The Texas State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care is now

1. The Texas State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care is now The Texas Early Learning Council

2. What is our origin? • The US Congress passed the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act in 2007. • State Advisory Councils were an important aspect of that law, encouraging states to increase collaboration aimed at improving school readiness • The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) made funds available to these Council • In November 2009 the Governor appointed the 19 member Council • With the benefit of extensive public feedback, our Council created one of the most ambitious applications for Federal funds in the country, securing $11.4 million to improve the school readiness of Texas

3. State agency responsible for child care • State Educational Agency • Local Educational Agency • Institutions of Higher Education in the State • Local provider of ECE program • Head Start Agency • State Director of Head Start Collaboration • IDEA 619 Coordinator • IDEA Part C • Health or Mental Health • As determined by Governor Who must sit on the Texas Early Council?

4. Mandated Responsibilities: • Periodic needs assessment on the quality and availability of ECE • Identify barriers to collaboration • Develop recommendations for increasing the participation of underrepresented and special populations • Develop recommendations for a unified data collection system • Develop recommendations regarding professional development • Assess the capacity of 2 and 4 year institutions • Develop recommendations for improvements to standards and guidelines

5. How exactly is the Council going to improve School Readiness in Texas?

6. How are we doing the work? Comm. and Outreach Data & QRIS 4 Subcommittees A 19 Member Council Quincy White John Gasko & John Whitcamp Collab. and Standards Workforce and PD LaShonda Brown Ana De Hoyos O’Connor

7. Over the course of three years, the Council will release over 20 Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to the public in order to spend millions on key improvements to the Texas early childhood education system. • The Council will also draw on the skills of the staff to create new resources and tools to support school readiness in Texas

8. Parental Outreach and Communications • RFP. Conduct a rigorous needs assessment to ascertain information on the quality and availability of early childhood education and care. • RFP. Develop and implement strategies for outreach to underrepresented and special populations.

9. Parental Outreach and Communications Status: The Outreach and Communications Subcommittee met yesterday and worked on the following items: • RFP 1 on assessing the quality and availability of care in Texas; the scheduled date for the posting of this RFP is mid February 2011 • Considering methods of in depth assessment of statewide school readiness *Note: The entire Council heard from Dr. Neal Halfon on usage of a tool called the Early Development Instrument, and an approach to community assessment pioneer at UCLA Berkley

10. Early Childhood Workforce and Professional Development • In-house and RFPs. Develop and implement a Career Development System for early childhood professionals. • In-house and Committee. Develop a career lattice • In-house and Committee. Expand and Enhance the Early Childhood Core Knowledge and Skill Areas to include coaches and mentors, and beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels • RFP. Conduct survey on wage comparability • In-house and Committee. Develop model articulation agreements that span from community colleges to four year institutions of higher education • RFP. Assess the capacity of higher education in Texas to meet the needs of the early care and education workforce

11. Early Childhood Workforce and Professional Development Status: The Workforce and Professional Development Subcommittee met yesterday and worked on the following items: • Reviewed and made improvements to a draft career lattice document • Reviewed and made improvements to a draft design of a workforce registry system document • Reviewed and made improvements to a draft Core Competencies Areas document *Note: this subcommittee is working closely with representatives from the Texas Early Care and Education Career Development Council to support the develop of many of the Advisory Council’s goals related to workforce and professional development

12. Collaboration and Standards • In-house. Develop web-based integrated early learning cross sector standards/guidelines tool, “crosswalk” • RFP, In-house, and Committee. Develop early learning guidelines for infants and toddlers • RFP, In-house, and Committee. Develop a Licensed Child Care Home training and mentoring pilot

13. Collaboration and Standards Status: The Collaborations and Standards Subcommittee met yesterday and worked on the following items: • Understanding of national trends in Infant and Toddler Guidelines • Reviewed and improved Infant and Toddler Early Learning Guidelines Development Plan • Understanding and planning on a Licensed Child Care Home Mentoring Project *Note: This subcommittee will be working closely with Zero-to-Three in order to support the development of Infant and Toddler Early Learning Guidelines in Texas

14. Data and QRIS • RFP and In-house. Research and QRIS and make recommendations. • RFP. Develop an integrated data collection system for early childhood related institutions.

15. Data and QRIS Status: The Data and QRIS met yesterday and worked on the following items: • Increasing knowledge of the Texas Rising Star System in an effort to work towards recommendations for a Texas QRIS • Reviewed and improved a QRIS Recommendations development plan • Reviewed the status of Data Systems feasibility RFP *Note: Proposals for the Data Systems feasibility RFP have been received. The public will be notified when a contract is rewarded *Note: This Subcommittee is working closely with the National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center to inform the development of QRIS recommendations

16. Your feedback is welcomed! • You are encouraged to offer comments at Council public meetings (4/year) • You may submit comments to Don Titcombe (donald.a.titcombe@uth.tmc.edu) • Please see our current website: http://www.childrenslearninginstitute.org/our-programs/program-overview/state-advisory-council/ • Please keep apprised of our at our new website www.earlylearningtexas.org(Coming in 2-3 weeks)

17. Look for our newsletter coming soon • Look for us soon on Twitter and Facebook • @txearlylearning on Twitter • Texas Early Learning Council on Facebook