American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Continued Initiatives

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Continued Initiatives

Board of Early Education and CarePolicy and Research Committee September 2011

ARRA Initiatives: Program/Educator Quality

Infant/Toddler Early Childhood Program Standards and Guidelines

Training of EEC and others Staff in Use of Environmental Rating Scales

Improvement of Physical Environments

CSEFEL Professional Development

English Language Learners

Professional Development System Research Project

Readiness Center Support

Early Literacy Program2

ARRA Initiatives: Community and Family Engagement

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Communications Campaign

Early Childhood Information System

Information and Referral Program

Coordinated Family and Community Engagement Grantee- Infrastructure Grants

Waitlist Solution

Sustained Results of ARRA Initiatives: Program/Educator Quality

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Infant/Toddler Early Childhood Program Standards and Guidelines

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ARRA Allocation: $ 50,000

ARRA Funds Spent: $ 50,000*

Sustained Results of Initiative:

The Guidelines are available to programs on-line in English and Spanish and provide a comprehensive view of infant and toddler development with suggested experiences to support each stage of development.

Professional development opportunities (on-line course) are also supporting the implementation on this new resource.

Quantitative Impact:

•200+ educators trained on the Guidelines •1 online course accessible to educators beyond the 200 trained•100 copies of the Guidelines have been distributed directly by EEC

*ARRA funds must be spent by 9.30.11; billing is in process.

Environmental Rating Scales

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An increase in institutional knowledge regarding the scales, used in the Quality Rating and Improvement System.

Quantitative Impact: •187 educators training on using the Environment Rating Scales.

•All EEC regions represented

•All programs represented serve more than 50% subsidized children

•146 attended Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales session

•41 attended the Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scales session

•25 educators participated in reliable raters training. •All participants were given the entire set of scales for their age groups


Improvement of Physical Environments

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Program physical quality and safety improvements.

Quantitative Impact: •267 educators completed a two part training

•123 Center Based programs and 144 Family Child Care programs represented

•5 regions across state served

•33 completed train the trainer sessions

•94 grantees (66 Family Child Care and 28 Center Based

•1,261 infants and toddlers served through grants


CSEFEL Professional Development

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Built educator and program capacity to support all children’s social and emotional health, including specialized supports for high need children.

Quantitative Impact: 1,420 child care staff (and potentially 1,900 bye the end of program) trained in the CSEFEL social emotional pyramid model.


English Language Learners

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Supported educators in defining appropriate pathways to competency development as evidenced by CDA certification, certificate achievement, and/or the beginning pathway to degree attainment. Wheelock study to identify the strategies in working with the ELL population.

Quantitative Impact: 588 Spanish speaking LEP educators received career development and training.

100 educators assessed in ability to take college courses in Spanish.

100 educators assessed in their English proficiency skills.

75 providers completed college and/or CEU courses that will advance them in QRIS

25 providers will have completed or be actively pursuing the CDA and CDA renewal

20 providers will enroll in an Early Childhood Certificate or A.A. program


Professional Development System Research Project

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Research study on the new professional development system and included research-based recommendations to further the development and effectiveness of the system.

Assisted the development of a series of on-line courses for use by EEC, focusing on the preschool standards and core competencies.

Recommendations on governance, communication, professional development service delivery and alignment, and use of data to inform regional practices

Final report: http://www.mass.gov/Eoedu/docs/EEC/20110909_ma_prof_dev_sys_study.pdf


Survey of 6 regional partnerships 2 rounds of interviews, Fall 2010 and Spring 201155 interviews; average of 4-5 participants/ region5 interviews with EEC central office and regional staff (Spring 2011)27 regional and statewide meetings observed


http://www.mass.gov/Eoedu/docs/EEC/20110909_ma_prof_dev_sys_study.pdf

http://www.mass.gov/Eoedu/docs/EEC/20110909_ma_prof_dev_sys_study.pdf

Readiness Center Support

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ARRA Funds Spent:

$ 542,033*


Linkage of professional development grantees to Readiness Centers to support early education and care initiatives throughout the Commonwealth.

