When I Reflect About My Collegial, Professional Learning

When I made the decision to do an on-line Master's program I was a bit skeptical about the depth of learning that I would be able to grasp.  I have been amazed over and over again throughout this program.  My classmates have been extremely supportive and I have learned so much from them I will forever be indebted to each of you for forcing me to grow as a professional.  So the first consequence of my experience is being amazed at the depth of learning I have experienced.  The second consequence is that it has caused me to think consider the possibility of continuing down my educational journey and seeking doctoral degree.  I really never had considered it until now.  I have grown to love the interactions between classmates and look forward to hearing the various perspectives on similar topics.  The third consequence is the transformation within myself regarding my comfort level in advocating for comprehensive early childhood system.  I felt coming into this class that I had a foundational knowledge, but I feel fully equipped to go to Capital Hill and testify about the importance of comprehensive early childhood systems. 

 

 

My goal is connected to my last consequence because my goal is to go to Washington, DC and testify in some type of hearing on child care issues about the importance of comprehensive early childhood systems for ALL children.  This program is equipping me to meet my ultimate of goal of possibly getting a change to work in DC as an early childhood public policy specialist.

 

 

I want to thank all of my classmates for your part in my education journey and thank you so much for pushing to think about things differently.  The experience has been priceless!!

 

Thanks!

 

Jill

My Hypothetical Family Situtation

I have been married for four years and my husband is currently a full time student in college.  I work at the local Head Start agency.  We have two children.  Our youngest child has had severe ear infections that have caused deafness and speech problems.  Our socioeconomic status is well below the poverty line.  We receive food assistance from the Women, Infant and Child (WIC) food program; medicaid for health services, but we do not qualify for food stamps because my grandfather helped us to finance a new car so that we would have reliable transportation.  Our oldest daughter just started at the Head Start where I work since she has finally turned 3.  Our family situation has been impacted most due to the political contexts in Oklahoma around government funding.  English is our first language.  Our youngest deaf child has been in a variety of programs that are not equipped to meet her needs and they lack in overall quality as well.  Since we receive child care subsidy to assist with our child care bill our choices of quality care are limited especially since we are needing more specialized care for our daughter.

Due to the fact that we receive government support for our health needs the primary need we have currently is a comprehensive program that focuses on early learning and development for child with special needs. 

What are my gaps?

Does this situation seem realistic?

What help do you have for me?

The Political Will to Improve Early Childhood Systems

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.

Parent, Family and Community Engagement

Listening to the Head Start parent stories reminded me of my own Head Start parent story.  I first started working in Head Start then I was able to take my child to the local Head Start when she was three years old.  I was able to attend the Parent Policy Conference and it was a great experience to see the impact Head Start has on parents across the nation.  These stories provided that same opportunity.  When Head Start first began part of the mission was to hire and train great parent volunteers.  When they began the increased education levels for teachers some of that focus shifted, but the mission still remains to build strong families. 

I was a bit of skeptic when I first started working for Head Start and the value of home visit, until I went on a home visit where the family really was in need of many essential items to operate a home.  They did not have plates or silverware at the home so they were eating off of paper towel and if we had never gone on the home visit this is a need we were able to assist with, but might have never know about without the home visit. 

It is critical for policymakers and government officials to hear the parents stories because they can share with such passion that it makes a difference.  One of the first things any good advocate learns is to develop your own story that provides perspective, meaning and passion.  Yes, statistics and data are important, but to share a real life story with passion means so much more and can provide greater impact.

I think parent involvement is important for all strand of Head Start because the families of low income children are worried about standards and if their child will be ready for school.  They especially worry about funding because that will impact their ability to send their child to this great comprehensive program.  Parents can benefit by the professional development provided to the Head Start teachers because in some cases they can attend the training with the teachers as a volunteer or they will benefit through the strategies the teachers learn and will share with parents at meetings.  One of the ladies talked about the family advocate encouraging her to join the policy council so that is how parent involvement is impacted through the technical assistance.  Parent involvement is critical for the programs to successfully meet their goals on the monitoring visits by the federal government.  They interview parents so without high quality parent involvement the Head Start program will not be able to continue with funding.  There have been many parent involvement research studies and the impact is has on the child's learning as well as the home life of the family unit.  Lastly, without high quality parent and family involvement Head Start is not set apart from a typical child care program.

