April 23, 2024
To help millions more children from all backgrounds develop the skills necessary to become prepared behaviorally, mentally, and emotionally for kindergarten and beyond, many states are looking to build out efficient and effective preK systems. Here, we see how a state educational agency (SEA) in California has tapped its regional comprehensive center to build capacity to achieve these ends, coherently align previously disconnected systems, and meaningfully take into account numerous practical needs on the ground.
California takes steps to unify preK career pathways, preparation, competencies, responsibilities, and compensation. With the goal of modernizing the Child Development Permit (CDP)—which authorizes permit holders to provide service in the care, development, and instruction of children in a childcare and development program, in addition to a school-age emphasis authorization—the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CA CTC) has partnered with the Region 15 Comprehensive Center (R15CC).
R15CC has specifically focused on collecting the field input necessary to ensure that the new CDP structure aligns with the actual needs of early childhood workers and families. To accomplish this, R15CC and the CA CTC have elicited input from the field from a Child Development Workgroup (Workgroup) to analyze and report back to the CA CTC.
The Workgroup includes approximately 26 members representing county offices of education, education agencies, higher education, and public and private child development centers—and 10 liaisons—from agencies such as the California Department of Education, the California Department of Social Services, Head Start, the Learning Policy Institute, the CA CTC, Stanford University, and California First 5.
For the CA CTC’s consideration, Workgroup members formulate recommendations to ensure early childhood educators are adequately prepared with the knowledge and skills needed to meet both the multifaceted educational and developmental needs of children and the need of employers to have well-qualified early childhood education (ECE) staff.
The prospective workforce, which largely consists of women of color, may encounter difficulties in accessing coursework and training due to the costs of higher education and the time commitments required, noted Liz Jameyson, R15CC’s lead on this work. Furthermore, she reports, another factor may be that most of the coursework is offered only in English.
“Whether a talented adult happens to speak and learn in Spanish, or cannot afford community college units or has their own children at home doesn’t have to prevent them from becoming qualified to share their gifts with early learners,” said Jameyson.
To accurately elicit and capture the nature and scope of this key information, R15CC’s team and the CA CTC specifically structure the Workgroup sessions to encourage Workgroup participants to be comfortable providing relevant input. R15CC then analyzes the feedback and elevates major themes to the CA CTC.
“One key consideration that has arisen in the Workgroup is how to create a CDP structure that simultaneously attracts quality candidates and ensures equitable access for candidates,” noted Jameyson. “How can we reduce barriers to higher quality learning for people seeking this permit?”
The 2020 California Master Plan for Early Learning and Care emphasizes the importance of early childhood educator competencies and the shift to a competency-based system.
“Whether a talented adult happens to speak and learn in Spanish, or cannot afford community college units or has their own children at home doesn’t have to prevent them from becoming qualified to share their gifts with early learners,” said Jameyson.
Jameyson observed, “This shift opens opportunities to balance quality and access in innovative ways.”
For more on competencies, see the California CTC’s Early Childhood Education Teaching and Administrator Performance Expectations, which define early childhood educator competencies for educators pursuing the CDP, and the Curriculum Alignment Project, which works to align coursework to these performance expectations.
Finally, leaders working to build effective statewide preK systems are also often faced with (1) a lack of pay parity across preK worker roles, experiences, and backgrounds and (2) varying early childhood worker credentialing requirements, given that regulations can vary by program type.
For example, an educator who earns California’s new ECE PK–3 Specialist Instruction Credential and works at a public school will be paid on the TK–12 salary schedule, Jameyson noted, while an educator working as a teacher in a Head Start classroom—potentially teaching the same aged child—will not be paid on that same salary schedule, even if their education and training are comparable.
Good news may be on the horizon, though, for prospective preK workers. In addition to revising or modifying the CDP, California state agencies have been engaged in additional efforts to create an equitable and coherent ECE system:
- The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing recently adopted a PK–3 Early Childhood Education (ECE) Specialist Instruction Credential.
- The Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) Mixed Delivery Quality and Access Workgroup has released the second consolidated draft of the UPK Mixed Delivery Quality and Access Report, which includes research-based recommendations for quality learning and care in ECE settings.
- The California Department of Social Services has moved toward rate reform.
Top tip for SEAs. To inform state policies like these with meaningful feedback from the field, those looking to structure facilitation sessions could benefit from offering participants small group convenings, participation protocols, shared documents, feedback forms, and multiple opportunities to weigh in or build upon other feedback, R15CC notes. This approach ensures that people whose lives and careers will be greatly affected by governmental decisions can and do contribute.
“It [also] helps to have a neutral person engaging in systematic qualitative data analysis, allowing ideas to arise,” said Jameyson. “We design these sessions using guardrails that enable important, sometimes emotionally charged discussions to unfold respectfully and productively. It is important that all participants come out of discussions feeling that differing ideas are all being held and fairly considered. It is a win when we get: ‘Thank you for making a space that is respectful where we all feel we can be heard.’”
The contents of this post were developed by the Region 15 Comprehensive Center. The Region 15 Comprehensive Center is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. However, the contents of this post do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.
