Building a System of Early Education and Care

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• Building a System of Early Education and Care
• Board of Early Education and Care
• June 8, 2010

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EEC Mission Statement

• The Massachusetts Department of Early
  Education and Cares 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.

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Children in MA Accessing Quality Care
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Early Education and Care Mixed Delivery System
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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
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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
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Quality Defined (Continued)

• NIEER Standards of Quality (continued)
• 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

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Early Education and CareThe System
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The System A Series of Coordinated Activities
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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.

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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.
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Standards, Assessment and Accountability
Teacher Quality(workforce registry)
Program Quality(QRIS)
Child Outcomes (formative and summative
assessment)
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Is anything stable?

• Massachusetts Early Education and Care System

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Statewide Systems

• Core functions with local differentiation
• Governance
• Professional Development
• Mental Health
• Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies
• Community Family Engagement

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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

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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

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Systems

• Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies
• Access for low income families through Voucher
  Management and Information and Referral
• Information and Referral for all families
• Consumer Information

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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
  childrens 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.

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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.

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Expectations

• 2010 Regulations
• Core Competencies
• QRIS (for now)

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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

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EEC Core Competencies and Upcoming Trainings

• Area 1 Understanding Growth and Development
• Infant Toddler Standards and Guidelines
  Supporting Quality in Infant Toddler
• Programs
• Area 2 Guiding and Interacting
• CSEFEL Summer Institute Guiding Childrens
  Behavior
• Area 3 Partnering w/Families and Communities
• Strengthening Families Special Quest Summer
  Institute Autism Training
• Area 4 Health, Safety, and Nutrition
• Oral Health Medication Administration Progress
  Reports Mass Children at Play
• Area 5 Learning Environments/Implementing
  Curriculum
• Mind in the Making (MITM) WGBH Early Literacy
  Initiative Early Literacy for Family
• Child Care Educators STEM after school curricula
• Area 6 Observation, Assessment, Documentation
• Differentiated Assessment Pre-Las Training for
  QRIS
• Area 7 Program Planning and Development
• Family Child Care Orientation Center Based Child
  Care Orientation Family Child Care
• Assistant Orientation
• Area 8 Professionalism and Leadership
• Building Careers College Courses Professional
  Development System Building

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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.

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Overview of the Standards
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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

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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)
• 2. Standards for Family Child Care Programs
• 3. 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)

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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 supported the
  growth in young children to help them succeed in
  education and as citizens?

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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

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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)

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Early Literacy Subcommittee ReportRecommendations

• Professional Development
• EEC and ESE should build a shared statewide
  system of ongoing pre-service and in-service
  professional development in literacy addressing
  the full continuum of pre-kindergarten to 3rd
  grade standards, assessments, and
  research-informed instructional practices.
• Professional development frameworks should be
  comprehensive and data-driven, and lead to
  targeted supports to address gaps in language and
  early literacy skills.
• An Early Literacy Assessment System
• The Commissioners of EEC and ESE shall convene a
  task force to identify comprehensive pre-k to 3rd
  grade literacy assessments (formative and
  summative) for uniform statewide implementation
  and guidance to districts.
• This task force will provide recommendations on
  uniform assessments for 4 year olds within 30
  days of preschool entry target schools
  instituting a program-based early literacy
  self-assessment adaptive assessments are
  provided for English Language Learners.

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Early Literacy Subcommittee ReportRecommendations

• Access to Preschool and Kindergarten
• In low performing school districts all children
  should have access to high quality preschool and
  full day Kindergarten.
• EEC and ESE jointly work to pilot a project to
  explore the feasibility of blending multiple
  funding streams to achieve this goal
• Ensure that early educators in pre-k and
  kindergarten are trained in literacy instruction,
  curriculum and assessment in alignment with K-3
• Use QRIS incentives to move pre-k programs in
  underperforming school districts to achieve
  higher levels of quality as well as strengthen
  proposed QRIS to include specific literacy
  activities
• Literacy Support for Parents
• ESE and EEC should develop, promote and provide
  concrete vehicles and
• benchmarks for parent/school partnerships
  including literacy support in
• the home through oral language and print. These
  may include, but are
• not limited to
• Development of a tool kit of individualized
  literacy supports to be used by educators to
  support families enhancement of literacy
  development at home Workshops Parent-teacher
  conferences
• Expand school-based and community-based family
  literacy initiatives that use existing models of
  best practice.

