As increasing numbers of children spend more of their time in child care settings, the need for a highly trained child care work force escalates. Using Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) set-aside funds for quality, many states have implemented staff training initiatives.
The Center for Career Development in Early Care and Education (The Center) at Wheelock College, strives to improve the quality of care and education for young children through support for states and localities to bring about systemic change in training systems for practitioners.
A recent review of information conducted by The Center indicates that states have used CCDBG funds for training, including programs that link training with compensation, and career development planning efforts. Other uses of CCDBG funds include the development of resources, such as information centers, clearinghouses, and mobile resource vans. Some states use CCDBG funds to expand training opportunities through grants, scholarships, and tuition assistance. Other states have funded practitioner training registries, and data collection and research efforts, such as training needs assessments as well as surveys on benefits and compensation.
Some states are developing training approval systems that require funded training to meet specific standards or criteria. Most often, the training funded is geared to meet requirements set in state regulations, recruit new practitioners, help practitioners meet licensing standards, or meet accreditation standards.
A study conducted by The Center has found gaps remaining in key training areas, specifically, needs for training that:
Examples of state training efforts taken from The Center s January 1995 report are included in this issue of the Bulletin, along with The Center's recommendations, and information on obtaining the full report, The Child Care and Development Block Grant and Training and Career Development: A Report on the 50 States and the District of Columbia.
Also in this edition of the Bulletin is a look at accreditation systems for both center and family child care settings, along with credentialing programs for child care providers. Other issues in staff training that are highlighted include distance learning and related technologies for providers located in rural or remote areas. Comprehensive career development programs and initiatives that support staff in their educational and professional development pursuits are mentioned throughout this issue of the Bulletin. Additionally, several organizational resources for child care staff training are listed along with new research on various topics from the Families and Work Institute.
The following are selected examples of state training efforts using CCDBG funding. Multiple sources were used to gather this information, all of which are referenced in the full report released in January 1995. The report, The Child Care and Development Block Grant and Training and Career Development: A Report on the 50 States and the District of Columbia, is available through The Center for Career Development in Early Care and Education at Wheelock College by calling (617) 734-5200, x 211.
A number of innovative training initiatives in the state utilize CCDBG funds. One training project is the Early Childhood Mentor Teacher Program, which is designed to recruit future teachers, retain experienced teachers in the field, and improve the accessibility of the community college training system. The program places students with experienced teachers for training.
Other projects include various training of trainers programs. One such program is through the Far West Laboratory Infant/Toddler Institute, which supplies 240 scholarships annually to train trainers. Another training program is based in the County of Los Angeles and focuses on training of trainers in crisis intervention methods.
The state is working toward a coordinated, comprehensive training system for early care and education. Statewide training is provided through the Child Care Training Support Fund, a training project for low-income, entry-level individuals. In just over two years, it has awarded more than 500 scholarships and has produced 46 new Child Development Associate (CDA) practitioners.
The CCDBG has provided funding for management training at the University of the District of Columbia on administration of early care and education programs. Partial scholarships were supplied for the three credit course.
Also, the District of Columbia has used CCDBG funding to augment monies provided by CDA scholarship funds to provide CDA training and credentialing.
Step Ahead: The Child Care Collection, is an educational television series produced by Indiana's public broadcasting stations. The series is used for training providers. Three videos, on the topics of creative outdoor environments, school-age care, and quality family child care, are used in conjunction with the series. The program has direct links with training institutions, which enables viewers to obtain credit, and also facilitates feedback to instructors.
An interdisciplinary approach to training early care and education practitioners is now being implemented through a collaboration of social service professionals. This cross-disciplinary training incorporates the fields of domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, along with substance abuse issues. The training aims to enhance participants' understanding of how these issues affect children and families, while it promotes linkages at both the state and community levels.
The Montana Early Childhood Project sponsors Raising America's Children, a 10-part television training series. Practitioners enroll at one of four levels. Those enrolled in the fourth level receive credit toward Western Montana College's CDA program and/or an Associate of Arts degree.
Also, CCDBG funding is used for Child Care Provider Merit Pay Awards of $250 for practitioners who attend 60 hours or more of preapproved training in a 12-month period.
