Pre-kindergarten Collaborations in Chicago: Model Programs Report

Transcription

1 Pre-kindergarten Collaborations in Chicago: Model Programs Report Prepared by Elizabeth C. Smith Revised November 2002

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3 Table of Contents Letter from Executive Director v Acknowledgements vii Executive Summary The Importance and Challenges of Early Childhood Education Current Programs Collaborations Methodology Program Models Program Enhancements and Benefits Staff/Child Interactions Curriculum Staff Salaries Environment Challenges Training Staff Recruitment and Retention Other Challenges Conclusion Attachment: Interview Questionnaire

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5 Letter from Executive Director When we consider the environment for early education and child care in Illinois, it really is changing at a rapid pace. Certainly, we still don t have all we need to support the diverse system that exists or meet the demands of parents and their children, but more and more we are hearing that early care and education matter. Elected officials, schools and community leaders are talking about the value and benefits to children specifically and to society as a whole. Research confirms that high-quality early learning boosts a child s readiness for school and for success later in life. Yet, high-quality child care and early educational programs are not available to all children in Illinois and they should be. And although the early years are the most important for a child s cognitive development, our society continues to put minimal resources into maximizing this opportunity. This must change. The early years for a child are fleeting. And because children begin learning from the time they are born, we must to all that we can to support their learning, in a variety of setting and environments, with a common goal meeting the needs of children and their parents in a high quality setting. As we look forward to a new legislature and new elected leaders we also are hopeful that children will be a priority, that the next governor will promote policies and seek funding to support parents as children s first teachers and provide voluntary, accessible high-quality early learning opportunities for all children, starting at birth and that leaders from all sectors in Illinois business, policymakers, legislators, education, civic interests will work toward the goal of improving and expanding child care and early education. Children cannot wait. Their name is today. Tomorrow depends on how we address today. Maria Whelan Executive Director Day Care Action Council of Illinois v

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7 Acknowledgements The Day Care Action Council of Illinois (DCACI) produced this report as part of the Universal Preschool Initiative. A grant from the Lucent Technologies Foundation, Universal Preschool Initiative supported the work of the DCACI. We gratefully acknowledge the work of the Chicago Collaboration Consortium and its partners, the Chicago Department of Human Services Deputy Commissioner Ngoan Le, the Chicago Public Schools Deputy Chief Education Officer Armando M. Almendarez, and the Chicago Metropolitan Association for the Education for Young Children s Executive Director Tom Layman. We are also grateful to Nora Moreno Cargie, Director of Marketing & Development, Melenne Mosquera, Program Associate, Mary Stonor Saunders, Director of Program Development, and Catherine Lange, consultant, of the Day Care Action Council of Illinois for all of their help on this project. Finally, we are particularly thankful to all of the child care providers who allowed us to interview them and whose information made this report possible. vii

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9 Executive Summary Thus, the need for a universal system that integrates early childhood education, child care and supportive services, is critical to the health and welfare of preschool-age children in Illinois. Because of the rapid growth in the number of preschool-age children in child care and early education programs, a tremendous need exists to integrate these early learning programs. We must work to ensure that all children arrive at school healthy, happy and ready to learn. Currently, three separate programs fund early childhood education and care in Illinois: Head Start, is a federally funded enrichment program serving children ages 3-to-5 who live in families with incomes below the poverty level, the State Pre-kindergarten (PreK) program is an academic enrichment program for children screened and determined to be at-risk of academic failure, and the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) Child Care Subsidy Program uses a combination of state and federal funding to support child care costs for children in low-income families. These programs, administered by separate governmental agencies, often compete for children and create a system where children are essentially divided according to their family income level. Especially counter-productive are arrangements where early childhood education is provided separately from child care. In light of this need, the Day Care Action Council of Illinois (DCACI), with funding from the Lucent Technologies Foundation s Universal Preschool Initiative, organized the Chicago Collaboration Consortium to begin a coordinated city-wide effort toward creating a universal preschool system. Consortium partners included the Mayor s Office, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Department of Human Services, Chicago Metropolitan Association for the Education of Young Children, and several provider and advocacy groups. The report looks at the ways that Chicago child care centers are successfully blending funding from the Child Care Subsidy Program and the State PreK program to offer child care and early education in the same setting. The purpose of the study was to identify successful program models that could be adopted by existing or new service providers and to help shape new public policies that support universal preschool. The study included interviews of staff members at 16 child care centers. In these centers, each child received a Child Care Subsidy, which supports full workday, year-round services. Funding per-service-hour is low, however, as are the educational requirements for staff in centers funded through the program. In the same centers, the State PreK programs provides additional funding for 25-to-100 percent of these children, depending on the number of children screened to be at-risk of school failure. This funding supports early childhood-certified teachers and requires that each child have a certified teacher for at least part of the day. 1

