curriculum is planned, strategic evidence based
• Teachers are well trained and participate in
  continuing professional development
• BOTH teacher-guided AND child-guided experiences
  are vital
• Play in service of learning across multiple
  spheres of development
• External generalization essential at home and in
  the community

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Ready Schools

• School readiness is as much about helping schools
  be READY for CHIDREN than it is about helping
  CHILDREN be READY for School

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21St Century Learning

• 21st Century Students
• 21st Century Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
• 21st Century Pedagogy
• 21st Century Teacher Training
• 21st Century Success

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The 10 most frequent jobs of 2015 havent yet
been inventedDaniels School of Business,
University of Denver
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The seed of successare sewn early
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Important Domains for Success

• Relationships
• Development
• Innovation
• Context

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NAEYC Program AccreditationThe Right Choice
for Kids
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NAEYC Program Accreditation

• Established in 1985
• Differentiated from higher education
  accreditation
• Program to assure quality in center-based early
  care and education programs
• Standards, criteria and program review processes
• Currently, more than 9,000 accredited programs in
  US, with nearly 10,000 in self-study serving
  1,000,000 children
• Many accredited and applicant programs in GA
• 265 in state, 75 in ATL area
• Many more programs in process
• Steps toward accreditation
• Enrollment
• Candidacy meeting certain benchmarks
• Application self-study process
• On-Site Visit
• Annual Reporting and random and interim visits
• Re-Accreditation process
• Reinvention of program in 2006
• Review and revision of process
• Newly revised standard and criteria

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NAEYC Accreditation A Standard for Quality

• NAEYC accredited programs have demonstrated a
  commitment to providing a high quality program
  for young children and their families
• Emphasis is on the quality of interaction among
  teachers and children, the experiences of
  children and on the developmental appropriateness
  of the curriculum

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CHILDREN
Curriculum
Relationships
Teaching
Health
Assessment of Child Progress
ADMINISTRATION
TEACHERS
Leadership Management
Teaching Staff
PARTNERSHIPS
Physical Environment
Families
Community Relationships
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Strategies and Tactics

• Use of governmental programs to incent quality
• QRIS
• 16 of 18 link with NAEYC Accreditation
• 20 additional state QRIS in development
• Tax Credits
• Arkansas and Maine link a tax credit to sending
  children to NAEYC Accredited programs
• LA has tax credits linked to QRIS

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Strategies and Tactics

• TEACH and other scholarship and workforce
  development programs
• Grants, loans and financial aid
• Professional development programs and incentives
• Professional development systems
• College of Education
• Other community linkages and partnerships
• Birth-to-five incentive grants coordinated with
  state early learning councils
• Linkages and strengthened relationships with
  public schools and school systems
• Workforce credentialing systems
• Teachers
• Administrators
• State early learning standards

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A New Administration New Opportunities and
Challenges

• ECE, and education more generally, are priorities
  of the new Obama Administration economic
  issues, energy and health care are primary goals
• Economic Recovery Stimulus
• CCDBG and Head Start Funding Increases (4.1B)
• Quality
• Birth to 5 Incentive Grants
• State-Level QRIS and related quality incentive
  programs
• Training and professional development
• Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit
• Nutrition Child and Adult Food Program
• Re-authorization of NCLB and other federal
  programs
• Workforce
• Higher education loan forgiveness
• TEACH
• Higher Education Opportunity Act
• Credentialing issues
• Coordination among agencies and with states
• National Commission on Early Childhood
  Development Learning and new Office of Early
  Learning
• FMLA

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Call to Action

• Reap national economic benefits by helping
  children families thrive
• Head Start, Early Head Start, CCDBG
• Make the dependent tax credit refundable
• Prevent gap from birth
• Expand early head start
• Better infant toddler care
• Expand FMLA
• Expand Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA)
  Part C
• Help families afford and programs provide high
  quality development learning
• Double the of children receiving subsidies
• Improve child care subsidies by requiring states
  to pay at no less than 75 of market rate
• Develop statewide quality rating and improvement
  systems (QRIS)
• Improve professional development systems

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Call to Action(Continued)

• Make EVERY SCHOOL a READY SCHOOL
• Enhance strengthen professional development
  systems for teachers, administrators staff
• More widely available developmental screening
• Expand child adult care food program
• Build a high quality ECE system
• Create a birth 5 incentive system and QRIS
• Currently 18 state QRIS with 27 more in
  development
• Linkage of ECE with P(K) 12 systems
• Fund state early learning advisory councils
• Reinstate Child Care Bureau Head Start in the
  US HHS
• Establish and interagency coordination workgroup
  leading to a National Council on Early
  Development Learning

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Call to Action(continued)

• Attract, educate and retain a high quality ECE
  workforce
• Expand Higher Education Opportunity Act program
• Programs for increased compensation benefits
  for ECE staff
• Focus on workforce
• Expand our knowledge and apply it
• Maintain a research center on ECE
• Make research a component of the National Council
  on Development Learning
• Continue EC longitudinal study
• Fund National Academy of Science study on the
  costs of quality ECE
• Require school districts to provide more data,
  especially on Title 1 programs re .
  Comprehensiveness of programs, enrollment data
  and demographics of children served

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Evolving Critical Issues in ECE

• ECE Workforce and enhancing knowledge, skills
  abilities
• Teacher training and pedagogical practice
• Credentialing
• Research to and connected with practice
• Curricula
• Technology
• Culture, language and related issues
• Inclusion special education
• Early literacy and mathematics (STEM)
• Social emotional learning and issues re.
  challenging behavior
• Standards, performance based assessment and
  accountability issues
• Systemic linkages

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Challenges to an effective system of ECE

• Workforce Matters preparation professional
  development, comp benefits, prestige respect,
  retention career advancement
• Program Management principal metaphor
• Links with public schools
• Evolution of P 12
• Quality versus quantity
• Community engagement and context
• Resources facilities, teaching tools
• Health and safety issues
• Financing the central issue high quality and
  accessible ECE for ALL children is costly yet
  a good investment
• Principle of social arbitrage

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A National Consensus

• Importance of education, generally
• Impact of our past economic growth and current
  economic downturn
• World events and changing priorities
• Hurdling toward a consensus about the integral
  role of ECE public will
• Racing toward the finish line (urgency) with
  hurdles (barriers) to traverse
• Need for responsible advocacy and public
  engagement
• Rhetoric needs to match actions
• Change is upon us
• We must be the WIND
• We must create momentum for the SAIL

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NAEYC Web Sitewww.naeyc.org
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Summary andDiscussion