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Archive for the ‘Early educators’ Category

A New Call for Early Educator Compensation Reform

Posted in Dept. of Early Education and Care, Early educators, Pre-kindergarten, Professional development & preparation on June 18, 2013 | 1 Comment »

Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children

Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children

To ensure that the state’s early education and care programs are high-quality endeavors, Massachusetts should find the best ways to structure the salaries and career pathways of early educators, according to a recent report from the Bessie Tartt Wilson Initiative for Children (BTWIC). The report looks at salary data for early educators and explores how the Massachusetts Career Ladder could be used to tie educators’ qualifications and skills to salary incentives.

“The educators who teach our children from birth to age five significantly influence the rest of their lives, both intellectually and emotionally,” said Mary Reed, founder and president of the BTWIC in a press release. “If we want to develop and retain high-quality early childhood educators, we have to work together to improve the way we evaluate and compensate them at every level. This baseline analysis of salaries is an important step in the right direction.”

Using a Career Ladder for Professional Development

“In 2010, the Bessie Tartt Wilson Initiative for Children collaborated with the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) to create a career ladder for early educators,” the report explains.  The ladder outlines a professional (more…)

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Charting a New Course in Evaluating Early Grade Teachers

Posted in Early educators, Pre-K to 3 on June 4, 2013 | 3 Comments »

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

To evaluate teachers, school districts nationwide are considering how to use students’ test scores.  It’s a complex process that gets even harder in what a new report from the New America Foundation calls “the untested grades” of pre-k, kindergarten and first and second grades.

States are eager to find appropriate child assessment tools that can be used as part of teacher evaluations, the report notes. “In all, since 2009, 36 states [including Massachusetts] and DC have passed legislation or made policy changes to develop new or update existing teacher evaluation systems.”

The report — “An Ocean of Unknowns: Risks and Opportunities in Using Student Achievement Data to Evaluate PreK to 3rd Grade Teachers” — acknowledges how hard it is to assess young children, looks at current teacher evaluation practices, and offers a list of three recommendations and nine considerations that federal, state and district policymakers can use to design their own evaluation approach.

Report researchers looked at teacher evaluation efforts in five states (Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Rhode Island and Tennessee) and three school districts (Austin, Texas; Hillsborough County, Fla.; and Washington, DC). The report weighs the pros and cons of different approaches and offers recommendations for education leaders implementing teacher evaluation systems.

The report concludes that states have to find sophisticated, effective ways to assess early education. Regardless of the risks, “overhauling teacher evaluation systems must continue. The old way of doing things did not work for policymakers, principals, teachers and most importantly students. All students—especially at-risk students—deserve a well-trained, effective teacher who can challenge them, instill a love of learning, and help them develop the knowledge and skills they need for success in school and life.”

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Early Educators Awards Gala

Posted in Accreditation, Early educators, NAEYC, Pre-kindergarten on May 1, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

gala pic

Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

On April 12, 2013, some 300 early educators gathered in Randolph for the 12th annual Early Educators Awards Gala sponsored by the Boston Alliance for Early Education and the Boston Association for the Education of Young Children.

The gala celebrates Greater Boston’s early childhood educators and their contributions to the development of young children. The event also recognizes outstanding educators and high-quality programs.

Our own Amy O’Leary, Early Education for All Campaign Director, served as the evening’s Mistress of Ceremonies. Amy also received the association’s Abigail Eliot Award. The award honors winners’ outstanding commitment to young children and the early childhood profession through work done on behalf of the association as well as for distinguished professional achievement. The award is named after Abigail Adams Eliot, a pioneer in early childhood education and in training teachers of young children.

Six other early educators who were nominated by their peers also won awards.

