One specific section of the NAEYC website I felt is very
relevant to my professional development is the Early Childhood Workforce
Systems Initiative. The Early Childhood Workforce Systems Initiative is used to
“assist states in developing, enhancing, and implementing policies for an
integrated early childhood development system for all early childhood education professionals working with and on
behalf of young children (NAEYC, n.d., p 1).” Integrated systems will help all
efforts to expand and reach all children in the early childhood programs to coincide
with each other across sectors. This cohesion is depended upon several facts
but according to the Initiative, one of the main factors is “developing and
retaining a competent and stable early childhood workforce – a skilled cadre of
effective, diverse, and adequately compensated professionals (NAEYC, n.d. , par
1).”
On the website under the Early Childhood Workforce Systems
Initiative tab, several interesting articles or papers were listed. To name a
few: “2014 National Summit of States: NAEYC’s 7th State Professional
Development Leadership Team Work Day will be on June 7th in
Minneapolis, Minnesota,” “Workforce Designs: A Policy Blueprint for State Early
Childhood Professional Development Systems,” “Policy Profiles for States and Territories:
Early Childhood Education Technical Assistance Professionals,” and “Strategic
Directions: Technical Assistance Professionals in State Early Childhood
Professional Development Systems.” I was disappointed to see that Tennessee is
not one of the states going to the National Summit this year and do to have a
policy blueprint to set up a professional development system. Currently,
according to NAEYC (n.d.), the only states using the blueprint to create
professional development programs are “Iowa, Rhode Island, the US Virgin
Islands, Oklahoma, Washington and New Hampshire. The blueprint is used “to have
input from other national organizations and experts working to strengthen
professional development and career systems for the early childhood workforce
(LeMoine, 2008, p 6).”
Another topic on the website was “Supportive Environmental
Quality Underlying Adult Learning (SEQUAL) Pilot.” This “pilot tested with 285
teachers in San Francisco using four domains which are teaching supports,
learning community, job crafting, and adult well-being (Whitebook and Ryan,
2013, slide 6).” The main purpose of the pilot is to gauge what teachers feel
is necessary to help them create a better professional workforce system. To
coincide with the pilot, research which shows “clearly that children who attend
high-quality early childhood education programs are better ready for school”
also shows that teacher preparation and training is just as important. Of
course, one major problem with teacher readiness is the lack of compensation
which makes it very difficult for programs to attract and retain high-quality
professionals who will add to the program, thereby, causing training to become
more intense for those who are not as qualified which hurts the program. (Whitebook
and Ryan, 2013)
I agree that having a high-quality early childhood program
is difficult. Whitebook and Ryan (2013) stated “although many studies point to
the knowledge and skills of early childhood program staff as the cornerstone of
high quality early childhood education programs, the research shows that the
qualifications of early childhood educators in child care centers is declining
(p 7).” So, economically the education of early childhood children is positive
because of the growth the children will encounter which will help them in their
future, but the economy cannot handle an increase in salary or benefits,
therefore, decreasing the quality of an early childhood program. Therefore, the
problem is one of demand because the children need the more qualified teachers
but those teachers are leaving that environment for another that is more
beneficial economically for them.
References
LeMoine, S. (2008). Workforce Designs: A Policy Blueprint
for State Early Childhood Professional Development Systems. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/policy/ecwsi/Workforce_Designs.pdf
LeMoine, S. (2009). Workforce Policy Web Seminar #5: Focus
on Financing. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/policy/ecwsi/WorkforcePolicy_FinancingFocus.pdf
NAEYC. (n.d.). Early Childhood Workforce Systems Initiative.
Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/policy/ecwsi
NAEYC. (n.d.). New! Workforce Designs Blueprint in Action.
Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/policy/ecwsi-blueprint
Whitbook, M. and Ryan, S. (2013). Supportive Environmental
Quality Underlying Adult Learning (SEQUAL): Early Childhood Workforce Data
Systems Meeting June, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/SEQUAL.pdf
Hi Shelley, Great information! I have to agree with you when you say that the quality of our early childhood workforce is declining. I see many students teachers come through our building each year. Out of those teachers, only one or two are real quality hirable teachers. I also have a teacher that is working in our kindergarten program right now that is struggling. She has an associates degree in education. I think that not only the quantity of education needs to be increased, but also the quality. One of my professional goals is to teach pre-service teachers at our community college. I feel that our teacher education system is in need of an overhaul as well.
ReplyDeleteShelly, your post is super informative and I have gained some useful information from it. I also agree that Early Childhood Teachers do not make a very high end salary, but as in every other career. You are usually paid according to your educational background, but from what I know about their salaries in my area they are decent. As we know, grade school teachers do not make over the top salaries; it is just something that goes on and are awaiting changes. Hopefully, salaries of teachers will be taken more seriously in the near future.
ReplyDeleteGood post.