Summary Report, Good Start, Grow Smart, State Early Learning Guidelines Roundtable
From Blueprint to Reality: Early Learning Guidelines Implementation
Index: Preface, About The GSGS Initiative, Overview of the GSGS Roundtables, Summary of Key Points: Effective Collaboration; Infrastructure for Support; Dissemination of Information; Integration of ELGs into the Professional Development System; Assessment and Evaluation, Conclusion/Acknowledgements, Appendix: Agenda, Participant List, Work Group List | (This document is also available in 
PDF format.)
Summary of Keypoints: Integration of ELGs into the Professional Development System
Integrating ELGs into systems of professional development for the early childhood care and education community includes aligning trainings offered through CCR&Rs and other organizations, as well as formal educational activities in 2- and 4-year colleges. ELGs must be effectively “embedded” within preexisting curricula, and/or new curricula incorporating ELG information must be developed. For the success of this strategy, it is essential to develop and utilize strong partnerships with institutions of higher education and training organizations. Key recommendations that emerged from State discussions include:
• Take inventory of the State’s current professional development system. This information is an important starting point for integrating ELGs into preexisting training and formal education of those in the early childhood workforce. Examples of existing State resources that could allow integration with State ELGs are Ohio’s directory of early learning professional development opportunities, and the personnel and practitioner registries in multiple States. The registry system can make it possible to track the type of training a provider receives and identify strengths and deficits in a provider’s training history, so that future training may be directed towards areas still needing development. Ideally, ELGs would be embedded within training received by practitioners in the registry. Although the utility of linking different administrative data systems (practitioners’ registry, training registry, training, calendar, licensing, etc.) is widely recognized by States, many States are still finding this linkage a challenge.
In Missouri, the training calendar, practitioner registry, and trainer registry are all funded by State contracts. In the implementation of these projects, opportunities for connections are identified and used. For example, when Missouri has trainer approval criteria in place, a trainer might be required to post his/her sessions on the training calendar and to identify the core competencies and ELGs addressed. The training calendar session information would be linked to the trainer registry training history. The practitioner registry would link to the providers’ participation in these sessions. The key to linking this effort to the early learning guidelines is to make sure trainers understand both the core competencies and the ELGs and categorize the training sessions appropriately. In Missouri, this is still in the early planning phase and is dependent upon the trainer approval criteria being in place.
Another factor to assess is the level of articulation between 2- and 4-year institutions of higher education with regard to professional development of early childhood teachers. Often, someone with an AA degree will find that her previous education does not “count” when she enters a 4-year institution seeking a Bachelor’s degree; she has to start accumulating credits from scratch. States are employing various strategies to address this area. With funding made available by the Child Care Bureau and the Florida Head Start State Collaboration Office, Florida is using case studies of instances where articulation between 2- and 4-year colleges has worked as a tool to help community colleges replicate this success. Florida is also developing a searchable database that will allow prospective students to find a college credit earning program in an area of interest and in an institution near them. In Maryland, the K-12 leadership council has worked with higher education for 9 years to develop a new Associate of Arts in Teaching (AAT) degree, which became available for the first time in September 2004. Course credits towards an AAT will matriculate to any higher education institution in the State of Maryland.
• Develop strategies for integrating ELGs into the existing system. This goal involves close collaboration with partners in training agencies and higher education. For example, the Rhode Island Early Learning Standards Project helped spearhead a meeting of representatives of the early childhood field from institutes of higher education across the State. The group came together to discuss how to infuse the early learning standards into their curriculum and decided at that time to formalize their group to continue this and other important conversations. Taking a different approach, Maryland has embedded ELGs into the Maryland child care credential, which now emphasizes ELGs in training.
| Ohio has placed Early Learning Specialists within institutions of higher learning across the State in order to facilitate the embedding of ELGs within higher education coursework. |
In a related manner, if the content of courses in both 2- and 4-year colleges is explicitly related to the ELGs, this will facilitate the transfer of credits across these institutions. Articulation agreements can be structured around the content covered by courses in relation to the guidelines. Furthermore, once classroom teachers receive professional development focusing on ELGs, the guidelines may naturally become more permanently integrated into early childhood care and education organizations. Some States are beginning to focus on the content of the training and education received and whether or not information gets turned into practice; information on content is available in some State registries.
• Align ELGs for children with core knowledge and competencies for providers. West Virginia, for example, has rewritten the core knowledge and competencies for early care and education professionals—what adults who work with children should know, understand, and be able to do—aligning them with the more recently completed ELGs. Partners from all early childhood sectors worked on the new edition, creating a framework and common language that applies to child care, Head Start, and public education. The revised core knowledge and competencies provide the foundation for the West Virginia State Training and Registry System (WV STARS). Trainings and pathways are linked to the tiered competencies, ensuring that providers and teachers receive sufficient training in the core domains of the ELGs. The new core content is also being used to write the curriculum for a collaborative college-level summer institute for prekindergarten staff.
• Develop effective training on ELGs. Effective training is essential for ensuring that all adults who touch children’s lives have the skills and knowledge they need to effectively support their development. In addition to integrating ELGs into existing training and education programs, including those in institutions of higher education, new training programs are being created that are specifically geared toward ELG implementation. Such training, as stated earlier, must not be solely directed at teachers in formal early care and education settings (such as child care centers, preschools, prekindergartens, and Head Start programs), but also to informal care providers and parents. It should also be designed to include non-English-speaking providers. Such training and education ideally should contribute to ongoing training requirements or be credit-bearing, so that providers will have added incentive to attend.
Continuing challenges identified in the area of integrating ELGs into the professional development system include:
• How can linkages to systems of higher education be improved?
• How can results of training be tracked, connecting training with provider knowledge, provider practice, and child outcomes?