Ida Yee Koo, lead toddler teacher at Buds and Blossoms Early Education and Care Center in Boston, won for leadership and management. (more…)

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Early Childhood Summit 2013: Innovation and Opportunity

Posted in Achievement gap, Dept. of Early Education and Care, Early educators, MA governor, Play, Science & math, Strategies for Children on April 9, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

summit

Photo: Gus Freedman

“I’m glad there’s passion in the room. We’re gonna need it,” Governor Patrick said to warm applause last week at the Early Childhood Summit 2013: Innovation and Opportunity at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Strategies for Children partnered with the Boston Children’s Museum, the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University to sponsor the summit. Support also comes from the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, the Boston Foundation and the TruePoint Center for Higher Ambition Leadership.

This is the second early childhood summit convened in recent years.  It builds on the success of the first summit held in November, 2011, and it is also part of the Boston Children’s Museum’s 100th birthday.

Patrick spoke in the Federal Reserve’s auditorium to a full house of nearly 400 pediatricians, educators, neuroscientists, museum professionals, business leaders, economists, parents and policymakers – all pursuing the same goal: devising and acting on bright, new ideas for the future of early childhood. (more…)

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In Quotes

Posted in Early educators, Quotes on January 4, 2013 | 3 Comments »

“When our [early childhood education] students graduate, anyone who wants a job has a job. A decent job as a lead teacher. Unfortunately, they’re not making a living wage.  Unless we change that, we’re not going to get the results the community wants. It’s not just for the state to solve. It’s a work force issue. Businesses have to be involved as well. When you look at the brain research, this is where you should be investing the most.”

Charlene Mara, Quinsigamond Community College, Eye on Early Education, 2012

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It is Time to Turn Knowledge into Action

Posted in Early educators, MA governor, MA Legislature, MA state budget on December 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Amy O'Leary

Amy O’Leary

In her decade at Strategies for Children, Amy O’Leary, director of our of our Early Education for All Campaign, has become known around the state and country as a strong and effective advocate for young children. She joined EEA in 2002, after working for 10 years as a preschool teacher and program director at Ellis Memorial and Eldredge House Inc. in Boston’s South End neighborhood. In 2011 she was elected to the governing board of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. She talks about her experiences and outlook in a recent post on the Conversations on Early Learning blog of the Bessie Tartt Wilson Initiative for Children.

“As a teacher and a director, I became more and more frustrated with policies that seemed to construct more barriers rather than bridges for children and families to achieve long term success. My experience at Ellis taught me what it’s like as a teacher to try to have high-quality programs, to keep up with the research on child development, and to look at the whole child connected to a family.  As I transitioned into my role as advocate, I knew how critical it was to have early educators as part of the policy-making process because they are on the ground every day feeling the policy implications,” O’Leary said.

“I also understand the financing and economics of early education at a different level. Ellis served children who had state subsidies and children who were private-pay. As a director, I saw families that didn’t qualify for subsidies by $5. I saw my staff struggle to make ends meet – as I did, too, with a starting salary of $16,000 as a preschool teacher. As an emerging advocate, I thought about what the  impact of all this was on children, families and other staff. It became very real to me.”

The switch to policy and advocacy carried some surprises. (more…)

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Community College Lab School Trains Early Educators

Posted in Assessments, Early educators, Pre-kindergarten, Professional development & preparation, Standards and curriculum on November 26, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Charlene Mara

WORCESTER – It’s hokey pokey time at the Children’s School in  Quinsigamond Community College’s Child Study Center. Twenty preschoolers stand in a circle and put their right hands in and shake them all about. The adults in the room include three classroom teachers and four college students of early education. The students’ professor is observing through a window in the corridor when Charlene Mara, faculty coordinator of Quinsigamond’s early childhood program, and I stop by to watch.

The Quinsigamond program is a lab school, where students apply what they learn in their college classroom upstairs to the early education classroom downstairs. For one semester, they observe veteran early educators, who serve as mentors and model the best practices that the college students studied. In the second semester, students practice what they learned. At day’s end, the early educators join the students and faculty to discuss how they applied theories of child development and classroom management to their practice. The program, Mara tells me, is one of the few associate degree lab school programs, intertwining the academic with experience-based practice. It is also accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

On the day that I visit, the topic is group time. How did the early educators successfully transition children to circle time? How did they use strategic positioning? How did they introduce a new topic? What were children learning in circle time? How did the early educators guide the children from sitting to standing for hokey pokey? How does the hokey pokey meet the pre-kindergarten curriculum standards that Massachusetts aligned with the Common Core State Standards?

