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Access and Outreach

As discussed in Section 2 of this toolkit, professional development systems have several interconnected components. These components fall under five broad elements: (1) core knowledge; (2) access and outreach; (3) qualifications, credentials, and pathways; (4) funding; and (5) quality assurance. As seen in the following table, this section will provide information about the access and outreach element of a professional development system, which helps the public understand why professional development matters and what opportunities are available.

System Question

System Element

What is it?

Core knowledge

Why does it matter and what is available?

Access and outreach

How can we work toward it?

Qualifications, credentials, and pathways

How can we afford it?

Funding

How do we ensure and measure achievement?

Quality assurance

This section provides an overview of the access and outreach element and its components, key points from provider and policy perspectives, a State Story about its access and outreach efforts, brief State examples, and related resources. Appendices F and G include related planning tools.

Element Overview

Reaching all early care and education caregivers in a State or Territory is a huge challenge. Rural and urban locations, multiple languages and literacy levels, and different professional (or nonprofessional) aspirations are just some of the differences that make the early care and education workforce so wonderfully diverse and yet so difficult to support. Outreach efforts, activities, and ongoing supports must incorporate relevant cultural, background, linguistic, and individual frameworks to support the population served by the professional development system most effectively.

Systems incorporate access and outreach activities that address the question of why does it matter? by highlighting why professional development is important. These efforts also address the question of what is available? and how practitioners can plan for attaining professional development. Such activities can include clearly defining the goals and mission of the system; providing career and personal development planning, advising, and other support; promoting the availability of professional development offerings; offering training with multiple delivery methods; and establishing public engagement initiatives. Access is also inextricably linked to affordability, as described further in Section 7.

Access and outreach components

  • Vision and Mission Statements, and Guiding Principles

    Vision and mission statements communicate the purpose and objectives of a professional development system. Clearly communicated statements engage practitioners and system supporters, helping people see their place and possibilities in the system. Along with guiding principles, they can help keep decision-making focused and provide a rallying point for program staff, service participants, and the public.

  • Online Database of Training and Education Opportunities

    Online databases of training and education opportunities help inform practitioners about the training and education options that are available to them. This component can include training calendars and directories of college degree programs. Training calendars are published lists of trainings for personnel, which generally include short descriptions, locations, dates, and times of sessions. Some training calendars also categorize offerings by geographic region, content, language, and training organization or trainer. Often, these types of training databases are part of the larger practitioner or training registry system, described further in Section 6 of this toolkit. For any online strategy to be successful, computers and Internet access must be readily available to providers either at their homes, worksites, or in public places (e.g., libraries, colleges, etc.).

  • Career Development Advising

    Career development advising is a process of informing people about entry and continuing education requirements for professional roles in the early care and education field. It also involves helping people assess current qualifications, identify education resources, and plan their own career advancement with attention to culture and language.

    Advising can be done formally by skilled, trained, and compensated advisers who are accessible to all or specific segments of the workforce. However, advising can also be done informally by peers, supervisors, trainers, and other people who come into contact with providers. Whether career advising is formal or informal, it must be relationship-based, friendly, and nonthreatening.

    Career advising helps providers assess their current qualifications, knowledge, and skills and create a plan for attaining professional development and career advancement. Professional development plans should be reviewed on a regular basis and adjusted as necessary. This planning process can help providers identify the following:

    • Goals and objectives as professionals in the early childhood field or beyond;
    • Specific requirements needed to obtain credentials, certificates, or degrees;
    • Courses, training, and certificate/degree programs that will lead to achieving goals and objectives;
    • Educational, financial, material, and/or human resources that facilitate accessibility and take into account distance, language, format, cost, etc.; and
    • Additional knowledge and skills needed to achieve professional goals, such as computer, mathematical, and time management skills.
  • Continuum of Individual and Group Supports

    Early care and education providers are often described by higher education institutions as nontraditional students. In addition to traditional educational approaches and offerings, they typically require and benefit from a continuum, or range, of supports. Such supports can include initial orientations to the field offered by licensing specialists or other technical assistance providers, peer support groups to minimize isolation, and leadership development opportunities. As nontraditional students, practitioners might have basic literacy and math skill deficits that make it difficult to engage in professional development offerings, including meeting matriculation requirements. Providing general skills and education supports (e.g., bilingual education, literacy, computer, and math skill building, etc.) can help address such difficulties.