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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

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Finance and Budget

• State Budget (500 million)
• IDEA Budget ( 8 million)
• ARRA Budget
• CCDBG (24 million)
• IDEA (10.2 million)

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Regional Analysis of Access Related Contracts (as
of July 23, 2010)
Total Slots 19,461
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Finance Budget Update
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Total Caseload by Account
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(No Transcript)
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Finance ARRA Funding
Program number Initiative Amount Board Approved/Planned Spent Total Unspent Encumbrance Balance Total Unobligated
1 Summer Vouchers 2009 636,714 636,714 - - -
2 Out of School Time Learning promotion grant initiative 250,000 57,955 192,045 192,045 -
3 CFCE Infrastructure Grants 250,000   250,000   250,000
4 Pre-School Aging Up -   - - -
5 Infant/Toddlers Early Childhood program standards 50,000 4,150 45,850 45,850 -
6 Contracted Providers - Voucher Reassessment 1,120,000 - 1,120,000 205,125 914,875
7 CCRR - to assist with provider reassessment transition 1,000,000 246,179 753,821 702,278 51,543
8 IT - 2 consultants to reconfigure existing IT structure 150,000 2,720 147,280 98,100 49,180
9 Admin Fee (.4) 95,868   95,868   95,868
10 QRIS - ERS 120,000 3,477 116,523 88,757 27,766
11 Intensive Summer Only Kindergarten Prep 4,093,488   4,093,488   4,093,488
12 Early Literacy Program 175,000   175,000   175,000
13 Summer Only Voucher 2010 1,613,286   1,613,286 1,613,286 0
14 18 Month Access for Preschoolers 12,190,067   12,190,067 12,055,067 135,000
15 Improvement of Physical Environments 500,000   500,000   500,000
16 Information and Referral Program 150,000 50,000 100,000 100,000 -
17 CSEFEL Professional Development Opportunity 300,000   300,000   300,000
18 Communications Campaign 298,500   298,500   298,500
19 English Language Learners 200,000   200,000   200,000
20 Unified IT System 750,000   750,000   750,000
23,942,923 1,001,195 22,941,728 15,100,508 7,841,220
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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)
• Movement toward market rate for state subsidized
  care

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• Focus FY2010

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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 and Improvement of
  Physical Environments
• 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

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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
  some 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 associates or a
  bachelors degree.
• Develop a profile for each campus as well as a
  database that can be included as part of EECs
  future registry.

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Focus FY2010

• Professional Development
• Increasing Opportunities for Educators with
  Limited
• English Proficiency
• Career development and training for educators
  with Limited English Proficiency work with the
  Readiness Center Network on a statewide strategy
  to increase access to higher education for early
  educators with limited English proficiency
• Related to Assessment for All Educators
• Expand the professional development of the entire
  field of early education and care re assessment
• All Together Now Conference provided a child
  assessment track to provide assessment training
• 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

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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 childrens 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.

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• System Building Policy Issues

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Policy Issues Access
Children should have access to high quality early
education and care decoupled from parental
work Status Waitlist Demand and Cost
Age Group of Children Annual Cost

Infants/Toddlers 8,115 107,107,942.94
Pre-School 6,102 56,440,246.65
School Age 7,301 40,458,124.86
Total 21,518 204,006,314.45
262 days in FY2010 data as of January 1, 2010
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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

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Policy Issues Family Support

• Expand access to comprehensive services to
  support
• early education and care programs and
• families at the local or community level.

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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

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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
  childs development (social-emotional
  development, language and cognition, and
  childrens physical well-being and gross motor
  development).

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Policy Pre-K to 3rd Grade 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
  childrens development
• Families have the ability to support and enhance
  childrens learning experiences, thru appropriate
  relationships and routines
• Families are an integral part of childrens
  success and should be equally included and
  integrated into the model

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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.