“This is the glue,” Mara says. “When we’re working on something with the students upstairs in the college classroom, that’s what the focus is down here in the Children’s School. (more…)

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At the November EEC Board Meeting

Posted in Dept. of Early Education and Care, Early educators, MA governor, MA state budget, Pre-K to 3, Pre-kindergarten, QRIS, Science & math on November 19, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

The audience at the November meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care broke into applause when the panel approved a fiscal year 2014 budget ask of $557,509,730, which is $69.4 million above current funding levels.

Our research and field associate, Emily Levine, who attended the meeting, reports that the $69.4 million will support access, quality and the early childhood workforce, as well as transportation. Here’s a breakdown:

  • An investment in quality: $15.6 million
    • Workforce quality: A rate increase of 3% to support an increase in salaries, benefits and stipends for early education and care workers ($13.8 million)
    • Quality Rating and Improvement System : A $1 million set-aside to support investments  in QRIS and help sustain program improvements
    • Quality infrastructure: $0.8 million to support staffing to hold providers accountable for health and safety, quality care and quality programs
    • An investment in children and families: $36.2 million to open access for preschool-age children
    • An investment in transportation: $17.6 million to affirm the board’s June vote to increase the rate paid for transportation to support system improvements and the addition of an adult monitor on all vehicles carrying infants, toddlers and preschool-age children.

In other news: (more…)

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Election 2012 Question of the Week

Posted in Early educators, Election, tagged , , on October 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Election Day is fast approaching, and we want to make sure that candidates include young children and families in their education agendas. So, from now until the Friday before Election Day, I will run a question of the week to ask candidates running for state and federal office. The regular Friday “In Quotes” feature will return after Election Day.

Meanwhile, check out “Eight questions about young children to ask candidates” that I suggest in a post on MassMoms.com, on the (Worcester) Telegram & Gazette website. And see the Election 2012 page on our website. It provides tips for voters on how to focus attention on high-quality early education and reading proficiency this campaign season and information for candidates interested in becoming champions for young children.

Here is this week’s question:

The early education field suffers from low pay and high turnover. And as early educators, particularly those in community-based settings, increase their education and training, their pay is not keeping up. What will you do to link increased compensation for early educators with increased training?

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At the October EEC Board Meeting

Posted in Dept. of Early Education and Care, Early educators, MA state budget, Professional development & preparation on October 22, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Early education and care providers testifying at the October meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care  set the stage for the presentation of Commissioner Sherri Killins’s proposed  $50 million increase for FY14. The department’s FY13 budget is $488.1 million. Public funding of early education in Massachusetts has decreased $82 million since FY09.

One after another, six providers lauded the department for its efforts to increase quality – through such things as the Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), support for early educators earning college degrees and assessments. One after another, they detailed their need for more funding to keep pace with the increased demands.

“The reality is as much as we support these innovative programs, additional investment is needed,” Sharon Thompson of Community Day Care of Lawrence told the board. She is losing staff to the public schools, which pay $13 an hour for paraprofessionals. “We can’t compete,” she said. (A little quick arithmetic: Someone working fulltime year-round for $13 an hour earns about $27,000 a year.) “Many of our staff,” Thompson added, “can’t afford health care even though we cover two-thirds of the cost.”

Dean Solomon of the Council of Social Concern in Woburn told the board that 20% of his early education and care staff use his agency’s food pantry. “There’s no money to give them the increase they deserve. When we can it’s very small,” he said. “I’m looking for someone with a degree. They don’t want to come.”

Amy O’Leary, director of our Early Education for All Campaign, also testified. “We know what the research tells us” about the benefits of high-quality early education, O’Leary said. “If we are serious about closing the achievement gap, we have to just as serious about funding.”

In the budget discussion, (more…)

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