    Providers can also obtain support, knowledge, and skills through mentoring and coaching. Mentoring can provide a way for new providers to build their skills by working closely with more experienced colleagues. It also helps mentors remain in the field and advance in their professions, often with financial incentives. Some States have formal mentoring programs, but mentor and protégé relationships can also form naturally in early care and education settings.

  • Multiple Professional Development Delivery Methods

    With such a diverse workforce, how early care and education professional development supports are offered is just as important as what is offered. Members of the workforce are often working while taking courses, are older than most college students, and might have family and other commitments that conflict with their schedules. Providing multiple delivery methods can help practitioners overcome some or all of these challenges.

    One nontraditional form of training delivery that is commonly used is distance learning, which can take many forms, such as Web-based courses, correspondence courses, video conferences, and combinations of these methods. To make this type of training accessible to providers, States and Territories might need to make support available to help increase providers’ computer literacy and offer courses in multiple languages. States can also encourage enrollment by counting the training toward meeting State licensing requirements. To facilitate this, States may develop online course standards or protocols to evaluate and approve training.

    States can also make professional development accessible to providers by offering the following:

    • Audio conferences, videotapes, email, and face-to-face seminars;
    • Trainings at local, regional, or national conferences;
    • Satellite college campuses;
    • Mobile libraries with professional development resources, such as journals, videos, textbooks, and sample portfolios;
    • Collaborations between community groups that have long-standing relationships with providers to organize, host, or deliver training jointly; and
    • Courses as modularized workshopsmdash;credit-bearing courses that are developed into a set of related workshops.

Perspectives on Access and Outreach

Professional development systems impact people in different roles in unique ways. The following provides some key points about the importance of the access and outreach element from both the provider and policy perspectives.

Provider perspective

  • To expand the number of providers who benefit from ongoing professional development opportunities, they need to be informed, have access to training/education, and be supported. 
  • Providers need to know where and how to gain the knowledge and competency needed to implement a quality program.
  • Providers need help learning about how to access training and technical assistance that takes into account where they live, which type of program they work in, which language(s) they speak, which income bracket they fall under, how well they read and write, what their previous experiences have been, and their professional (or nonprofessional) aspirations.
  • Including license-exempt providers, such as family, friend, and neighbor caregivers, in outreach supports can help them provide quality care.

Policy perspective

  • Access and outreach efforts need to reach all providers.
  • As research points to the importance of cultural continuity for children in care and parental choice, it is especially important to include professional development activities that are appropriate for people from multiple cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
  • Identifying collaboration partners, such as universities, local community colleges, and training centers, is key to helping ensure training is offered in rural areas, in multiple languages, and is appropriate for a variety of audiences.

State Story: Montana

The following describes Montana’s approach to access and outreach. A brief overview of its professional development system provides some context for Montana’s access and outreach-related efforts. Also included is a description of how its specific work began, connections to the larger professional development system, system evolution, and lessons learned.

The National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center (NCCIC) would like to thank Libby Hancock, director of the Early Childhood Project at Montana State University, for her contributions to the following State Story.

The Early Childhood Project (ECP) manages and oversees early care and education career development activities in Montana. ECP manages the Montana Practitioner Registry database, conducts research, identifies training and education gaps, approves training for State licensing requirements, and develops new opportunities for learning.

How it began

In fall 1995, ECP at Montana State University invited a diverse group of people to begin discussions about an early childhood professional development system for Montana. A small grant from the Child Care and Development Fund funded the effort. 

Montana was very strategic and inclusive about who was asked to participate. Representatives from the following were invited: child care resource and referral agencies, Head Start, the Office of Public Instruction, early childhood professional organizations, the Early Childhood Services Bureau, child care licensing, and others. Center directors and family and group child care providers were also invited. The Wheelock College Center for Career Development in Early Care and Education provided technical assistance at a 2-day event, which provided the group with an understanding of national trends. 

