Building a System of Early Education and Care Wheelock College

1. Building a System of Early Education and Care Wheelock College

2. EEC Mission Statement The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care’s mission is to provide the foundation that supports all children in their development as lifelong learners and contributing members of the community, and supports families in their essential work as parents and caregivers.

3. Children in MA Accessing Quality Care

4. Early Education and Care Mixed Delivery System

5. Defining “Readiness” • The National Educational Goals Panel (NEGP) identifies five domains of childhood development that form the foundation of childhood learning and social development necessary to ensure school entry readiness: • Physical health and motor development • Social and emotional development • Approaches toward learning • Language development • Cognition and general knowledge “Key Elements and Optimal Dosage of Early Childhood Education” Hanover Research Council, May 2010

6. Quality Defined • The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) identifies ten standards that define quality for early education programs: • Comprehensive curriculum standards • Required bachelor's degree for teachers • Specialized training in early childhood education for teachers • CDA at minimum for assistant teachers • At least 15 hours of professional development annually for teachers • Classes of no more than 20 children “Key Elements and Optimal Dosage of Early Childhood Education” Hanover Research Council, May 2010

7. Standards of Quality • NIEER standards of quality: • One staff member per 10 students at minimum • Screening/referral requirements for vision, hearing, and health • Family support services and parental involvement • Provision of one meal per day, not including snacks • Monitoring and Site Visits

8. Early Education and Care:The System

9. The System: A Series of Coordinated Activities

10. Progress on System Building • EEC has sought to align the components of the early education and care infrastructure system over the past year.  • Though always evolving through evaluative process and systemic planning and alignment, EEC does have several initiatives in a stable and growth oriented position.

11. Early Education and Care System Components Like any “system”, the education and care system is comprised of a set of connected components, forming a complex unit with an overall purpose, goal, or function that is achieved only through the actions and interactions of all the components. Below is a visual representation of what EEC would like to build with its key partners.

12. Standards, Assessment and Accountability Teacher Quality(workforce registry) Program Quality(QRIS) Child Outcomes (formative and summative assessment)

13. Is anything stable? Governance 2010 Regulations Professional Development Core Competencies Mental Health Childcare Resource and Referral Centers Community Family Engagement QRIS (for now)

14. Governance • Board of Early Education and Care • Early Education Advisory Committee • Parent Advisory Committee • State Advisory Council (SAC) (New March 2010) • Children and Families: English Language Learners and children with developmental delays or multiple agency involvement • Early Childhood Information System • Birth to 8 community planning • Access to higher education for early educators

15. Regulations • New regulations January 2010 • Primary additions related to quality: • Exercise and Nutrition • Oral Health • Progress Reports • Behavioral Management Plans • Literacy • Medication Administration • Professional development hours • Positive Interactions

16. Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS): Purpose • Parents have easily accessible information about the quality of early care and education programs. • Programs and providers use one streamlined set of standards that are connected to supports and fiscal incentives to help them meet and maintain the standards. • Programs receive feedback and are involved in continuous quality improvement. • Policymakers understand where and how to invest additional resources.

17. Overview of the Standards

18. QRIS Standards Massachusetts’ QRIS Standards are organized into 5 categories (many also have subcategories): • Curriculum and Learning: curriculum, assessment, teacher child interactions, special education, children with diverse language and cultures • Workforce Qualifications and Professional Development: directors, teachers, teacher assistants, consultants • Environment: indoor, outdoor, health and safety • Leadership, Management and Administration: supervision, management, community involvement, supervision and leadership  • Family Involvement

19. QRIS Standards –Program Types There are Standards for the following three program types: • Standards for Center and School Based Programs (also for use by license-exempt preschool programs (i.e. public school preschools, Montessori schools, or religiously affiliated schools) • Standards for Family Child Care Programs • Standards for After School and Out of School Time Programs (to be used by all After School and Out of School Time programs, in all settings, including schools)

20. Reshaping Professional Development • Align with adult learning principles of theory, strategy and reflection • Support adults to create a pathway to skills and competencies now as well as higher education • Support programs through instructional leaders to increase overall program quality in addition to individual educators • Create shared responsibility for educator learning between programs, educators and professional development entities • Expand the idea of professional development from training to a focus on competency development • Provide coaching and mentoring for adults and programs to navigate, higher education and accreditation and QRIS • Create a focus on specific skills (assessment, growth and development, literacy) that lead to high quality and go deep versus investing broad in a range of training opportunities. • Create a system of core functions which are predictable across the state and allow for local differentiation, but create statewide access to core competencies.