Provided or supported: Family Child Care Orientation, Developed /offered credit-bearing college level courses that address one or more of EEC’s Core Competencies (Associate/Bachelor and Graduate Level Coursework)Developed and offered courses that address the infant/toddler standards and guidelines.


8 associate degree level college courses 2 bachelor level college courses revised to include EEC core competencies.5 graduate level courses at Northeast campuses3 institutions of higher education revised coursework to include MA new Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers


Early Literacy Program

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Professional development opportunities and technical assistance regarding early literacy for families and for Family Child Care Providers serving infants and toddlers.

Providers serving at least one subsidized child, received a developmentally and culturally appropriate collection of children's books.

Quantitative Impact: 4 workshops1,200 Family Child Care Educators trained5 regions; 10 communities served75% of providers attending had EEC-subsidized child/children in their care


Sustained Results of ARRA Initiatives: Community and Family Engagement

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Communications Campaign

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ARRA Funds Spent:

$ 341,935*


An external and internal communications strategy was created to convey the value of early education and care to stakeholders, consumers and families/ general public.

Provided an overarching infrastructure to which local efforts can align.


~50 organizations trained

2 Advertorials in 3 communities

1 TV Public Service Announcement (2 regions)WCVB Net Impressions: ,651,630 persons 25-54WGGB Net Impressions: 105,439 persons 25-54www.thebostonchannel.com Net Impressions: 1,116,000 impressions

1 web PSA

1 Guide to Quality

7 users will test website changes*ARRA funds must be spent by 9.30.11; billing is in process.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/

Early Childhood Information System

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ARRA Funds Spent:

$ 665,170*


An “early childhood information system” (ECIS) that incorporates the assignment of unique child IDs, educator/staff IDs, and program IDs, linked with timely, accessible, useful data to improve the effectiveness of both teaching and learning and increase access to secondary data from multiple sources;Data analysis and research capability and to continue the agency’s partnership/membership in the UMass (Lowell) Open Indicators data presentation tool development and use; andAn “early warning indicator system” as called for in the Governor’s Readiness Cabinet data report, apply it to children younger than five, and recommend state and local intervention and coordinated case management.


85 Strategic Planning Institute attendees24 Data Workgroup participants (4 meetings)1 Vision Document, 13 key indicators


Information and Referral Program

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Expanded capacity to provide information and referral services regarding high quality programs and services offered by EEC by establishing a statewide call center through Massachusetts 2-1-1.

Quantitative Impact: Total calls handled:• Central 979• Boston 594• Northeast 590• Southeast 685• Western 531• Unknown 57• Total 3436


Coordinated Family and Community Engagement Grantee- Infrastructure

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18 CFCE grantees developed and implemented a community based strategic plan for meeting the needs of families with children birth to eight years old in their communities.

Quantitative Impact: • 100% submitted 3 year Strategic Plans • 39% Commissioner’s Districts or Underperforming Schools • 50% addressed governance/council administration issues• 38.9% addressed service area realignment• 77.8% addressed their ability to meet child, family and community outcomes• 77.8% addressed coordination for an effective local model• 61.1% addressed the refinement of local service delivery


Waitlist Solution

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Improved EEC’s centralized waitlist (data collection and the management of subsidized child care) with the implementation of a customized “COTS” waitlist product.

Quantitative Impact: •7 Regional agent trainings (303 participants from 189 organizations)

•9 Train the Trainer classes (73 participants from 62 organizations)

•7 KinderWait webinars and webinar series (760 participants)

•14 Recorded trainings


Overall Impact

Educator and Program Quality: $2,132,379

Community and Family Engagement: $2,095,202

Total ARRA allocation on sustained initiatives: $4,227,581

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Overview of Board Feedback

Appreciate the thoughtfulness used to plan initiatives

The challenge will be to develop strategies that continue to sustain these efforts across the state.

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Committee Discussion

Brainstorming strategies that continue to sustain these efforts across the state.

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Documents

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Continued Initiatives