10 Pre-kindergarten Collaborations in Chicago: Model Programs Report Executive Summary (continued) Each child generated approximately $6,000 per year in Child Care Subsidy Program fees, with those eligible for State PreK also generating an additional $2,700 in State PreK grant funds. Researchers found that integrating the funding streams required programs to make key choices in two areas: How to place children in classrooms when their eligibility for funding streams varies, and how to staff classrooms when the levels of teacher qualification required by the funding streams differ. Classroom Placement Programs with higher percentages of children eligible for State PreK funds generally chose to integrate State PreK children in classrooms with non-prek children. Administrators believed that this model was better for the PreK at-risk children because they were not segregated from other children. It was also better for the non-prek children because they benefited from the certified teachers and enhanced educational opportunities. Programs with lower percentages of State PreK children found it necessary to place these children in one or two separate classrooms because the additional funds they generated were not sufficient enough to enhance curriculum for all children. Staffing Models Thirteen of the 16 programs hired and maintained additional staff to deliver State PreK services. Three programs replaced less-qualified teachers with certified teachers but did not add staff. Of those that added staff, two innovative models emerged. The most attractive approach appeared to be the three-teacher model, in which centers operating for an 11 or 12 hour day changed from 2 or 2.5 FTE non-certified teachers in each classroom to 3 FTE teachers including one certified and two not certified. Because of the long day, all three teachers are not present at all times. However, the added staffing cuts down on the need to close some classrooms and move children around at the beginning and end of the day when center attendance drops. The other effective model maintained 2.5 FTE non-certified teachers in each classroom and added one certified teacher for every two classrooms. Program Enhancements and Benefits Reported benefits of blended funding included improved staff-child interaction, expanded curriculum, enhanced learning environments, and strengthened administration. Most importantly, 15 of the 16 agencies offered higher salaries at some or all levels. Three of those agencies created salary scales and career ladders for all staff, encouraging them to become certified teachers. Challenges The most significant challenge, and one that threatens the very existence of the collaborations, is the difficulty in finding certified teachers to fill positions funded through the State PreK program. Conclusion Chicago agencies have developed effective models for blending early education and child care funding streams at the local program level. This report discusses the strengths and weaknesses of those models in an effort to guide future program development. The report also identifies areas in which public policy could support programs more effectively, especially in recruiting and educating a larger number of teachers. 2

11 The Importance and Challenges of Early Childhood Education The importance of early intervention and education has now gained broad acceptance as the human and financial costs of failing to optimize a child s early, critical years has become increasingly apparent in both every day and scientific arenas. The opportunity to prevent, reverse or minimize problems in the future is best realized by ensuring that children get the care they need early on in childhood. Not only is this common sense, but the validity of this approach has been confirmed in scientific studies and demonstrated repeatedly in early intervention programs throughout this country. Regardless of whether care is provided in a center-based or home setting, developmentally appropriate and educationally sound programs provide the foundations for children to thrive today and in the future. Concurrent to the benefits that early education provides to children, the growing reliance on child care for working families has made the need for quality and full-day preschool programs paramount, particularly for those who are constrained by a lack of resources. Working parents need viable alternatives whereby they can sustain employment while balancing the need for the safe and nurturing care of their children. Today, 59 percent of mothers with children ages six and under work outside the home. Given this fact, the opportunity exists not only to provide an essential support to working parents, but also to develop effective programs that address the developmental and educational needs of our children. A 1998 report by the National Research Council, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, stresses that good child care and early education experiences help ensure that young children have opportunities to build language and literacy skills so they can enter school ready to learn and to read. 1 A major study followed a group of children to compare the development of those in child care with strong educational programs to that of those children in child care without such programs. Their results to date indicate that children in settings with strong education programs demonstrated greater mathematical ability, thinking and attention skills and fewer behavior problems. These differences held true for children from a range of family backgrounds, with particularly significant effects for children at-risk. 2 Yet, national studies indicate that less than fifteen percent of child care programs have a strong educational component. Consequently, the development of full-workday, full-year child care programs that combine care and education is more crucial than ever. The benefits of achieving universal preschool are many. But there are significant challenges as well. In addition to the general issues facing the early childhood education field in terms of staffing and related issues of compensation, turn-over and training, securing adequate financing continues to create obstacles to implementing optimal programs. While individual pieces of the overall preschool and child care pie offer valuable services to children and parents, the fragmented nature of early childhood funding often thwarts the ability to integrate and maximize existing revenue streams that could improve program implementation to better meet the needs of children and families. The lack of collaborative funding has resulted in inefficiencies and barriers throughout the early childhood system. First, providing quality preschool 3