Individual community leaders took on the challenge of sharing the vision with a larger group of people in their communities, and a mechanism was developed to provide feedback to ECP staff for revisions and formulation of goals and objectives. This give-and-take, back-and-forth process of input and feedback from the field energized people and increased ownership of the vision and plans to move ahead.  

Language used to describe the system was inclusive of practitioners at all levels, backgrounds, and work settings. For example, the term "career path" was chosen as opposed to ladder or lattice to reflect the belief that people could start at very basic levels and continue within career development frameworks that met their individual needs and circumstances.  

System connections

Previous grants from the Northwest Area and The Kellogg Foundation set the stage for collaborative work and systems thinking. The clear focus on development of a professional development system helped the task force and practitioners realize that this would be a multiyear process of achieving lofty goals in a strategic way. It also afforded the time, energy, staff, and resources necessary to keep the State plan alive and momentum going. Respect for the unique communities and a dynamic process of engagement proved to be key to success of the planning stage. Access and outreach strategies were woven into each component of the plan—core knowledge, career lattice, training approval, trainer development, and the practitioner registry.

Evolution

By 1996 the task force adopted the Montana Early Care and Education Career Development State Plan and created the first year action plan. The State plan included primary strategies, while annual action plans established specific tasks. In the first year, a foundational interdisciplinary core knowledge document was developed. The companion Career Path Framework, Montana’s career lattice, also took shape that year. The Career Path Framework outlined professional development from basic entry-level through postsecondary degrees. Practitioners and partners from all corners of the State provided vital input into development of both the core knowledge and the lattice. Interactive statewide television was utilized for document review and public input as well.

Each component of the system was piloted prior to full implementation. By fall 1999, all parts of the professional development system were up and running, including use of the core knowledge, placement on the Career Path, training approval processes, and a practitioner registry. The State quickly moved to integrate The Practitioner Registry into the larger early childhood system by mandating active participation for eligibility for many of the State’s Best Beginnings quality initiatives. These initiatives help provide funds to programs and practitioners to support continuing education, provide grants for quality improvements that specialize in infant and toddler training and certification, and provide increased compensation incentives.

In 2004 Montana’s training approval system helped ECP develop a computer interface with the State system to track all licensed/registered providers’ training.

Challenges

As ECP developed, it found that the biggest challenge was to keep the momentum going. Concerted efforts were needed to help the task force and practitioners remain engaged in the long development process. Extensive travel across the State was essential to help providers understand how the system worked, what it meant, and how they could be a part of it. The system still faces challenges in meeting the needs of Native American colleagues located on seven reservations and assisting Head Start and Early Head Start programs in participating fully.

The specialized database necessary to operate the registry system and interface with the State computer system is a key component to ECP’s access and outreach efforts. However, finding and retaining the technical expertise to maintain the system continues to be a challenge. Effectively using data from the registry for policy development also remains an ongoing challenge.

Lessons learned

Stakeholders wanted to know more about best practices at the beginning of planning efforts. After 8 years, ECP is now integrating and revising its system to integrate new elements during an upgrade/rebuild process.

The process could have benefited from having the technical staff responsible for developing the registry system’s computer programs participate earlier, although when they did join the planning groups they were knowledgeable about early childhood and helped greatly. Designing a program and then expecting technology to satisfy all the demands was very difficult. Designing both the technology and professional development systems together is ideal.

From its experiences, ECP recommends talking to colleagues in other States, finding champions, and sharing experiences and stories. It also emphasizes that stakeholders should expect glitches and should pilot all phases before a full launch. Building ongoing technical consultation and support into the annual budget is also important.

Weaving access and outreach into professional development systems in meaningful ways requires listening to people from all sectors and all levels. Montana recommends that States and Territories be flexible and responsive to feedback and expect to undergo revisions and updates regularly. ECP anticipated revisions would be made to its core knowledge and Career Path Framework and planned to update it in 5 years. Planning for that revision process worked well and gave people a sense that the administrators were willing to evolve the system to meet the needs of the field. It is important that the professional development system plan is not just a document but a responsive strategy for meeting practitioner needs.