The Nebraska Child Care and Early Childhood Education Training Grant Fund supports initiatives that bring staff together from various programs and across ages served (infant through school-age). Funds are made available to colleges, county extension services, various professional organizations, educational service units, school districts, and other nonprofit community agencies to support training projects that operate in collaboration with existing services.
Another of Nebraska's statewide training projects is the Early Childhood Training Center. It provides information, on-site training, and consultation to practitioners in all early care and education settings. The Training Center is funded by federal and state grants, including CCDBG, Early Childhood Special Education, Even Start, and Head Start State Collaboration funds.
Oregon Child Care Basics is free training offered statewide, designed for all teachers and caregivers. It provides the first steps toward a comprehensive career development system. The program transfers appropriate non-credit training and experience into equivalent college credit. Oregon is developing agreements with Portland State University, as well as three community colleges, and several public high schools.
The Utah Training and Career Development Plan aims to increase entry into the child care profession, and to increase retention through training opportunities and credentialing. The plan will also provide information to practitioners about successful programs.
A Utah state training project will recruit family child care providers and track them through the career development system. The project includes orientation training, family child care courses, a business course, CDA training, and a course for training CDA advisors. Plans include offering most of the courses for credit, offering them in languages other than English, expanding the training to a broader range of practitioners, and replicating it throughout the state. In the training program, stipends are provided for practitioners who open their family child care homes for observation by participants in the orientation course.
Utah also plans to develop a Training Approval System, a Personnel Registry, and a state scholarship program with the goal of linking training, experience, and compensation.
Combining classroom instruction with on-the-job training, the state's Child Care Apprenticeship Training Program pairs apprentices with experienced child development professionals and offers credit courses through vocational/technical schools and trade/occupational organizations. The program works with directors who choose to involve their staff in training and to commit to wage increases for those who complete the program. Credits earned can count toward an Associate of Applied Science degree at various community colleges and also a four-year Regents degree, a non-traditional degree that allows credit for experience and relevant training.
The state offers funding in the form of Quality Grants that programs can use for accreditation, staff training, compensation, and reducing turnover. Additionally, funds are put into training and technical assistance aimed at assisting programs to meet accreditation standards and to become more inclusive.
One particularly innovative training project is the Milwaukee Mentor Teacher Project. The project utilizes CCDBG funds to train mentors. Developed through a collaboration among Wheelock College, the Milwaukee Area Technical College, several child care programs, and a local resource and referral agency, mentor courses are offered for credit from the technical college and graduate credit from Wheelock College. Both mentors and teachers receive wage increases; mentors also receive a stipend and a materials grant.
Wisconsin has also funded The Registry, a child care credentialing and professional recognition system for all practitioners in the field.
Bettina McGimsey is a Project Manager for Research at The Center for Career Development in Early Care and Education at Wheelock College.
[NCCIC Editor's note (12-27-04): As of December 31, 2003, the Wheelock College Institute for Leadership and Career Initiatives closed. For information about these publications, contact the National Child Care Information Center at 800-616-2242 or info@nccic.org.]
To fully utilize CCDBG funding for training and career development, the Center for Career Development in Early Care and Education recommends that states:
The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training supports registered apprenticeship programs in over 800 occupations, including Child Development Specialist. West Virginia is one of the states implementing this model, which combines on-the-job observation and practice with a curriculum that incorporates the 13 functional areas of the Child Development Associate (CDA) model. For more information about the West Virginia Apprenticeship Training Program, contact Dana Daugherty at (304) 347-5141.
Each of these child care providers faces obstacles in obtaining training and improving their skills:
Leonard, a teacher at a Tohono O'Odham child care center, is working on his Child Development Associate (CDA) credential. He drives two hours each way to a Tucson community college to get needed course work.
Nadine, director of a child care program in Bishop, California, has to bring trainers on-site for staff development. Besides being expensive, the quality of the training is highly variable.
Catherine, a CDA trainer located in Fairbanks, Alaska, works with candidates scattered throughout remote villages. More often than not, she has to depend on phone and fax to communicate, since travel plans are frequently subject to ice, winds, and erupting volcanoes.
