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Archive for the ‘Early Learning Challenge’ Category

At the February EEC Meeting

Posted in Dept. of Early Education and Care, Early Learning Challenge, MA Legislature, QRIS on February 21, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

At his first meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care, newly sworn-in Secretary of Education Matthew Malone called Governor Patrick’s recommendations for early education in the fiscal year 2014 budget “a game-changing moment” and asked those in the audience to urge their legislators to support increased investments in early education. Secretary Malone, the former superintendent of schools in Brockton, also encouraged programs to invite him to visit.

Other highlights of the February 12 meeting include:

  • The board voted to submit its annual  legislative report, which includes an update on EEC’s work in FY13, framed around the board’s five-year strategic plan. The report highlights EEC’s ongoing work on the Educator Provider Support system, the Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), screening and assessment, community and family engagement, and challenges regarding access.
  • The board voted to remove several requirements in three sets of Massachusetts QRIS standards that were identified as being redundant in an analysis by the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute. See Program Quality Improvements: QRIS.
  • Commissioner Sherri Killins announced the department has opened access to summer programs.
  • The board discussed revisions to the strategic plan, which is framed around seven key areas: standards, assessments and accountability; finance; governance; regulations; workforce and professional development; alignment between early education and care and K-12; and informed families and public. See Revisions to EEC’s Strategic Plan and Preview of Core Area Definitions.
  • The board heard a panel discussion on collaboration among agencies, including EEC, that serve children and families. A series of three leadership retreats in 2013 will focus on strategies for developing a universal informed consent form to facilitate cross-agency data sharing and for developing cross-agency professional development opportunities.  The panel included Commissioner Angelo McClain of the Department of Children and Families, Dr. Lauren A. Smith of the Department of Public Health, Joan Mikula of the Department of Mental Health, and Ita Mulllarkey of the Department of Housing and Community Development. The retreats are funded by the federal Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge grant. See Interagency Partnerships.

The next EEC board meeting will be held March 12, 2013, from 2:30-4 p.m. at 51 Sleeper Street in Boston (Note the meeting time).

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At the January EEC Board Meeting

Posted in Dept. of Early Education and Care, Early Learning Challenge, Facilities on January 28, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

The Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care voted to endorse a bond bill that includes $45 million in capital financing for non-profit providers of early education and out-of-school time services to build or renovate facilities. The bill follows the 2011 release of “Building an Infrastructure for Quality,” a report from Children’s Investment Fund, found shortcomings in safety, air quality, indoor space for physical activity and other measures.

Mav Pardee, director of the Children’s Investment Fund, updated the board on the Building Quality Campaign – a partnership comprised of the fund, Citizens Planning and Housing Association (CHAPA), and the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. The bond financing for early education and out-of-school-time facilities is included in CHAPA’s $1.2 billion housing and community development bond bill. Representative Jeffrey Sanchez has filed  a separate facilities financing bill with the same language as a placeholder.

The legislation would make financing available to licensed non-profit providers with at least a quarter of their enrollment children from low-income families. Financing would range from 50-80% of total development costs, based on the number of children eligible for subsidies, and would be in the form of permanent deferred loans for a term of 30 years. (See Pardee’s PowerPoint.)

The January 8 meeting was also the last for former Secretary of Education Paul Reville, who has returned to the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Matthew Malone, former superintendent of the Brockton Public Schools, who was sworn in as the state’s new education secretary on January 14. JD Chesloff, chairman of the EEC board, presented Secretary Reville with a certificate of appreciation. Reville thanked the board and the entire early childhood field for what he termed their “inspiring commitment” to the young children of Massachusetts.

Emily Levine, our field and research associate, reports the board also discussed: (more…)

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In Quotes

Posted in Early Learning Challenge, Federal, Quotes on June 8, 2012 | 1 Comment »

“We still haven’t found the will to ensure that all our children, especially the most vulnerable, have the early childhood opportunities they need. We owe our young children better. The gap between the rhetoric and the reality is stunning given the research, the support of our top economists, and the growing understanding of the importance of our children’s earliest years not only for school success, but for our nation’s economic success.”

Helen Blank, National Women’s Law Center, at Wheelock College, Boston, May 24, 2012

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Moving from “Children at Risk” to “Children at Promise”

Posted in Assessments, Early educators, Early Learning Challenge, Federal, Funding on May 30, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children

For years, “children at risk” have been the buzzwords used for describing vulnerable children. Why not think instead of “children at promise” – of assets rather than deficits? This was the theme of last week’s Seventh Annual Community Dialogue on Early Education and Care at Wheelock College – “Moving From At Risk to At Promise: Transforming Policies, Practices and Communities to Support Young Children and Their Families.”