21. EEC Core Competencies Area 1: Understanding Growth and Development Area 2: Guiding and Interacting Area 3: Partnering w/Families and Communities Area 4: Health, Safety, and Nutrition Area 5: Learning Environments/Implementing Curriculum Area 6: Observation, Assessment, Documentation Area 7: Program Planning and Development Area 8: Professionalism and Leadership

22. Workforce and Professional Development • Two tracks of workforce and professional development: • Educator supports • Program quality (QRIS/accreditation) • Areas of supports for providers and educators: • Education and Career planning • Coaching and Mentoring • Competency Development

23. Mental Health (Statewide Access) • Promote the healthy social and emotional development of all children, particularly those children whose emotional development is compromised by poverty, biological or family risk factors, or other circumstances which may contribute to toxic levels of stress; • Build the capacity of program staff to enhance children’s learning through positive, nurturing interactions with children and families and to address the needs of children who exhibit behavioral challenges; • Attend to social-emotional needs of children so they are ready to learn and be successful in early education; • Reduce the number of children who are suspended or expelled from EEC funded programs; • Promote collaboration for better access to supportive services for children and their families;  and • Maximize resources by ensuring that certain mental health interventions are funded, when appropriate, through insurance payments.

24. Coordinated Family and Community Engagement Support the EEC Strategic Plan for Family Support, Access and Affordability section via: • High-quality, accurate consumer information available at locations accessible to all families; • Strengths-based family education and early and family literacy activities with a foundation in the Strengthening Families approach; • An integrated and aligned network of parents and educators to ensure promotion of common school readiness goals; • Transition supports that address the needs of children and families; • Coordinated resources to prepare all students, to be lifelong learners and successful citizens; • Leadership opportunities for parents; • Access to consumer education, technical assistance, and training for early education and care educators high quality programming.

25. AND WE ARE STILL WORKING • Registry • QRIS • Access • Pre-K to 3rd Alignment • Communications • Finance • Compensation • How do we know as a state we have the growth in young children that will help them succeed in education and as citizens?

26. Workforce Registry • EEC is developing a workforce registry to support the requirement in the new regulations that “all educators must register annually with the Department of Early Education and Care in accordance with EEC policies and procedures” • The new regulations require all educators to register annually with EEC • EEC has identified the fields needed to generate basic data about our current workforce, including: • Demographic information about the workforce • Educators’ educational background • Educators’ experience in the field • Information on salaries and benefits • Professional development activities • The registry will provide educators with a “profile” that summarizes their qualifications, an easy way to track their professional growth and plan next steps

27. Early Care and Education & K-12 linkage • State ID numbers assigned • ESE PreK-3 task force focused on literacy • Springfield Project • Development of a P to 20 database • Development of infant and toddler guidelines aligned with preschool learning experience guidelines and early childhood program standards • Summer learning vouchers (09 and 10)

28. Communication: Families and Public • Communications plan alignment with local strategies • Educate families about quality • Educate public about the role of families, communities, consumers, and government • Increase the focus on information and referral, and consumer education via Child Care Resource and Referral agencies

29. Finance and Budget • State Budget (~500 million) • IDEA Budget (~ 8 million) • ARRA Budget • CCDBG (~24 million) • IDEA (10.2million )

30. Finance: Budget Update

31. Total Caseload by Account

32. Total Caseload by Age Group

33. Finance: ARRA Funding

34. Finance • Increasing demand for support for accreditation, degrees and CDA • Compensation in the field remains low • Resource to support children in early education and care despite parental work status • Resources for QRIS grants and awards to support compensation and going to the next level (3.2 million to 640 programs to date)

35. Focus FY2010

36. Focus FY2010 In FY2010, EEC developed a renewed focused toward various deliberate initiatives in order to concentrate limited resources to promote the strategic growth of the early education and care system, these included: • Early Literacy Development with a Focus on Infant and Toddlers, Within a Pre-Birth to Eight Frame • Development infant toddlers standards and guidelines • Multiple literacy focused conferences • Two grants with an infant and toddler focus, including an Early Literacy grant focused on family child care educators • Grant focused on improving the physical environments of early education and care programs serving this population. • Birth to School Age Task Force • Supporting Out of School Time Educators in the Promotion of Learning • Grant to retain or increase students’ academic gains by reinforcing their school day and year learning • Provide high-impact activities and effective curricula during the summer months and throughout the school year • Partnerships with public school districts for direct training, modeling of effective direct instructional practice; and coaching/feedback for staff