What do all of these people have in common besides strong motivation to either obtain or provide advanced training? They are all ideal candidates for distance learning. Distance learning makes use of state-of-the-art technologies to bring instruction directly to the student. For those in remote areas, this reduces the need to drive long distances to get to a community college or training site. Staff can get needed training even when roads and airports are closed.
Typically, distance learning uses teleconferencing delivered by satellite. Any site with a satellite dish can receive the broadcast, whether its location is at an Indian reservation in the Southwest, a migrant camp site in rural Florida, or an Eskimo village in Alaska. In most cases, telephone audiobridge and fax technologies are used to make the programming truly interactive. This means that those being trained on-site don t just receive information, they take an active role in the learning process. Questions can be asked of experts as they occur. Ideas can be faxed to instructors for on-the-air feedback. Moreover, viewers at all sites can be linked together. Technology creates a community of learners despite the physical distances separating them.
Distance learning has other benefits. Broadcasting the same information to many sites provides consistency in training. Another advantage is the multiple modes of presentation used. Many staff in early childhood education have concrete, experiential learning styles. The interactive capabilities of distance learning caters to these styles.
This relatively new delivery system for training has already proven to be viable. An ongoing four-year evaluation project of the Head Start-funded Early Childhood Professional Development Network (ECPDN) has yielded extremely favorable results. Although many participants indicated that the technology was initially intimidating, they adjusted to it rapidly. Now, the majority of the 1,200 study participants feel that the technology is personal and interactive, aids in their understanding, and causes few frustrations. Ninety-four percent of participants affirm their willingness to take another distance learning training program.
Meeting needs of staff and trainers in remote areas, distance learning bridges more than physical space.
Laura J. Colker, Ed.D., serves as the early childhood specialist on the evaluation of the Early Childhood Professional Development Network distance learning project being conducted by Macro International. To learn more, contact Dr. Colker at (202) 223-5315.
Using state funds and Federal Title IV-A funds, the Iowa State University Cooperative Extension Service broadcasts training via satellite to family child care providers. Registration of family child care homes is voluntary in Iowa, making it difficult to identify providers who may need training. The Cooperative Extension Service has maintained a network of registered and unregistered providers for years, and they have access to providers in rural communities.
For each broadcast, a one hour video is screened, followed by a live panel discussion. A toll-free phone number connects the county offices and the broadcast studio, allowing providers to call in questions for the experts. Later, the Extension office follows up with participants.
Each program's content is different. The first two broadcasts were Family Day Care: Making Everyday Special and Best Beginning for Babies. The 1992 broadcast was shown across the country. Currently, 35 states belong to the satellite system, and either show the broadcast live or record it for future viewing. In addition, the Cooperative Extension Service plans to duplicate and distribute videotapes of the broadcasts to libraries, child care resource and referral agencies, as well as child care food programs.
Child care organizations today face the difficult challenge of retaining experienced, high quality staff.
North Carolina's Teacher Education And Compensation Helps (T.E.A.C.H.) Early Childhood (TM) Project, a program of Day Care Services Association, serves as an umbrella for a variety of educational scholarship opportunities for people working in child care centers and homes. Participants receive scholarships to earn a North Carolina Child Care Credential, Child Development Associate (CDA) credential, Early Childhood Associate or Bachelor's Degrees, or to become an Early Childhood Model/Mentor Teacher.
The T.E.A.C.H. Project has now provided scholarships to over 2,400 child care professionals working in centers and homes in 95 of the state's 100 counties. Participants have lower turnover rates than similar teachers who are not in the program, and are earning more money as they receive more education.
One critical component of the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood (TM) Project scholarship program is the paid release time awarded to teachers and family child care providers while they are in school. To address this need, T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood (TM) Corps, an AmeriCorps program, provides trained substitutes on an on-going basis to support teachers in their educational pursuits.
AmeriCorps is a new national initiative in community service. AmeriCorps members spend up to 1,700 hours per year in service programs in exchange for a living stipend and educational opportunities (see AmeriCorps and School-Age Care, in the Child Care Bulletin, March/April 1995).