12 Pre-kindergarten Collaborations in Chicago: Model Programs Report The Importance and Challenges of Early Childhood Education (continued) programs with a strong educational component costs more than traditional day care, resulting in fees that many parents are unable to afford. In Illinois, the state subsidized child care system does not provide reimbursement rates sufficient to promote an educational model of care. Secondly, differing eligibility requirements based on age, income and need factors can limit the accessibility of programs. And thirdly, programs such as Head Start and State Pre-kindergarten that do offer developmentally focused programs do not generally offer full-time, year-round care that is necessary for most working parents. For these reasons, partnerships between child care providers and school districts that blend funding are increasingly essential to bring educational programming into a child care setting. This report provides an overview of several collaborative models child care providers in Chicago have used to bring educational programming into traditional child care settings. It includes a description of two basic program designs that child care agencies use to provide Prekindergarten services, the program enhancements that agencies have experienced, and the challenges they have faced. This report is a synopsis of the experiences of agencies with diverse populations and philosophies, and the lessons that can be applied in a variety of venues. 1 Catherine E. Snow, M. Susan Burns, and Peg Griffin, Eds. National Research Council (1998). Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. 2 L.A. Karoly, et.al. (1998) Investing in Our Children: What we Know and Don t Know About the Costs and Benefits of Early Childhood Intervention. RAND: Santa Monica, CA. 4

13 Current Programs In Chicago, three major programs that fund early childhood care and/or education currently exist. The Pre-kindergarten Program is funded by the state, Head Start is federally funded and the Illinois Child Care Subsidy Program is funded with both state and federal dollars. The administration and financing of each of these programs is entirely independent of the others. All of these programs have eligibility requirements related to income status and/or children who are deemed at-risk of academic failure. However, they operate under different regulations and guidelines, have identified distinct goals and objectives, and offer services at different times of the day and year. State Pre-kindergarten The Illinois State Board of Education administers the State Pre-kindergarten Program for children aged three to five. Funded by the state and operated by local school districts, the Pre-kindergarten Program is an academic enrichment for children screened and determined to be at-risk of academic failure. The program requires that the lead staff have Type 04 certificates. The teachers can be in the classroom for a full-day or for part of a day. Class size is required to be no larger than 20 children per classroom with a minimum of two teachers. While typically housed in public schools, Pre-kindergarten programs can also be administered through child care centers, as is the case in Chicago. When housed in public schools, the State Pre-kindergarten Program serves only children deemed at-risk of academic failure. However, in child care centers, at-risk children may be mixed among non-at-risk children. The program runs generally two-and-one-half to three hours per day and operates only during the school year. In addition to providing academic enrichment, the State Pre-kindergarten Program also provides support services such as social workers, vision and hearing testing, specialized services provided by special education and all other services provided for public schools. In Chicago, enrollment is limited by the amount of funding available from the state. Head Start The federal government funds the Head Start Program, a comprehensive early child development program serving children ages three to five who live in families whose income is below the poverty level. Along with educational programming, Head Start offers a comprehensive array of health and social services to address the various needs of the child. In general, Head Start only provides services Chicago Early Childhood Program Characteristics Program State Pre-kindergarten Head Start Child Care Provides Full-Day Care Occasionally Provides Full-Year Care Provides an Education Component Lead Staff Educational Requirement Type 04 Certificate Associates Degree 1 year experience and 1 year college, including 6 hours in Child Development or Early Childhood Education Class Size/Staff Ratio Maximum 20 Children/2 Teachers 17 Children/2 Teachers 20 Children/2 Teachers 5

