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Time to Revamp & Expand: The Early Childhood Professional Development Highway

Time to Revamp & Expand: The Early Childhood Professional Development Highway. Dan Bellm Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California at Berkeley March 3, 2006. Our Destination.

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Time to Revamp & Expand: The Early Childhood Professional Development Highway

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  1. Time to Revamp & Expand:The Early Childhood Professional Development Highway Dan Bellm Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California at Berkeley March 3, 2006

  2. Our Destination • US is transforming its vision of the needs of children from birth to age five. • Our vision for early childhood workforce has yet to change accordingly.

  3. Professional Development Highway • easily accessible from many starting points; • promotes professional preparation and renewal; and • supports lasting and rewarding careers linked to higher pay.

  4. Ideal Highway Conditions Multiple On-Ramps Well placed and Equipped Rest Stops Service Station for a Variety of Vehicles

  5. Existing Highway • Heavily Traveled • Poor signage • Detours

  6. Members of the Workforce start from different places Certificate AA Degree BA Degree H.S. or GED R.O.P. ESL MA Degree GE units Prof. Devt. Hours ECE units. Foreign degree Permit 6 units 12 units 24 units

  7. Traveler 1 • Has been doing child care for years • Has been to numerous workshops and conferences • Wants to move forward and needs a jump start to get on her path

  8. Traveler 2 • More comfortable with her home language than with English • Has completed 24 ECE units, but still needs 16 units of General Education • Needs support to navigate her way towards an AA degree

  9. Traveler 3 • Completed 60 units at a community college 5 years ago. • Considers her training complete.

  10. Traveler 4 • Just transferred to a 4 year college. • Also finds new coursework repeats his community college work • Feels like she’s working hard and not going anywhere

  11. Traveler 5 • Earned a B.A. in History. Wants to teach preschool. • Finds only way to earn required ECE units is to enroll in community college.

  12. Traveler 6 • Completed MA in ECE • Completed PH.D. in developmental studies • In order to effectively teach adults, seeks continuing education

  13. Our Study • Follow up to 1999 study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Sought census of all programs • Phone survey in 2004 with chair or director to learn about characteristics of students, faculty, courses and practica, challenges and supports

  14. Participating Institutions • To qualify, programs had to prepare students to teach children ages 0-4 • Achieved 98.5 percent response rate from 136 eligible institutions, including: • Community colleges • CSUs • UCs • Private 4 year colleges/universities • Public and private 2 year institutions

  15. In California, 136 institutions of higher education are engaged in preparing teachers to work with young children • Reflecting California’s current regulatory requirements, most of these programs are at the community college level…

  16. …Opportunities for upper-division and graduate-level work in early childhood are very limited. • Approximately 41,000 students studying at the community colleges, • Approximately 5,000 students working toward BA., with 1,200 working for MA, and 10 working toward Ph.D.

  17. Number of colleges overall and number of colleges providing early childhood education by type of institution

  18. A closer look at the four year institutions offering ece degrees

  19. ECE Student Characteristics • California’s population of early childhood education students is very diverse in terms of language and ethnicity • Most are working full time

  20. Ethnicity Less than one-half of early childhood students were identified as White, non-Hispanic. 34 percent of certificate and AA students, and 24 percent of Master’s candidates, are Hispanic.

  21. Mean percentage by institution of language capacity of undergraduate and graduate students* *At the undergraduate level, data for the University of California (n=1), and the two-year private (n=1) and other public programs (n=5) are excluded because of their small sample size. At the graduate level, data for the University of California are excluded because only one program is represented in this group.

  22. Mean percentage by institution of students who have difficulty with coursework in English

  23. Career Paths Of Graduates • About ¾ of AA and ½ of BA earners continue working with children 0-4 • About twice as many BA as AA earners work in K-12 settings; • Fewer than 10 percent of degree earners work in a home-based setting; • More than 90 percent go on to teach or work with children.

  24. Ethnicity of faculty

  25. Educational background of part-time and full-time faculty (in percentages)

  26. Educational background of part-time and full-time faculty (in percentages)

  27. Education and care of children 0-2, 3-5, including those with disabilities Working with families and children, including English language learners Child assessment and observation Literacy and Numeracy Social-emotional and physical development Learning environments and activities Classroom management Administration, collaboration, professional conduct Adult learning Leadership/Advocacy Research and Evaluation Course Content Topics

  28. Course Content • Many of California’s degree programs in early childhood education do not require a full course in a variety of topics widely identified as relevant to the profession—in particular, the topic of dual language learning and bilingualism, given the increasing number of dual language learners in California’s preschool-age population.

  29. Faculty-Related Challenges • The difficulty of attracting and retaining a diverse faculty, and the shortage of full-time faculty positions, are major challenges for California’s college and university programs in early childhood education.

  30. Recommendation #1 Increased resources to California institutions of higher education to: • Expand lower-division programs; • Develop more upper-division & graduate programs; • Hire more full-time ECE faculty; • Attract and retain a more culturally and linguistically diverse faculty; • Update and revamp the courses of study in ECE that they offer.

  31. Recommendation #2 Increased resources to California institutions of higher education to: • Serve a diverse and rising ECE student population; • Create new incentives to encourage students to pursue degrees in early childhood education.

  32. Recommendation #3 A statewide process with the authority to: • Create a blueprint for a well-articulated higher education system for ECE teachers • Develop a comprehensive set of ECE teacher skills and competencies • Design a relevant ECE teacher certification system • Promote improved ECE teacher compensation

  33. Recommendation #4 A concerted effort to build public awareness of: • The knowledge and skills required for working effectively with young children • Why advanced levels of education are necessary & appropriate for ECE teachers; • The need to increase compensation, to better attract and retain ECE teachers.

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