In North Carolina, T.E.A.C.H. Corps is made up of 22 members placed in non-profit child care centers, Head Start programs, and child care resource and referral agencies across the state. The members serve teachers and family child care providers who are working to increase their level of education through the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood (TM) Project scholarship program. Members provide up to six hours of release time per teacher per week, making it possible for the teachers to earn a degree in early childhood education while keeping their full-time position. At the same time, the members themselves are taking courses also funded through a T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood (TM) scholarship throughout their term of service.
Day Care Services Association has agreed to work closely with the Georgia Association on Young Children to license the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood (TM) Project in Georgia. The Georgia project will develop similar scholarship programs that have all of the mandated T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood (TM) requirements, scholarship education, compensation, and commitment.
With funds from AT&T, the long distance carrier, Day Care Services Association has also partnered with Work/Family Directions to bring the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood (TM) scholarship program to child care providers in Florida and Illinois as well as Georgia. Susan D. Russell is the Executive Director of Day Care Services Association, which administers the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood (TM) Project in North Carolina. To learn more, contact Sue Russell or Margaret Mobley at (919) 967-3272.
To learn more about the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood (TM) Project in Georgia, contact Tracy Bankhead at (404) 681-2319.
The quality of an early childhood program can be determined by the degree to which it meets the standards of the profession, (The What, Why, and How of High-Quality Early Childhood Education). Accredited programs demonstrate a commitment to providing high quality care for children and service to their families.
The National Academy of Early Childhood Programs (The Academy), is a professionally sponsored, national, voluntary accreditation system for early childhood centers, schools, and school-age child care programs. The Academy is administered by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Since 1985, the Academy has aimed to improve and recognize the quality of care and education provided for young children in early childhood programs. More than 3,800 programs in 50 states have achieved accreditation thus far.
The Academy's Criteria for High Quality Early Childhood Programs are the basis for the accreditation system. The Criteria address all components of a high quality early childhood program.
The accreditation process involves three steps:
Academy staff are available throughout the accreditation process for consultation.
For more information, contact the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs at: (202) 328-2601, or write to: 1509 16th St., NW, Washington, DC 20036-1426, or call the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) at 1-800- 424-2460.
The National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC) Accreditation offers professional recognition to family child care providers who not only meet the child care standards by state licensing and registration agencies, but also have demonstrated a commitment to reach beyond the minimum requirements to achieve standards of excellence. NAFCC is a professional organization representing family and group home child care providers that recognizes and encourages high quality care for children in family child care settings. Since it began in 1981, NAFCC has accredited more than 1,400 family child care providers in 41 states and the District of Columbia.
Accreditation criteria focus on assessing seven dimensions of child care: safety, health, nutrition, interacting, learning environment, as well as outdoor environment, and professional responsibility. NAFCC accreditation requirements are contained in the study guide,Assessment Profile For Family Day Care.
The accreditation process promotes higher quality care for children. Accredited family child care providers find this useful because:
During the accreditation process, the provider goes through a self-assessment as well as validation by a parent and a NAFCC validator.
To learn more, contact the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC) at: 1331-A Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 348, Washington, DC 20004, or call NAFCC at 1-800-359-3817.
The National Early Childhood Program Accreditation (NECPA) is an independent, voluntary accreditation program that is designed specifically for early childhood care and education programs. The accreditation process is an opportunity for a program to conduct a thorough examination of every aspect of the program based on recognized quality standards. Since 1992, the NECPA program has awarded accreditation to 44 centers in 10 states. The NECPA process uses an Automated Accreditation Indicator System as an evaluation measure.
The components of NECPA include:
For additional information, contact: The National Early Childhood Program Accreditation (NECPA) Commission, Inc. at: 1029 Railroad Street, Conyers, GA 30207, or call: 1-800-543-7161.
The National Accreditation Council for Early Childhood Professional Personnel and Programs (NACECPPP) is a national, non-profit organization that supports private-licensed, center- based, and ecumenical early childhood programs under the sponsorship of the Child Care Institute of America. Since NACECPPP began in 1992, it has accredited 80 programs in five states.