14 Pre-kindergarten Collaborations in Chicago: Model Programs Report Current Programs (continued) during the school year for three-and-a-half hours per day. Currently, there are waiting lists for Head Start in some areas of Chicago. Head Start standards require that lead teachers have a minimum of an Associates Degree, and that classes are no larger than 17 children with minimum of two teachers. Currently the city of Chicago Head Start program serves 17,000 children with $92 million. Most of these children are in part-day programs, but some are in full day programs, and in Early Head Start, a program for children 0 to three years of age. Head Start providers are required to meet federal performance standards. These standards include literacy and numerical benchmarks for children. Child Care Subsidy The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) administers the Child Care Subsidy Program in Illinois. Using a combination of state and federal funds, this program provides funding for care to children in low-income families. In order to be eligible, children must live in families whose income is at or below 50% of the state median income. This program serves children 0 to 13 years of age. Once eligible, parents can choose any the type of legal child care setting for their children. In order to use a subsidy, a licensed child care center must comply with all state licensing requirements, which are less rigorous than either State Pre-kindergarten or Head Start requirements. Lead teachers must have a minimum of one year experience and one year of college, including 6 hours of Child Development or Early Childhood Education. In addition, classrooms are limited to 20 children with two teachers. Subsidies are available for full-day full-year programs based on parental need. The Illinois Child Care Subsidy Program guarantees funding for all eligible children who apply. This program does not specifically fund any support services, and there are no outcomes required. Each of these early childhood programs have varying requirements as well as different strengths and limitations. Head Start and State Pre-kindergarten both offer high quality educational programs. In addition, they also offer comprehensive health and social services. However, because of the limited hours they offer, these programs are often inaccessible to working parents. Many subsidized child care programs, while accessible to most working parents, struggle to provide strong educational services with limited resources. 6

15 Collaborations To meet the early childhood education needs of children and their families, efforts have been ongoing in Chicago to form funding collaborations among State Pre-kindergarten and State Subsidized Child Care programs. By combining resources, these collaborations focus on providing low-income families with child care that has strong educational programming and supports the need to work by being available full-day for the entire year. Employing a Request for Proposals (RFP) process, CPS subcontracts with private child care agencies to provide Pre-kindergarten services within their programs. Funding is based on the agency s requested need and program goals. The primary goal of the program is to increase access to Prekindergarten service, especially for families who cannot use part-day, part-year services. By combining resources, the child care providers also are able to enhance their services, incorporating a strong educational component into their programs while maintaining an extended full-workday/full-year environment. Due to flexible program requirements, these collaborations tend to promote creativity and experimentation. Currently, there are 89 subcontracted full-workday/full-year Pre-kindergarten/ child care collaboration sites in Chicago. Each of the providers in the collaboration has developed a unique program which is structured within the parameters of their existing child care program and tailored to the needs of the children and families they serve. While each of these programs is unique, they share client, provider, and program characteristics required for participation. Children Characteristics CPS designed the Pre-kindergarten Collaboration to provide educational programming to children who were participating in center-based child care and who met certain eligibility criteria. In order to participate, children must reside in the city of Chicago, be between the ages of three and five, and screen eligible. The eligibility screening consists of assessing children s academic risk in the following areas: Health History Children s health history is assessed to determine potential risks that can affect academic achievement. Health risks might include birth to mothers under 17 or over 35, when prenatal care began, in-utero exposure to drugs or alcohol, birth traumas, low birth weight, and medical illness as a newborn. Children are also assessed on chronic and acute health issues during childhood. Family Characteristics Exposure to the child welfare system whether a child lives with their parents or has been placed in state custody is also a consideration. Income One of the potential risk factors is family income. Children are deemed at-risk if their family income makes them eligible for the federal food program. Home Language Children from non-english monolingual households or bilingual households are assessed to be at higher risk of academic failure. Early Screening Inventory This is a teacher assessment of skills, including fine motor, visual-sequential, language and 7

16 Pre-kindergarten Collaborations in Chicago: Model Programs Report Collaborations (continued) cognition, verbal expression, verbal reasoning and number concepts, and gross motor skills. Social Skills Screening This is an assessment that combines the observations of a screener, and reports by the parents. The screening assess a child s ability to follow directions, their ease of separation from the parent, temperament, and interactions with peers. Combined results of each of these criteria determine the eligibility of an individual child. Provider Characteristics In order to participate, centers must be able to show a need for educationally enhanced programs, demonstrate a community need for increasing Prekindergarten services, and be able to implement a developmentally appropriate program. In addition, centers must have at least one year of operating experience and be licensed by the city and state. Program Characteristics CPS allows child care agencies maximum flexibility in designing their programs and has only two basic requirements: 1) child care centers must ensure that their curriculum is developmentally appropriate for the children; and 2) teachers with an early childhood (Type 04) certificate must be on staff to implement the curriculum. Other than these general requirements, participating child care agencies develop their own approaches to blending State Pre-kindergarten money with state child care subsidies to create innovative programming. Curriculum The curriculum or teaching methods used within each child care agency applying for the Pre-kindergarten funding must be appropriate to the developmental levels of the children being served. Child Care agencies describe their teaching methods when submitting their proposals. The CPS staff then reviews these methods to ascertain whether they meet the requirements. The agencies interviewed all reported that they continued using the same curriculum that was in place when applying for the Pre-kindergarten Program. The curriculum varied from High Scope, to Reggio Emilia, to a mix of principles and philosophies. 8