Sources

NCCIC gathered information included in Montana’s story via an interview with Libby Hancock on July 18, 2007. Information also comes from various ECP materials, which are available on the Montana State University Web site at www.Montana.edu/ecp.

State Examples

The following are some examples of States’ access and outreach efforts. They do not include all States that have access and outreach activities, but are meant to represent a range of approaches States have taken to develop this system element.

Vision, mission, and guiding principles

  • Missouri

    Missouri’s Opportunities in a Professional Education Network (OPEN) Initiative supports many career development efforts. OPEN’s primary focus is development and implementation of a career development system for early childhood and school-age/after-school professionals.

    OPEN’s vision is that competent, reflective, and equitably compensated professionals will provide high-quality early childhood and school-age/after-school education for Missouri’s young children and youth. The following are OPEN’s guiding principles:

    • National shortages in quality early childhood education programs are a public problem. Effectively addressing them requires engaging all stakeholders (parents, early childhood professionals, and policy-makers).
    • Quality early childhood education is positively associated with a civil society and a productive economy.
    • Well-prepared teachers are the link between quality programs and positive outcomes for children and families.
    • Preparation for providing quality early childhood education takes place through specialized training and education.
    • Teachers’ compensation must be commensurate with their educational attainment.

    For additional information, call OPEN at 877-782-0185 or visit the Web at www.openinitiative.org.

  • New Jersey

    Professional Impact NJ (formerly the New Jersey Professional Development Center for Early Child Care and Education) grew out of New Jersey Sows the Seeds for Growth, a statewide initiative that established steps for implementing a system to enhance the preparation and continuing education of childhood and out-of-school-time practitioners. Professional Impact NJ partnered with the New Jersey Association of Child Care Resources and Referral Agencies (NJACCRRA) to create a professional development system. Professional Impact NJ is based at Kean University, with funding provided through the New Jersey Department of Human Services and other sources.

    Professional Impact NJ’s mission is to promote and coordinate systems for the educational development of early childhood and primary education, family child care, and after-school program professionals. It advocates for policies and standards that result in high-quality care and education for New Jerey’s children and families.

    Visit the Web at www.njpdc.org or call 908-737-4240 for more information.

  • Oregon

    The Oregon Center for Career Development in Childhood Care and Education promotes the quality of early care and education for Oregon’s children and families by providing a career development system for practitioners. Its mission statement is presented in three areas:

    1. The Focus: Positive growth through professional development.
    2. The Work: Provide leadership in development and operation of integrated and statewide professional development standards and systems, promote professional development to achieve high-quality care and education for children and youth, and create and support training and education.
    3. The Activities: Developing professional systems, setting professional standards, and providing professional support.

    For additional information, call the center at 503-725-8535 or visit the Web at www.centerline.pdx.edu.

Online database of training and education opportunities

Online Training Calendars

Online Training Registries

Career development advising

Professional Development Advisers

  • Illinois

    Professional development advisors are available throughout Illinois to help people with professional development planning. Staff from Illinois Gateways to Opportunity match early childhood professionals with advisers in their local areas who will best meet their needs. Additional information is available by visiting the Web at www.ilgateways.com/profdevel/profdevadvisors.aspx or calling 888-548-8080.

Individual Professional Development Plans

  • New York

    New York’s comprehensive online Career Development Resource Guide was developed for three main reasons: (1) to provide people who are considering careers in early childhood and school-age programs with basic information about the field, available career opportunities, and how to prepare for particular positions; (2) to assist people already working in the field in evaluating their current status and developing plans for their ongoing professional development; and (3) to assist program administrators and supervisors in helping their employees develop professional development plans. The guide is available on the Web at www.earlychildhood.org/cdrg/intro.cfm.

  • Vermont

    The Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center for Early Childhood and Afterschool Professionals has developed a Career Advising Guide available on the Web at http://northernlights.vsc.edu/career.html. The guide includes many components, including a career lattice for advising, resources, and forms and instructions for developing an individual professional development plan.