NACECPPP provides two interrelated services:
Becoming a NACECPPP Recognized Early Childhood Program of Excellence involves three phases:
To learn more, contact the National Accreditation Council for Early Childhood Professional Personnel and Programs (NACECPPP) at: Cleveland Park Station, P.O. Box 9518, Washington, DC 20016.
A National System for Improvement and Accreditation of School- Age Care Programs is being developed through the collaboration of the National School-Age Child Care Alliance (NSACCA) and the School-Age Child Care Project (SACCP) of the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College.
The system will be piloted this fall in over 40 programs, including programs sponsored by Work/Family Directions and its clients, and participating programs in MOST (Making the Most of Out-of-School Time) implementation cities (see A National Accreditation System For School-Age Care and MOST Initiative, in the Child Care Bulletin, March/April 1995).
To learn more about the National System for Improvement and Accreditation of School-Age Care Programs, contact SACCP at (617) 283-2547 or NSACCA at (202) 737-6722.
Each person who chooses a career in child care has the opportunity to make important contributions to the growth and development of children in their care. The quality of care that children receive depends upon the knowledge and skills of those who care for them. Credentialing programs are an important mechanism for improving skills and promoting excellence in the field of child care.
Certified Childcare Professional (CCP) is the credentialing program of the National Child Care Association (NCCA), which is a professional trade association that represents licensed private child care centers, child development staff, and state affiliated associations. As an association of professional providers, NCCA maintains that a key component of a quality program is the education, training, experience, and effectiveness of staff in providing comprehensive services to children and their families. Professionals exhibiting standards of excellence in child care and early childhood education are recognized by NCCA through the awarding of their national credential, the Certified Childcare Professional (CCP) Early Childhood Education Specialist. During the past three years, 110 individuals in 13 states have earned the CCP credential.
The CCP uses a Multi Indicator Evaluation (MIE) process, designed to determine the extent to which individuals have met or exceeded NCCA National Standards of professional expertise. The CCP Credentialing Materials Packet includes:
Candidates are assigned a State CCP Field Counselor to guide them through the credentialing process and to provide technical assistance.
For more information, call the National Child Care Association (NCCA) at: 1-800-543-7161 or write to: Institute for Professional Development 1029 Railroad Street, NW Conyers, GA 30207-5275.
Child Development Associate (CDA) Credentialing Program is a nationwide initiative to credential qualified caregivers who work with children from birth through age five in child care, Head Start and other early childhood settings. Over the past two decades, more than 60,000 CDAs have received the credential that demonstrates their ability to nurture children's physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development in a child care setting.
The Council for Early Childhood Professional Recognition (The Council) administers the CDA credentialing program in the effort to upgrade staff qualifications and to improve the quality of child care. The CDA Competency Standards are at the heart of the CDA program. These standards are an expression of competency goals and program quality. Candidates who apply to obtain the CDA Credential can select one of the following endorsements: 1) center-based preschool; 2) center-based infant/toddler; 3) family child care; or 4) home visitor. In addition to these endorsements, caregivers can also earn a CDA Credential with a Bilingual Specialization (available only for English/Spanish languages at this time).
States are typically involved in the CDA program in at least two ways. Each state has its own Scholarship Act Administrative Agency, which oversees federal financial assistance through the CDA Scholarship Assistance Program. In addition, 46 States and the District of Columbia include CDA in their child care regulations as a qualification for teaching staff and/or directors. This year, 20 states have also provided funding and other support for CDA training.
For more information, contact The Council for Early Childhood Professional Recognition, 1341 G Street, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20005-3105, or call: 1-800-424-4310 or (202) 265-9090.
The Certified Professional in Early Childhood Development Credential is offered by The National Accreditation Council for Early Childhood Professional Personnel and Programs (NACECPPP), under the sponsorship of the Child Care Institute of America. Since its beginning in 1992, this credential has been earned by 120 providers in five states.
Two major components of the process leading to awarding of the credential through NACECPPP are:
For more information, contact NACECPPP at: Cleveland Park Station, P.O. Box 9518, Washington, DC 20016.
Over the past six years, early childhood programs and congregations have found a way to strengthen relationships and their shared commitment to serve families. Congregations and Child Care, the self-study/recognition process of the Ecumenical Child Care Network, promotes high quality child care by involving both early childhood professionals and congregational leaders in a self-study process. Congregations and Child Care can be used by any child care program housed in or operated by a religious congregation.