“We went from ‘A Nation at Risk’ [1983 report – ‘A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform’ – of the National Commission on Excellence in Education] to children at risk,” said J. Andres Ramirez of Rhode Island College in his opening address. “The rhetoric changed from a whole nation to pinpointing specific students… I think we should think about children placed at risk. We are trying to change that to children placed at promise. What will it really take?”

Part of the answer, Ramirez said, comes with aligning “mandated curriculum and standards” with “students’ needs, rights and background” and with the accumulation of educators’ experience or the “thought collective of the profession.”

If Ramirez set the intellectual tone for the day, then Helen Blank, director of leadership and public policy at the National Women’s Law Center, set the political tone. She issued a strong call to action after tracing the history of efforts to expand access to high-quality early education and care. As promising as the federal Early Learning Challenge is, she said, it is not enough. (Read Helen Blank’s speech.)

“This is an exciting yet challenging time for young children and early childhood with the growing discussion about the need to lay a strong foundation in the early years. Yet with all this talk in this extraordinarily hostile economic and political climate, we walk a tightrope in terms of sustaining forward momentum while avoiding the danger of promising to do more with less,” Blank said. (more…)

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At the May EEC Board Meeting

Posted in Dept. of Early Education and Care, Early Learning Challenge, QRIS on May 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

The Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care has taken another step toward aligning grant programs with the Quality Rating and Improvement System by voting unanimously to align Inclusive Preschool Learning Environment grants with QRIS in fiscal year 2013.

All grantees would be required to have enrolled in QRIS and to be at Level 2 or higher by June 30, 2013. The grant program currently funds inclusive preschool programs for more than 5,512 children in 95 programs, including 3,323 children with disabilities.  (See Alignment of Inclusive Preschool Learning Environments with the QRIS)

In other news, the board’s Fiscal Committee reported that the waiting list for child care subsidies, for children from birth to school age, has grown to 36,000.

Also at the May meeting of the EEC board: (more…)

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As States’ Pre-K Funding Declines, Feds Offer Another Early Learning Challenge Round

Posted in Early Learning Challenge, MA state budget, Pre-kindergarten, Research on April 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children

Over the past decade, pre-kindergarten enrollment across the country has increased, but states’ spending on pre-kindergarten has fallen 15% in real (inflation-adjusted) dollars, according to a report – “The State of Preschool 2011″ – released yesterday in Washington by the National Institute for Early Education Research. State funding for pre-k was down almost $60 million in 2010-11, compared with the previous school year, the annual report also found.

The news, however, was not all bad. In his remarks at yesterday’s NIEER event, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan referenced the previous day’s announcement of a new, albeit more modest, round of the federal Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge. Massachusetts was one of nine states that shared in the $500 million Early Learning Challenge of FY11. The five states from the original round with the next highest scores — Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, Oregon, and Wisconsin – will be invited to apply for the $133 million that will be available in fiscal year 2012. (more…)

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NAEYC Offers Guidance on Early Childhood Assessment

Posted in Assessments, Early Learning Challenge on April 5, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children

Kindergarten entry assessment is a key – and sometimes controversial – component of the federal Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge (ELC) initiative. The central question is how to conduct systemic, developmentally appropriate assessment of young children and use the results to inform instruction.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) offers some guidance in a recent  report, “Developing Kindergarten Readiness and Other Large-Scale Assessment Systems: Necessary Considerations in the Assessment of Young Children.” Massachusetts, one of nine states to win an ELC grant, is developing a kindergarten entry assessment as part of its Massachusetts Early Learning Plan.

“Assessment with young children compared with older children requires very different considerations in terms of how it is conducted and used,” NAEYC Executive Director Jerlean E. Daniel says in a news release. “Having reliable information on how children are doing in all areas of cognitive, social and emotional development is the key to good education both before and after kindergarten assessments.”

The kindergarten entry assessment, NAEYC notes, should be viewed as a baseline snapshot, followed by ongoing assessments that help kindergarten teachers “target and recalibrate” instruction over the course of the year. The entry assessment, NAEYC cautions, should not be used to determine eligibility for kindergarten.