These stories were inspiring, eye-opening and provided critical insight to the value of Head Start for these families and the families like them that did not share their own story.

Quality Programs for ALL Children

The current opinion in the United States about quality services for young children and families is that they think it is a great idea to have high quality early childhood programs, but they cannot afford the cost of high quality care.  Everyone wants the highest quality of care, but the reality is that they cannot always choose the best quality because of the weekly cost.  Additionally, finding high quality child care is not an easy task because of limited space especially for infant care.  One of the concerns with the sociocultural context is that high quality care and education services can be accessible and affordable to all families, regardless of their economic status (Laureate, Inc., 2011).  I also think the political will in the current time is that government should stay out of the way and due to the high cost of quality care society needs to realize that this is an investment in the future of our country not just another government program.

I hope that the public opinion about the need for high quality early childhood continues to improve because I do think that early childhood is getting the spotlight currently.  The more exposure that early childhood get the more we need to have good advocacy efforts in place because we want to be the experts that the policy makers contact as the write the new polices.  I think currently with the proposed reauthorization of the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) they are including early childhood systems work and how that is connected to high quality child care programs.  I also think that the next 5 years could be powerful for early childhood because we are a priority for the Obama Administration, which will get us through the next four years.  Additionally, in the last few weeks former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched a her vision for early childhood and there is much speculation that she may be making a run for the White House and she would continue the path to increased funds for early childhood.

In the future I imagine an early childhood system that provides high quality child care programs accessible for all children regards of socio-economic status, with a highly trained workforce, receiving compensation commiserate with their education and experience.  This is the dream of every early childhood advocate and it is our responsibility to provide the data to the policymakers so that they create the policies that will assist our dream for American to become the reality for America.  If this dream were a reality every child would attend high quality programs, be ready to learn when they get to public school, families would be supported through these high quality programs and the field would be able to retain the employees.

 

Reference

Laureate, 2011, Historical Overview of Early Childhood Systems, http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6765/02/mm/historical_overview/index.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Resonates with you about Early Childhood Public Policy and Advocacy?

Part 1:

I chose the Early Childhood Public Policy and Advocacy specialization because I believe that early childhood is an extremely political field.  When I first selected early childhood as my career I was unaware of that it was such a political field.  All the way back to high school I had aspirations of working in Washington, DC as a Senator or Representative.  I have always gravitated towards politics so it just made sense when I realize that early childhood was so political that I became very engaged in that side of early childhood.  I have served as the Early Childhood Association of Oklahoma, Oklahoma affiliate for National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) as the public policy chairperson for many years.  During the time I served in that role I began attending the NAEYC Policy Institute typically in March of every year.  It was during that time I began to mold my statement of how quality early childhood programs are needed for all children and families.  Additionally, when we have high quality programs children, families and society all benefit and it makes good economic sense to invest in the early years.

Part 2:

The reason it is essential that early childhood professional become advocates is simply because this is a polictial field if we do not inform policymakers someone else will and they might not share the message that we know is best for children and families.  We have the knowledge of the importance of high quality early childhood education and we need to use that knowledge to assist policymakers so that children come first.  The reason we need to be skilled and confident is because we have to be able to stay on track often when speaking with policymakers they work to move you toward their agenda and away from you own so you have be confident enough to keep bringing the topic back to the agenda best for children and families.

Part 3:

The three goals that I hope to gain is as follows:  First, I want to become more skilled at how to analyze data and write briefs that will impact policy.  Second, I want to become more skilled at synthesizing information that shows the impact of early childhood systems.  Lastly, I want to become more skilled at evaluating components of an early childhood system.

Saying Goodbye!!

This journey started over a year ago and it has been very inspiring, challenging, and has caused me to grow in ways I never knew possible.  I was very scared of beginning this journey in an online graduate program, but I am very glad that I started because of the colleagues that I have gained over the past year.  It seems kind of bittersweet to be saying goodbye as we move to our specializations.  I will miss you all and I wish you all the very best as you continue your journey of life long learning.  If you want to stay in contact you can email me at soto.jill@gmail.com.  I hope to stay in contact. 

Good luck and best wishes to you all!!!  Thank you for being there for me over the past year!

Jill