@hmelnick could you help clarify here? Slides indicate that Associate Degree is required for Head Start Lead Teacher and CDA required for Head Start Assistant Teacher
Yes, Dr. LaWanda…Mixed Delivery needs to recognize the importance of play and developmentally appropriateness and recognize that we are pushing children into educations systems where they have been historically harmed - why are we encouraging children to “grow up” so soon?
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A key to supporting this work is to support collaboration between preschool and TK programs so that there are more opportunities for joint learning and networking.
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We are now moving into the presentation and discussion of: Current distribution of Title 5 programs in the state, compared to licensed programs / child care desserts, etc, - Bruce Fuller from UC Berkeley
It’s correct that the Head Start minimum is an A.A. in center-based programs. I think on the slide we also added that the CDA is the minimum requirement for Head Start FCC providers serving 3s and 4s, which might have been the confusion.
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Current standards of quality: siloed, inconsistent, and need to be agreed upon and aligned.
For example, some of Head Start quality standards are punitive (e.g. DRS, CLASS, Title XXII) while others are supportive for quality improvement (e.g. Head Start’s Program Information Report (PIR) data, Curriculum to Fidelity, QCC/QRIS, IEEEP). Yet, few define how major programmatic outcomes are going to measure success and positive outcomes; e.g. school readiness, yet we have no common assessment tool to define what that looks like - some programs use the Kindergarten Student Entrance Profile as a measure of where children are at at the end of preschool prior to them entering Kindergarten as a summative assessment (e.g. how well did the program do in getting a child and groups of children ready for Kindergarten) and formative (e.g. where is the entering Kindergarten child at in terms of readiness).
I agree with speakers who shared that current status of quality is inconsistent. We need to develop common language and common measures to gauge and discuss quality across programs. We also must ensure we consider needs of multilingual children and children with disabilities when we discuss what quality “looks like” in early care settings. In addition, we need to note that quality programs serve ALL children including children who demonstrate the need for social emotional/behavioral support. Of the current systems, Head Start most clearly defines elements of quality within early learning settings. CSPP defines quality in many of the same ways, with the difference perhaps seen in the level of accountability as well as funding for staff who support families. I assert we as a state are moving toward a better understanding of quality early learning within our TK efforts, though we have more work to do.
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The field of ECE certainly has the responsibility of kindergarten readiness of our children. While developmentally appropriate practice is the motto, kindergarten/public education is where their next stop is. How to bridge the two are also important task. We certainly should think about what does kindergarten ready means for our children. For San Francisco United, it means that children need to be at least at the level of DRDP Building middle level, and for PALS assessment (Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening) children need to be ready in 6 out of 8 measures (if I remember correctly). So in the play based setting, we also look at these in order to support the transition to kindergarten. This is one of the efforts to bridge the gap of play and pre-academic skills
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Is the 40% of eligible CSPP children served include the 10% of Head Start children served?
What is the percentage of Head Start eligible children served? That is, the CSPP data showed the difference between the 11% and 40% children served, have that for Head Start would also be helpful.
Since the other programs have no “eligibility” per se, the other data is important in terms of ensuring access and quality for our state’s UPK mixed delivery system being worked on and improved through this work group.
@b_fuller please weigh in to help clarify.
Good point and I may have missed this but wondering about enrollment of children in private sector and using an AP voucher?
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How do we shift our thinking and remove language that children need to be school ready placing the burden to fit into a school system that was inherently designed for them as majority children of color? Rather the question should be how are schools ready for the children in the context they arrive. Are schools ready for children and shift the responsibility on us and our settings? This is when we know we are truly holding a community school model in all our care and learning settings.
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@b_fuller see above from Samantha - does “tuition-charging” include those participating in voucher programs?
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This could be difficult on the teacher. We’re currently experiencing an uptick in the number of children identified on the spectrum and it’s overwhelming our teachers. I’ve actually requested our enrollment team to consider the current population in the class when placing a new child so the classroom doesn’t become saturated with a particular population.
California state administrators and researchers don’t currently have access to Head Start enrollment by provider, unfortunately, just aggregate (e.g. state) level. As for children in the private sector, there are no centrally collected data, so we don’t know much at all beyond capacity.
After watching the video my thoughts and questions are:
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Why are tuition-based programs providing more care? Is this because many children do not qualify for CSPP and Head Start due to income guidelines or just because they’re in the wealthier zip codes/neighborhoods?
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Why is Head Start being left out of the conversation? While the beginning of the presentation mentioned Head Start, the remainder (slides 7-14) talked about TK & CSPP.
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Are we able to access the raw data by zip code so that we can do further analysis in our own regions? Thank you for these data. They are very valuable for our discussion and planning.
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The state regulates all of these settings but is limited in data access? this is a problem.
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this is another important example in the value of asset framing and looking at the other side of data - rather than where and who is enrolled maybe it would be valuable to consider where there is not services (briefly discussed) and who is not enrolled - looking forward to next month’s data for consideration in exploring this information to inform our work
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We must carefully not divest public investment of preschool programs including higher income/affluent private pay communities. When I was identified as a low income, subsidy parent I utilized preschools programs in high income communities because it was where I worked.
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