The report offers an overview of key issues in building an assessment system: (more…)

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Touring Children’s Museum with PlaySpace Creator

Posted in Developmentally appropriate practice, Early Learning Challenge on March 19, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Jeri Robinson (Photo: Lok Wah Li, Boston Children's Museum)

The Boston Children’s Museum on Fort Point Channel is teeming with children and parents during school vacation week. So it’s a good time for Jeri Robinson, vice president for education and family learning, to lead me on a guided tour of some of the museum’s early learning spaces. On the way, we pass children scrambling up and down the multi-story climbing maze. We pass children and parents sitting on colorful “musical” chairs that each emit a different sound and together can create a symphony.  We pass children checking out the blocks and Bobcat in the Construction Zone, all in what is essentially a giant indoor playground for children of all ages. Prompts on the walls and parent tip sheets provide ideas for adults to engage children.

“Our critical message is there’s a lot of learning in play,” Robinson says. “In everything we do, we have a hidden or overt learning activity. Play has gotten a bad rap that it’s a waste of time. It’s not.”

In fact, research tells us that play is how young children learn. Science tells us that the kind of language-rich, playful adult-child interactions that the museum encourages enhance the actual wiring of the young brain.

In 1978, when the museum was housed in a Jamaica Plain mansion, Robinson established the nation’s first play space for infants and toddlers in a children’s museum. In 1998, she co-founded Countdown to Kindergarten, a partnership with the Boston Public Schools. Originally conceived to help parents navigate the logistics of entering the public school system, today it focuses on the early learning that will help children enter kindergarten ready to succeed. (more…)

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Massachusetts Defines High-Needs Children

Posted in Dept. of Early Education and Care, Early Learning Challenge on March 6, 2012 | 2 Comments »

Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children

When she describes Massachusetts’ successful application for a federal Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge grant, Commissioner Sherri Killins of the Department of Early Education and Care often talks of identifying – and serving – all of the commonwealth’s young children with high needs.

Who, precisely, are high-needs children? The Massachusetts Early Learning Plan detailed in the state’s ELC application offers a definition that incorporates risk factors beyond a family’s low-income status. “Being low-income alone doesn’t make you high-needs,” Killins said recently.

First, some background. The goal of the Early Learning Challenge is “to better prepare more children with high needs for kindergarten because children from birth to age 5, including those from low-income families, need a strong foundation for success in school and beyond,” according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Education.

The Obama administration gave states flexibility to create their own definitions of high-needs children, within this general  guideline:  “Children with high needs means children from birth through kindergarten entry who are from low-income families or otherwise in need of special assistance and support, including children who have disabilities or developmental delays; who are English learners; who reside on ‘Indian lands’ as that term is defined by section 8013(6) of the ESEA; who are migrant, homeless, or in foster care; and other children as identified by the state.”

The Massachusetts definition of high needs includes children with multiple risk factors:

  • Children and parents with special needs
  • Children whose home language is not English
  • Families and children involved with multiple state agencies
  • English language learners
  • Recent immigrants
  • Children whose parents are deployed and who do not live on a military base
  • Low-income households
  • Parents with less than a high school education
  • Children who are homeless or move more than once a year

As many as 135,000 Massachusetts children, from birth to age 5, face one or more risk factors each day, the state estimates. Up to 20,000 children have three or more risk factors and, without intervention, are likely to suffer developmental delays, according to the Young Child Risk Calculator of the National Center for Children in Poverty.

A clear definition of high needs will give a more accurate picture of the commonwealth’s young children and help the state target services to ensure children’s health development and school readiness.

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“Creating a Culture of Quality” for Early Education

Posted in Dept. of Early Education and Care, Early educators, Early Learning Challenge, Head Start, NAEYC, Professional development & preparation, QRIS on February 28, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Amy O'Leary visits Boston preschool (Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children)

My colleague Amy O’Leary, director of our Early Education for All Campaign, tells a story that illustrates how far the field of early education and care has come over the past several years.

Amy has been going to meetings of the Boston Alliance for Early Education  since she was a preschool director in Boston’s South End neighborhood in the 1990s. “It was originally designed as a support group for directors,” Amy recalls. “The conversation often focused on overflowing toilets and the day-to-day logistical challenges of running a center.”

Much has changed since then, not the least of which came in December 2011 when Massachusetts was named one of only nine states awarded a federal Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge grant. Back in 2005, Massachusetts merged its child care and early education agencies to create the nation’s first consolidated Department of Early Education and Care. The same year it established the Early Childhood Educators Scholarship. In 2006, the state created the Universal Pre-Kindergarten grant program to support and sustain quality. Head Start and the National Association for the Education of Young Children, an accrediting body, started to phase in bachelor degree requirements for early educators. In 2011, Massachusetts launched an evidence-based Quality Rating and Improvement System, which defines tiers of quality that include teacher education and training, curriculum, and assessment.

With these changes, the conversations have changed, too. (more…)

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