The recognition process of Congregations and Child Care complements the accreditation conferred by the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs (The Academy), which is a division of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Congregations and Child Care builds on accreditation by providing a forum in which to discuss the complex relationship issues that impact the quality of programs related to religious congregations. While the self-study may be used by any child care program, ECCN awards recognition only to programs accredited by The Academy.
The ECCN self-study/recognition process underscores the critical importance of high quality education and care for children. In the past two years, ECCN has systematized the self-study process in a National Council on Recognition (NCR). Today, NCR coordinates a Mentor Assistance Program that provides trained skilled mentors to self-study participants; reviews and evaluates completed self-study portfolios; and awards ECCN recognition to the congregations and early childhood programs that successfully meet the goals and criteria of Congregations and Child Care and are accredited by The Academy.
Laura Dean F. Friedrich is the Coordinator for the National Council on Recognition for the Ecumenical Child Care Network (ECCN), a national membership organization for child care and Head Start programs housed in or related to congregations. For more information about membership services, publications, and the self-study recognition program, contact ECCN, 1580 N. Northwest Hwy., Suite 115, Park Ridge, IL 60068, (708) 298-1612.
[NCCIC Editor's note (12-27-04): As of 2004, the National Council on Recognition for the Ecumenical Child Care Network (ECCN) closed.]
A new initiative offers Army staff working with school-age children an opportunity to obtain a credential that is specifically targeted to the children they serve. The credential is administered by the Council for Early Childhood Professional Recognition and has several levels, depending on the interest of the staff member. All staff complete a basic training program that includes general information for child care staff and 13 modules developed with school-age specific standards (based on CDA functional areas). A trainer is assigned to observe and advise each staff member. Parents are also included in the process as observers and are members of the Local Assessment Team that issues the credential to qualified candidates.
For information about the Army's credentialing initiative, contact Dr. Vicky Moss, School-Age Program Manager, at (703) 325- 0710.
A recent study released by the Families and Work Institute found that Family-to-Family training for family child care providers improved child care quality. One important outcome is that children are more securely attached to their providers, and spend their time engaged in activities that enhance their learning. Family-to-Family training was also found to increase providers' commitment to their jobs and improve business skills.
The study examined Family-to-Family training programs in three communities. These provider training programs are part of Child Care Aware, a national project operating in 40 communities, sponsored by the Dayton Hudson Foundation, Mervyn's, Target Stores, Dayton's, Hudson's and Marshall Field's. Over 13,000 family child care providers have been trained since Child Care Aware was launched in 1988.
Child Care Aware has four components: training, promoting accreditation, supporting the development of strong family child care associations, and consumer education to help parents learn how to find good quality child care. This study focused on the training component.
To order this document contact:
Publications Department
Families and Work Institute
330 Seventh Avenue, 14th Floor
New York, NY 10001
telephone (212) 465-2044
Announcing two 1995 conferences sponsored by the Child Care Bureau, Administration on Children, Youth and Families:
Second Annual National Tribal Child Care Conference
A conference focusing on
leadership for tribal administrators
July 31-August 3, 1995
Seattle, Washington
Child Care for the 21st Century A planning conference
for state administrators
September 27-28, 1995
Washington, DC
Minnesota has developed a strategic plan for a comprehensive, accessible, and inclusive, early childhood professional development system. The system will facilitate career development for personnel in early childhood education and care programs serving children ages 0-8 and their families.
The Minnesota Early Childhood Coordinated Professional Development System includes a description of the differentiated competencies required of practitioners, and will develop and implement a computerized registry of practitioner class hours.
The system will improve the quality of programs for young children by ensuring a pool of practitioners who are consistently well prepared to meet the developmental and learning needs of the children they serve.
For more information, contact: Anita Segador Beaton, Ph.D., Director, Minnesota Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development, 1821 University Avenue #298, St. Paul, MN 55102, (612) 649-1538.