37. Focus FY2010 • Development of Policies and Best Practices for Low English Proficient Children/Families • Develop policies and learn about best practices in order to recommend models for early education and care programs serving low English proficient children and families. • Institutions of Higher Education Mapping Project • Map the network of two and four year public and private Institutions of Higher Education in MA that offer an Early Childhood Education (ECE) program of study, elementary education program or program in a related field that leads to a certificate, and/or an associate’s or a bachelor’s degree. • Develop a profile for each campus as well as a database that can be included as part of EEC’s future registry.

38. Focus FY2010 • Professional Development Related to Assessment for All Educators • Expand the professional development of the entire field of early education and care regarding assessment • March All Together Now Conference provided a child assessment track in order to maximize funds to provide assessment training not only to UPK grantees, but to the larger field • Associated Early Care and Education differentiated levels of training, professional development, assessment/screening tools and materials to 450 educators, to make it a sustainable practice • 32 educators in an advanced assessment track will receive two college credits

39. Focus 2010 • Kindergarten Entry Enrichment Program • Funds qualifying public schools and EEC Income Eligible contracted providers to provide preschool children who are not currently enrolled and/or are educationally at-risk with experiences that will help prepare them for Kindergarten • 4 and 5 year old PK children entering Kindergarten in 2010 • Eight to twelve weeks of a Kindergarten Entry Enrichment Program must be offered • Program components will include, but not be limited to: • Engagement of children’s families; • Use of curricula aligned to the Guidelines for Preschool Learning Experiences; • Specific and targeted support for dual language or LEP learners; • Support for children with special needs; • Formative assessment and developmental screening; and • Partnership with a public school district (or if a public school, partnership with local early education and care programs) on transition services, supports and communications between families and the school system.

40. System Building: Policy Issues

41. Policy Issues: Access • Children should have access to high quality early education and care decoupled from parental work status • Waitlist Demand and Cost 262 days in FY2010; data as of January 1, 2010

42. Policy Issues: Access • Maintain continuity of care for three and four year old children who become ineligible for financial assistance under federal requirement • Expand access to high quality Universal Preschool • Determine the minimum dosage for effectiveness of early education and care with roles for family, community and early education and care programs • Measure and fund levels of program quality and teacher effectiveness essential for child growth

43. Policy Issues: Family Support • Expand access to comprehensive services to support • early education and care programs and • families at the local or community level

44. Policy: Early Childhood Information System • Increase the understanding of what quality activities lead to the best outcomes for children, parents, and providers • There is not a comprehensive, integrated approach to compiling data and to understand what works best for children in a holistic way • Through an Early Childhood Information System (ECIS), EEC and ESE can integrate existing data, define new data sets, and set data sharing standards and formats; focus on: • Design and Definition of child outcomes measurements • Relevant research • Data analysis and real time presentation of EEC extant data • Define Outcome/growth measurements for the ECIS

45. Policy: Pre-K to 3rd Grade Alignment • Coordinated educational foundation in Pre-K to third grade that is aligned across sectors and multiple domains: • Standards – • Guiding standards with developmentally appropriate and clear expectations • Curriculum – • Sequential and rooted in the developmental characteristics of each grade level; • Vertical alignment: K - grade 3 builds on what was learned in PK • Assessment - • Assessment to determine progress and to inform teachers to individualize and differentiate instruction based on needs of child; • Cognitive progress and domains of the whole child’s development (social-emotional development, language and cognition, and children’s physical well-being and gross motor development.)

46. Policy : Pre-K to 3rd alignment • Teacher Quality Professional Development and Instructional Leadership • Highly qualified early educators who can optimally educate young children to set the foundation for future success; • Effective coordination of services, transitions (systems, pedagogy etc), for children, learning across grade levels and • Raise the quality of classroom practice, teacher content knowledge • Family Involvement • Parents and caregivers are crucial factors in children’s development ; • Families have the ability to support and enhance children’s learning experiences, thru appropriate relationships and routines; • Families’ are an integral part of children’s success and should be equally included and integrated into the model

47. THANK YOU!!! Thank each of you for all you do on behalf of the children and families of the commonwealth– We are making a difference.