Guiding and Preparing Staff in the Mississippi Delta: Empowering One Child At a Time

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• Guiding and Preparing Staff in the Mississippi
  Delta Empowering One Child At a Time
• Kimberly Triplett, Ph.D.
• Field Supervisor/Training Coordinator of
• Mississippi Delta Initiatives
• Early Childhood Institute
• Mississippi State University

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Mississippi Delta
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Mississippi Delta

• Famous for
• Blues legend B. B. King
• Football great Archie Manning
• Civil rights leader and advocate Fannie Lou Hamer
• Extraordinary actor Morgan Freeman
• The Muppets creator Jim Henson
• Soul singer Sam Cooke
• Famous for
• One of the highest crime rates in the state
• Extensive drug and alcohol abuse issues
• Alarming, increasing rates of teenage pregnancy
• Poor economic development
• Devastation number of young children living in
  poverty and their families struggle to overcome
  everyday hardships

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The Early Childhood Institute at Mississippi
State University promotes high-quality care
through a plethora of programs. For over ten
years, we have been the forerunners of a
relentless fight for improving care and education
of children in rural and low-resource areas in
the state of Mississippi.
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Mississippi Delta Initiatives

• Sisterhood program
• Maternal Infant Health Outreach Worker project
  (MIHOW)
• Delta Promise School
• Mississippi Delta Early Learning Corps

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The primary focus of the Mississippi Delta Early
Learning Corps (MDELC) is to provide a successful
professional development model based on
individual teachers needs, straying from
lectures and workshops.
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MDELCs Purpose

• Provide guidance to teachers of infants and
  toddlers
• Offer on-site education to teachers
• Improve the quality of educational services
• Raise the caliber of the overall education of
  participating teachers

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MDELCs Goals

• Improve the quality of early care and education
  for infants and toddlers so participating
  children will be more likely to be successful
  when entering public school
• To build capacity of non-traditional infant and
  toddler providers that serve low-income children

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MDELCs Objectives

• Recruiting participants
• Providing support and education information
• Promoting employment in the states technical
  assistance unit

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Discoveries in brain development has resulted in
early childhood professionals realizing the need
for children to be provided with rich literacy,
numeracy, and social/emotional opportunities in
high-quality early care and education sites in
the early years.
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Training Topics

• Professionalism
• Brain development
• Best practices and developmental milestones for
  infants and toddlers
• Diversity and culture of child care in the
  Mississippi Delta
• Right from Birth
• Infant Toddler Environmental Rating Scale-Revised
  
• Infant/toddler early learning guidelines

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MDELCs Implications

• Local level More jobs for an underutilized
  segment of the workforce in an economically
  depression region of the state
• Local level Quality of care and care in
  education to support attempts of measurable
  improvements in terms of teachers perceptions
  and implementation of quality care and improved
  environmental and childrens outcomes

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MDELCs Implications

• State level Another career path for
  non-traditional workers
• State level Another technical assistant model
  being utilized as a vital element in the
  professional development of infant/toddler
  providers
• Federal level Program worth replication to
  improve education and training of infant/toddler
  providers and to provide employment opportunities

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Program Evaluation

• Distributing routine feedback forms
• Providing multiple, on-site evaluations of the
  trainees during field experiences
• Completing the 12-month, 32 hours-a-week training
  course
• Reviewing attendance records
• Being awarded the Child Development Associate
  (CDA) credential

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Project Growth and Assessment

• Another training program is currently being
  funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
• Technicians (graduates of the training program)
  project of working on-site and modeling best
  practices to infant/toddler providers is funded
  by the Mississippi Department of Health.

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Score Performance Measure Comments
Trainee and teacher have established a relationship that encourages various opportunities for learning to occur. It was quite evident that the teacher wanted the Trainee to do well she was very supportive of all of his efforts. The worked extremely well together.
Trainee makes an effort to implement correct sanitation practices (e.g. hand washing, toileting, diapering, etc.). Childrens runny noses were consistently not cleaned Trainee used sanitizer instead of washing his hands.
Trainee is actively engaged in daily activities that take place within the classroom (e.g. interacting with children, sitting at childrens eye level, interacting during learning centers, etc.). The Trainee did an excellent job of interacting and talking with the children. Trainee did not sit on the floor while the children were playing.
Trainee assists teacher with daily classroom duties (e.g. preparing for meals, organization of classroom materials, daily chores, etc.) The Trainee does not have any problems with assuming duties in the classroom. He just needs to be reminded that he is a living model of best practices for infant and toddler teachers.

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ITERS-R Summary Report

• Facility TVCL
• Address Greenville, MS
• County Washington
• Pre Test Date 3.17.09
• Post Test Date 2.5.10

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There can be no keener revelation of a societys
soul than the way it treats its
children.-Nelson MandelaFormer President of
South Africa
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Kimberly TriplettPost Office Box 601346
Blackjack RoadMississippi State, MS
39762662.325.5116 (office)662.325.5436
(fax)kmt74_at_colled.msstate.edu