Child Care Aware of America is advocating for increased pre-service training for child care providers. They are working closely with the Child Care Bureau on this issue. It also helps move the agenda because the current Bureau Chief is the former Executive Director of National Association of Resource and Referral Agencies, which is now known as Child Care Aware of America. Linda Smith has dedicated her life to improve the conditions of programs for young children. Increased pre-service training will equip teachers better before they go into classrooms with young children.
National Association for the Education of Young Children along with several other agencies are all working toward getting the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) reauthorized. The reauthorization is a strategy to increase the quality of care for ALL children even though CCDF has a primary focus around the increased quality for children receiving child care subsidy.
Both of these strategies are seeking the same end goal of increased quality for ALL children. Everything surrounding this work appeals to me because this is the type of work I do everyday. I work at the Center for Early Childhood Professional Development and we operate our states professional development system so it is personal to my work, but also important to me because I feel passionately about the importance of this work. The prevalence of low-quality care and the link between quality and child outcomes have spawned a movement to improve program quality in the United States and have prompted calls for consumer advocacy and education on this issue (Wesley & Buysse, 2010). This is the very reason I feel that Walden University has a specialization in Public Policy and Advocacy in Early Childhood. This is a very political and hot topic in early childhood and is only going to continue to grow.
Reference
Wesley, P. W. & Buysse, V. (2010). The quest for quality promising innovations for early childhood programs. Paul H Brookes Publishing. Baltimore, MD.
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ReplyDeleteJill, I am excited to hear that we have an agency that is advocating to increasing pre-service training for child care providers. This is well needed crossed board for all daycares. The more the teachers know about the care and development of the children, the fewer problems will occur. My Hat is off to Child Care Aware of America!
ReplyDeleteHi Jill,
ReplyDeleteI worked as a Pre K teacher in a public school system and noticed, sadly, that the pressure of standardized testing is being pushed right down to the Pre K level. We were expected to meet expectations of the elementary school which were not developmentally appropriate. Well, sort of. We also were expected to follow Foundations (our states early childhood standards) and had Pre K supervisors in addition to school supervisors. As the teacher, I got mixed instructions and was always displeasing someone. I felt that my job was to meet the needs of the students first and to be an advocate for them. It was extremely difficult to do this and my job was threatened more than once. I digress. Since I have seen a so-called "quality early childhood" program put in place with public accessibility and the unintended consequences that go along with that, I am wondering if there is anyone working with the schools in situations like this. Is there anyone who fights for the importance of keeping Pre K appropriate for four year olds? Is there anyone who advocates for teachers like me who don't want to see our kids pushed beyond their limits in the public schools?