In order to support early childhood programs interested in improving the quality of their services through accreditation, a number of state organizations joined together to create the Arizona Self-Study Project (ASSP). The ASSP was designed to provide coordination, training, and technical assistance to programs as they move through the self-study component of the accreditation process for the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs. The 50 programs currently enrolled in ASSP receive monthly telephone technical assistance, on-site visits twice a year, assistance in developing and implementing evaluation plans, and support in networking and outreach with other agencies. The program also includes a privately-funded scholarship program for programs seeking accreditation and requesting a validation visit. ASSP is funded through a variety of sources, including CCDBG quality improvement funds and Maternal and Child Health Block Grant funds.
For more information about the Arizona Self-Study Project, contact the Association for Supportive Child Care at: (602) 829- 0500.
Information on economic, cultural, social, and other factors related to educational programs and practices for rural residents is available through the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools (ERIC/CRESS). One of 16 clearinghouses that make up the federally funded ERIC education system, ERIC/CRESS specializes in subjects that affect the lives of American Indians, Alaska Natives, Mexican Americans, and migrants as well as educational practices and programs in small schools and outdoor education. ERIC/CRESS has many free publications available and also conducts literature searches at no expense.
All of the ERIC Clearinghouses collect education materials, respond to requests for information, and produce special publications on current research, programs, and practices.
To contact ERIC/CRESS, call 1-800-624-9120, or send an e-mail message to the User Services Coordinator at lanhamb@ael.org.
Throughout this edition of the Child Care Bulletin are names and addresses of organizations that deal with issues related to improving the quality of child care through accreditation and professional development. In addition to those already listed, the following national organizations also deal with staff training and program improvement.
National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development, administered by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), aims to improve the quality of professional preparation and training for individuals who care for and educate children from birth through age 8. The Institute's efforts include an annual professional development conference and the development of training materials and publications.
For more information contact NAEYC, 1509 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036-1426 or call: 1-800-424-2460.
National Center for the Early Childhood Work Force (NCECW) is a nonprofit organization committed to improving the quality of child care by addressing the training and compensation of child care providers. NCECW also serves as a national clearinghouse on child care staffing issues and produces a variety of resource publications, including reports on major public policy issues affecting the child care work force.
For more information contact the National Center for the Early Childhood Work Force (NCECW), 733 15th Street NW, Suite 1037, Washington, DC 20005-2112, or call either 1-800-879-6784 or (202) 737-7700.
The Children's Foundation, strives to improve the lives of children and those who care for them. Current work is in the areas of child nutrition, child care, especially family care, and the enforcement of court-ordered child support. The Children's Foundation publishes annual studies on the regulations of child care for both center- and home-based settings, and writes job- specific training materials for child care providers.
For more information, contact: The Children's Foundation, 725 15th Street, NW, Suite 505, Washington, DC 20005-2109 or call: (202) 347-3300.
ZERO TO THREE, formerly the National Center for Clinical Infant Programs, focuses on issues involving infants, toddlers and their families. ZERO TO THREE gathers and disseminates information through its journal, publications, a Fellowship Program, an annual National Training Institute, specialized training opportunities, and technical assistance to communities, states and the federal government.
For more information, contact ZERO TO THREE, 2000 14th Street, North, Suite 380, Arlington, VA 22201 or call: (703) 528-4300.
The study presents a summary of how Florida s new ratios and education requirements affect the quality of children s early education and care. The findings summarize child gains, changes in teacher-child interactions, and improvements in program quality. The study highlights factors, such as CDA credentials and favorable child-staff ratios, in relation to positive outcomes.
One of the first in a series of studies being conducted by the Families and Work Institute to address the question: How effective are efforts designed to improve quality in early childhood settings? Findings show that training improves child care quality.
Designed to provide the information needed to plan and implement a community level professional development initiative focused on upgrading quality in family child care homes, the Guide outlines step-by-step approaches to strategies and action steps related to training, accreditation, building strong associations and consumer education.
A summary of how family child care providers felt about training they received in a major project sponsored by Child Care Aware (formerly called Family to Family Initiative). Findings address recruitment strategies, impact of training, characteristics of effective trainers, accreditation, professionalism, and implications for trainers.
This page is being maintained on the NCCIC web site for historical purposes. As a result, not all information may be current.