17 Methodology To develop this report, the Day Care Action Council of Illinois (DCACI) convened a committee of child care professionals including child care providers, representatives of the Chicago Metropolitan Association for the Education of Young Children and from the Chicago Public Schools to serve in an advisory capacity. The Committee, in coordination with DCACI, developed a survey instrument (see Attachment A) and selection criteria for choosing providers to interview for this report. The committee agreed that respondents must represent: Economic and ethnic diversity; Alternative settings for providing care; and Varying agency size. To accomplish this, the committee selected at least two agencies from each of six city regions. It was important to represent the economic and ethnic diversity of Chicago neighborhoods to better ascertain whether such characteristics had any impact on program implementation. Similarly, the committee chose different types of care settings. They included a church-based provider, a child care center in a city college, a private hospital child care center, a for-profit agency and several non-for-profit community based organizations. The committee also chose agencies of varying sizes, from small, singlesite child care centers serving 40 to 50 children to large, multi-site agencies serving several hundred children. DCACI staff contacted the executive directors of the selected agencies and asked them to take part in the interview. A date was then set for the interview and the executive directors identified the staff who would respond. All interviews were scheduled over a four-week period in February and March of On the scheduled date, staff from DCACI and a committee member met in person with the child care agency s staff. The child care agency staff was asked to respond to each of the questions in the survey instrument (please see page 22). The interviews lasted from one-and-one-half to three hours. When necessary, staff called respondents to clarify information. Agency executive directors decided which staff member would participate in the interview based on whether he or she was familiar with the implementation, administration and finances of the CPS Prekindergarten Collaboration. In some situations the site director was the person interviewed. In other cases, the executive director responded. In a few situations the site director or the Pre-kindergarten teacher responded to our interview. In total, DCACI interviewed 13 agencies and 20 staff. Two of the agencies reported information on multiple sites. The agencies represented small programs of children, to large programs serving 200 or more children. In addition, they represented a broad array of provider types, including single-site child care programs and large multisite child care programs housed in community based organizations. Each of these agencies is unique in organization, client demographics, program design, implementation and size. Yet, similarities do exist in their approaches. 9

18 Program Models Program Models The interviews showed that agencies organized their Pre-kindergarten collaboration programs both around children and around staff. The organization around children fell into two models: 1) integrating the children into all of the classrooms available at the site, the Integrated Model; or 2) placing the children in the agency s Pre-kindergarten program in a designated classroom serving only these children, the Designated Model. Agencies also used two models for organizing staff: 1) addition of classroom staff, or 2) maintaining existing staff levels. The agencies decisions of what models to use were influenced by community need and funding constraints. The sections below describe the differences in each of these models. It begins with a vision being broad; rather than the funding driving the programs, funding supports the program. Carole Robertson Center for Learning Children s Classroom Placement The Integrated Model Nine of sixteen programs interviewed used the Integrated Model. In this model, the agency assigned children to classrooms regardless of their enrollment in the State Pre-K at risk program. While the Type 04 certified teacher in each classroom was expected to complete educational plans and assessments for the at-risk children, she generally offered the same services to the other children as well. The at-risk children benefited from their relationships with children who were not considered to be at-risk, and all children benefited from the enhanced program. 10 In order to use this model, centers must have a high enough percentage of children enrolled in the State Pre-K program to support the additional salary costs of the Type 04 teacher. State Pre-K funding in Chicago is based on a per-child cost to Chicago Public Schools of approximately $2,500 to $3,000 per year. For example, a 20-child classroom with 2 Pre-K children at $2,700 per year will generate only $5,400 annually toward a certified teacher s salary, fringe benefits, and other expenses. Even if the teacher covers two classrooms, one in the morning and one in the afternoon (see Staffing Models below), the agency would receive no more than $10,800 annually. On the other hand, if a classroom has 15 Pre-K children, it generates $40,500 annually. In five of the nine programs using the Integrated Model, large majorities of the children in the center were eligible for State Pre-kindergarten. In the remaining programs, there was a mix of Pre-kindergarten versus non-pre-kindergarten eligible children, but the volume of children was large enough to support the additional teacher salary costs. All of the agencies combined funding from the Pre-kindergarten Program and the State Child Care Subsidy program. The Designated Model The Designated Model refers to a design where staff assigns children to a classroom based on their eligibility for a particular funding source. Seven of the programs interviewed reported having a Designated Model program. These programs separated Pre-kindergarten from other child care classrooms. In these programs, the Pre-kindergarten children received enhanced services that might not have been available to other children.

