Where you lead, I will Follow: The Impact of Director Leadership on Overall Center Quality

1. Where you lead,I will Follow:The Impact of Director Leadership on Overall Center Quality NYSAEYC 2005 Annual Conference Rochester, NY Saturday, April 13, 2005

2. For these slides, go to: • http://www.udel.edu/cds/conferencematerials.html

3. Agenda • Leadership components • 2003/2004 Quality Study • Study of early care centers, teachers and directors • Director characteristics linked to quality • Implications for programs and directors of early care facilities and regulation

4. Program Leadership • Directors are either beacons or icebergs • Directors mentor and nurture or restrict and confine • Directors provide vision and consistency or contribute to chaos • Directors make a difference

5. So, what are the components of leadership? • Communicate a vision • Mentorship • Knowledge base • Teamwork • Organization • Passion • Advocacy • Decision-making • Shared responsibility • Communicate with all constituents

6. The Research Study • 587 early care and education settings in Delaware • ALL types (Head Start, part-day, family child care, center-based, school-age) • Purpose: To determine the baseline quality in the state prior to regulation changes • Measured: characteristics, demographics, fees, job perception, quality, child-teacher interactions • For the executive summary, go to: http://www.udel.edu/cds/conferencematerials.html

7. Director Study 2004 • 104 programs composed of 451 groups (classrooms) in Delaware • 23 Head Start programs • 21 part-day programs (preschools) • 60 full-day child care centers • All programs had four or more groups (classrooms) • Over 876 staff members (i.e., teachers and teacher assistants)

8. A little bit about Delaware • We’re rural, no, we’re urban, no we’re suburban • In reality, the state is much like New York—all of the above • Ethnicity: • 20% African American • 67% white • 6% Hispanic • 4% Asian American • 2% Native American • 11% of the families are • living in poverty • 18% of children are living • in poverty

9. Dela—where?

10. What we know about Directors • Wanted to discover: • What was their background? • What was their training and education? • How did they see their programs? • What was important to them? • What type of programs did they operate?

11. Directors’ Educational Backgrounds (n=101)

12. Focus of Post-secondary Degrees (n=73)

13. Directors’ Program Management Experience (n=102)

14. Directors’ Experience with Training (n=99)

15. Directors’ Experience with Training (n=99) (continued)

16. Directors’ Age (n=88)

17. Directors’ Annual Salaries (n=83)

18. Directors’ Salaries (n=83)

19. Directors’ Use of Technical Assistance

20. Program Funding Sources (n=97)

21. Handbooks (n=101)

22. Program Purpose (n=103)

23. Overall quality • When we look at overall program quality, what does it look like? • Safety and health • Furnishings and space arrangement • Teacher-child Interactions • Curriculum (literacy, social, aesthetics, physical) • Program operations • Family-program relations • Staff relations

24. Quality Profile of Center-Based Programs Serving Infants and Toddlers 8.8% N=10 20.4% N=23 70.8% N=80 23.9% N=27 50.4% N=57 25.7% N=29 21.3% N=24 53.1% N=60 25.7% N=29 33.6% N=38 32.7% N=37 33.6% N=38 8.0% N=9 46.0% N=52 46.0% N=52 47.8% N=54 38.1% N=43 14.2% N=16 29.6% N=29 50.0% N=49 20.4% N=20

25. Quality Profile of Center-Based Programs Serving 3 to 5-year-olds 38.6% N=64 48.2% N=80 13.3% N=22 26.5% N=44 42.8% N=71 30.7% N=51 37.6% N=62 42.4% N=70 20.0% N=33 9.7% N=16 47.9% N=79 42.4% N=70 59.4% N=98 20.0% N=33 20.6% N=34 43.9% N=72 34.8% N=57 21.3% N=35 45.5% N=60 42.4% N=56 12.1% N=16

26. What is the impact of Directors? • Separate the 104 programs (451 groups) into those with consistent quality and those with inconsistent quality • Consistent Quality: Those programs whose groups were within one level of each other (e.g., three “good” and one “mediocre”) • Inconsistent Quality: Those programs whose groups had a quality difference of more than one level (e.g., two “good,” one “mediocre,” and one “poor”)

27. Types of Programs

28. What makes programs consistent? • What makes programs consistently “good” or “poor?” • What are the factors that make program quality inconsistent?

29. Three major components contribute to program quality consistency • Resources (money) • Contributed to the quality of space, materials, curriculum and program operations • Teacher education • Contributed to interactions, curriculum, and program operations • Directors

30. Directors’ Contribution to Program Consistency • Materials • Curriculum • Program Operations • Health and Safety • Child-teacher interactions • Family-program interactions • Staff interactions

31. As a group, strong directors could override the impact of… • Staff with less education in child development and early childhood education • Lower paid staff • Moderate financial resources • Since sources of funding And were able to keep quality consistent from classroom to classroom.

32. As a group, weak directors… • had inconsistent quality from group to group • had centers that were financially in trouble • had higher rates of turn-over in staff • had vacancies and opening in their programs

33. Education level Overall education level Specific education Early childhood curriculum Child development core knowledge Management and fiscal knowledge Experience Age Ability to secure funding from other sources Director Characteristics Linked with Leadership

34. Characteristics of Strong Directors • They have a bachelors degree or higher in early childhood education or child development • They have training in financial management • They are able to secure outside sources of funding • They are 40-60 years of age • They have at least 10 years experience in the field of early care • They are able to communicate to boards, parents, and staff well • They seem themselves as mentors • They take leadership responsibilities in the field

35. So, what are the implications?