19 Program Models Program Models (continued) Staffing Models Adding Classroom Staff: Thirteen of the sixteen programs interviewed enhanced classroom operations by adding a certified teacher to existing staff. The Three-Teacher Model Child care classrooms operating a ten- to twelvehour day generally have more than two but fewer than three full-time-equivalent teachers (by teacher we mean teacher or teacher assistant). For example, there could be one teacher-qualified (but not necessarily certified) teacher from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. while attendance does not exceed 10 children, then a teacher and teacher assistant from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., followed by a teacher alone from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. when attendance drops again. That totals 2.5 full-time-equivalent teachers. Nine programs used Pre-K funds to staff each classroom with three teachers dedicated to that classroom. One of those three is a Type 04 certified teacher. This arrangement reduces or eliminates the need for teachers to float between classrooms and for children to move to other classrooms in the early or late hours of the day. Children experience more staff, better qualified staff, more continuity, and fewer transitions. The Moving Teacher Model Four programs increased staff by adding certified teachers to existing staff, and using them as master teachers covering two classrooms each. The teacher spends half her time in one classroom and half in the other. This model contributes to joint planning among classrooms. Some agencies reported that they preferred the three-teacher model but changed to the moving teacher model because they could not find enough certified teachers to cover every classroom all day. Maintaining Classroom Staff: Higher Credentials Only Three programs continued to staff at previous levels (usually DCFS-mandated levels), but replaced lesser-qualified teachers with certified teachers. The chart on the next page summarizes the general characteristics of each of the participating programs. 11

20 Agency Summary Agency Name Type of Model Type of Agency Hours of Operation Pre-K Children versus Total 3 5 year olds at Site Pre-K Classrooms versus Total at Site Social Services Offered On Site Albany Park* Carole Robertson Center for Learning Designated and Integrated Integrated Multi-Site Community Agency Multi-Site Child Care Agency 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. 77/ /120 a 4/18 6/17 Use C.P.S social work staff. Social worker on site. Chicago Commons (All Sites) Integrated Multi-Site Community Agency 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. 180/210 10/10 Counseling on site. Chinese American Service League Christopher House (Uptown) Integrated Integrated Single-Site Community Agency Multi-Site Child Care Agency 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 60/60 92/100 b 3/3 5/14 Parent involvement and health liaison, and literacy specialist on site. Speech therapy, counseling and medical services on site. Daley College Designated Single-Site College Sponsored 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 25/51 2/3 Hearing and dental screenings; referrals to CPS social workers as needed. El Hogar del Nino Erie Neighborhood House Laurence Armour Integrated Integrated Integrated Multi-Site Community Agency Multi-Site Community Agency Single-Site Hospital Sponsored 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 6:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. 20/40 110/120 c 20/65 d 2/2 6/11 3/7 All children are eligible for a full range of social services offered through the community agency. Speech therapy, social worker and clinical services on site. Use of Chicago School of Psychology externs on site. Community health nurse. Teddy Bear Nursery* Designated Multi-Site For Profit Child Care Center 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. 100/260 5/13 Hearing and dental screenings, outside referrals as needed Trinity United Church of Christ Designated Multi-Site Church Based Child Care 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 40/102 2/6 Social worker on site. YMCA Austin Designated Multi-Site Community Agency 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. 20/79 1/5 Use C.P.S social work staff. YWCA, Harris Integrated Multi-Site Community Agency 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. 46/94 3/5 Counseling on site. *Information reported for multiple sites. a Total children = 324; 70 infants or toddlers, 34 1/2 day Head Start, 120 preschool, 100 school age. b Total children = 244; 24 infants or toddler, 20 1/2 day Head Start, 20 Head Start Child Care collaboration, 100 preschool, 20 kindergarten, 60 school age. c Total children = 205; 59 are two-year olds, 120 are preschool, and 26 are school age. d Total children = 137; 65 are preschool, the remainder are infants and toddlers, kindergartners, and before and after-school. 12

21 Program Enhancements and Benefits Across the board, respondents indicated that additional resources made available to child care centers through the CPS Pre-kindergarten Collaboration allowed them enhance their programs in multiple ways. Providers noted that staff was better able to observe children and to use the information they gathered to relate more effectively to children. Staff was more creative and involved in the curriculum development process. Children were freer to explore. Finally, the providers noted that the administrative processes necessary to run an organization ran more smoothly. Providers were asked to identify improvements in five major areas: staff/child interactions, curriculum development and implementation, staff development and salaries, environment, and management/ administration. While these areas of improvement can be viewed as distinct, they are all highly inter-related. I ve seen teachers get more involved with the children. It [the training] has really educated the teachers as far as the screening tools. And they re more conscientious of what they re doing in the classrooms. YWCA Staff/Child Interactions Staff/child interaction is a vital fundamental element of any classroom. The extent to which these interactions are warm, nurturing and developmentally appropriate, largely determines the quality of a child care program. Several factors influence the quality of such interactions. These include the amount of time staff has to spend in one-on-one interactions with children, their ability to observe children and use observations to implement curriculum, and their understanding of child development. Nearly all of the agencies interviewed stressed that one of the benefits of the CPS Pre-kindergarten Collaboration was the enhancement of staff/child interactions. Agencies reported that staff was both more aware of their relationships with children and more focused on developing these relationships. Agencies attributed the enhancement of staff/child interactions to five main factors: 1. More Adequate Staffing Pre-kindergarten funding allowed eight of the thirteen agencies interviewed to reduce their staff/child ratios by having three teaching staff in a classroom of 20. All of these agencies used the Integrated Model. These lower ratios allowed children and teachers to have more opportunity for one-on-one communication. It also allowed teachers more time to observe children within the classroom. Teachers were then able to use their observations when planning and implementing curriculum. The increased observation also helped teachers immediately address issues that arose in the classroom without having to take time away from the rest of the group. 13

22 Pre-kindergarten Collaborations in Chicago: Model Programs Report Program Enhancements and Benefits (continued) They [children] have more one-onone interaction and more chances to talk with the teacher. We are more able to take a child who needs more attention and provide it in the classroom, because we have an extra teacher. Chinese American Service League 2. More Highly Trained Staffed Additional funding enabled agencies to hire and retain more highly trained staff. Due to the funding requirements of the Pre-kindergarten program, all agencies hired staff with Type 04 certificate. This certification concentrates on the educational needs of younger children. Agencies found that the Type 04 certificate staff they hired had had many opportunities within their college career to practice interactions with children. Such training provides teaching staff with the tools needed to observe children effectively and gives them information regarding developmentally appropriate child behavior. Training allows them to understand what to expect in the classroom, and how to handle a variety of situations more effectively. The teachers are actually more aware of how to observe the children s behavior. We do a lot of observation and the teachers have a better understanding of the importance of observation in the visual planning and making sure we understand where a child is developmentally. Laurance Armour 3. Curriulum Development Agencies were also able to hire resource staff specifically trained in curriculum development and implementation to work directly with teaching staff. Seven agencies hired staff to specifically concentrate on this. These resource staff observed what teachers did in the classroom, evaluated the curriculum, and made adjustments to meet the individual needs of children and helped teachers implement those adjustments. The teachers now get more information about how to work with children who have special needs. Christopher House 4. Increased On-going Training The Pre-kindergarten Program places a great deal of importance on staff training and development. CPS provides at least monthly training to collaboration staff. In addition, contracts may contain funding for additional training. Providers identified such training as yielding multiple benefits ranging from knowledge and skill development, to peer support and confidence building, to opportunities to attain certification. For example, training helped staff maintain skills and develop new skills for dealing with children, and provided the opportunity to share real life experiences and learn from peers. Agencies reported that training helped some classroom staff develop the skills necessary to identify and use better evaluation tools and to understand more concretely child development. One director stated that they see some improved staff/child interactions because now staff really understands the child development principles and understands how to relate them to children. Training took the teachers away from their everyday setting, showed them examples of behavior, and provided alternative methods for dealing with such behavior. This helped build their skills and self-confidence when working directly in the classroom. 14

23 Program Enhancements and Benefits The Pre-kindergarten workshops were also valuable in training staff how to identify the need for outside services and how to locate these services. Teaching staff felt they now had more options in meeting individual needs of children either through peer consultation or engaging a social worker. These skills and resources helped teaching staff feel better able to deal with a variety of problems and situations, giving them more confidence when dealing with children in the classroom. Socialization in the classroom a child hugging another child without any teacher direction because they have been through it with the teacher before. The child saying, I m sorry and hugging the other child. Those are things that only a day care professional would be able to spot as being the higher level and those were the direct result of staff receiving more training which is made available through State Pre-kindergarten. El Hogar del Nino Finally, agencies were also able to use Pre-kindergarten funds to help teachers attain needed certification. One agency reported hiring staff with degrees in disciplines other than education such as music and fine art which provided another level of capacity that enriched the program. Such staff members were later sponsored to attain certification. 5. Supportive Services Another factor influencing staff/child interactions was the addition of supportive services. Supportive services staff not only served to help children, but helped train teaching staff to apply screening tools to plan their lessons and activities in ways that are more directed to an individual child s needs. Several agencies used the Pre-kindergarten funding to bring in educational coordinators, curriculum coordinators, and resource teachers. These staff offered mentoring and guidance to classroom staff, provided educational consultation, developed inservice training, monitored the educational programming in each classroom, and supported the teachers. Some agencies also hired social workers, speech therapists, or parent involvement liaisons to screen children for eligibility, provide necessary treatment on-site, identify and refer children to outside services, work with parents to ensure parent involvement, and serve as liaisons with CPS. Curriculum Curriculum development and implementation is critical to having a strong early childhood education program. The curriculum used with young children must be geared to their developmental levels. It also needs to be flexible to allow for adjustments as children s needs change. When applying for funding from CPS, the agency had to describe their curriculum model or philosophy and agree to use CPS s screening and assessment tools to follow children. A good program requires that the staff sit and plan as a team to meet the individual and group needs of their children in a range of different areas which include: education, music, large motor, fine motor, social and all kinds of skills. Carole Robertson Center for Learning All of the agencies interviewed used their existing curriculum in the design of their Pre-kindergarten program. Some agencies saw improvements in the effectiveness and implementation of the curriculum because of the CPS Pre-kindergarten Collaboration. Agencies attributed improvements to the fact that teaching staff was able to assess their curriculum on a regular basis, make adjustments based on classroom observations, and provide children with a variety of activity options. 15

24 Pre-kindergarten Collaborations in Chicago: Model Programs Report Program Enhancements and Benefits (continued) Because we have more adequate funding, we are able to work more intensely at having a higher quality of curriculum. Chicago Commons Agency directors identified two main factors as influencing the implementation and development of their program curriculum: better staff/child ratios and better staff development and training. 1. Staff/Child Ratios Staff of the Carole Robertson Center for Learning articulated the importance of staff/child ratios best: it (the Pre-kindergarten Program) gives the staff/child ratios to implement the curriculum the way it needs to be implemented. It gives you the staff/child ratios to have all of your interest areas up and running at once. The addition of staff, both in the classroom and as support to the classroom helped teaching staff identify the needs of the children and tailor their daily plans to meet these needs. Teachers adjusted teaching plans and goals as children s needs changed and as they grew. However, all of this required enough staff to allow teachers to observe and identify the needs in the The Pre-K money was really able to take a bare bones program and really give it a lot of depth and richness in terms of how we can enhance the quality and make sure that the children are getting the best education. Chinese American Service League classroom. Eight of the thirteen agencies interviewed increased staff in their classrooms from two teachers as required by DCFS licensing standards, to three teachers. The new staff person generally took the title of Lead Teacher and had the required 16 Type 04 certificate. One agency had one Type 04 certificate teacher for every two classrooms. Having additional staff allowed teachers to spend more one-on-one time with the children. This allowed the teacher to guide children individually without taking time and attention away from the larger group. State Pre-K has structured their program in such a way that allows us at each particular site and center to choose a curriculum that best meets the needs of our client base, our families and our staff. Albany Park Seven agencies used the Pre-kindergarten funding to bring in additional services by hiring specialized staff. Several agencies hired educational and curriculum coordinators, and resource teachers. These staff offered mentoring and guidance to classroom staff, provided educational consultation, developed in-service training, monitored the educational programming in each classroom, and supported the teachers. 2. Staff Development and Training Respondents also indicated that better staff development and training was related to improved curriculum development and implementation. Respondents noted that staff brought the knowledge they learned in training back to their centers and applied these lessons on a daily basis. Since curriculum planning was a team effort, the training of one individual helped all teachers at a center tailor their classroom planning. One agency stated that teaching staff was more helpful in their planning and more able to articulate what they wanted. Another stated staff was more creative because of the training they received.