Continuum of individual and group supports

Mentoring

  • California

    The California Early Childhood Mentor Program is the largest mentoring program for child care professionals in the United States and links improved compensation with mentors’ professional development. Since 1988 it has provided advanced training for experienced child care workers who wish to become mentors to new practitioners. Additional information is available by visiting the Web at www.ecementor.org or calling 415-452-5600.

    The Potential of Mentoring: An Assessment of the California Early Childhood Mentor Teacher Program (Spring 1995), by Marcy Whitebook and Laura Sakai, published by the Center for the Child Care Workforce (a project of the American Federation of Teachers Educational Foundation), is the result of a 2-year evaluation focusing on the California Early Childhood Mentor Teacher Program. The report identifies the program’s strengths and weaknesses and includes recommendations. Additional information about this report is available on the Web at www.ecementor.org/Care.htm.

  • South Dakota

    The Building Blocks Child Care Mentor Program, sponsored by the South Dakota Department of Social Services, is a mentoring program designed to help new family child care providers learn how to operate a child care business. Trained family child care providers serve as mentors to new family child care providers, offering them information, encouragement, and resources. Additional information is available on the Web at http://dss.sd.gov/childcare/mentorprogram.

Multiple professional development delivery methods

Distance Learning

  • Indiana

    An online Child Development Associate credential is available from the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration to meet the needs of providers in areas of the State with little or no access to traditional education. Students can take these classes when it is convenient and when they have access to a computer. Additional information is available on the Web at www.in.gov/fssa/childcarelearning.  

  • Minnesota

    Eager-to-Learn, a Minnesota Child Care Resource & Referral Network program, provides educational opportunities using electronic, or e-learning, technologies. The program features information and education about e-learning, links to other e-learning sites, and a virtual meeting site for professional early childhood and school-age groups. The goal of this program is to provide a viable alternative for delivering learning experiences in a setting that reduces geographic, economic, and other barriers of traditional professional development. Courses can be completed for in-service hours and continuing education units (a credit option is available for some courses). Additional information is available by visiting the Web at http://etl.mnchildcare.org.

Modularized Workshops

  • Maine

    The Maine Roads to Quality: Child Care and Early Education Career Development Center (MRQ) manages a comprehensive, coordinated career development system for the State. MRQ’s Core Knowledge Training Program is offered in a series of modularized workshops. Maine’s 11 child care resource development centers offer 180 hours of approved core knowledge training in the following categories: healthy, safe environments; observation and assessment; child development; developmentally appropriate practice; guidance; relationships with families; individual and cultural diversity; and business and professional development. In addition, the centers offer Preparing Your Portfolio for Credit, a 3-hour course that covers the guidelines practitioners must meet to complete their portfolios for college credit. Additional information is available by visiting the Web at http://muskie.usm.maine.edu/maineroads or calling 888-900-0055.

Reaching Family, Friend, and Neighbor Caregivers

  • Kansas

    The Kansas Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies instituted the Relative Care Provider Outreach Project, funded by the Kansas Health Foundation. The project offers relative child care providers training and education through home visits. The following are the process steps that were used to reach these providers: identify relatives providing child care to members of their families, contact each of the relative care providers by an initial letter, follow up with telephone calls, and offer to bring child care gift packages to their homes. Each package included a children’s book, flyers with child care tips, a checklist of health and safety issues, a book about how to become a licensed family child care provider, and a local resource and referral training calendar. During home visits, project staff discussed the providers’ daily child care routines, child development, developmentally appropriate activities, and other topics of interest. The Relative Care Provider Outreach Project, by Linda M. Mitchell, Wichita State University, is a report about project results. This resource is available on the Web at www.kaccrra.org/story_files/180/180_ss_file1.pdf.

Selected Resources

The following are a sample of resources covering topics related to access and outreach. These resources are categorized by components of the access and outreach element, and are listed in alphabetical order by title. Additional resources are available via NCCIC’s Library, which can be accessed at http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?do=oll.search.

Online database of training and education opportunities

Title:

National Directory of Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Institutions

Author:

Council for Professional Recognition and National Center for Early Development and Learning

Publisher:

Council for Professional Recognition and National Center for Early Development and Learning

URL:

www.cdacouncil.org/res_nd.htm

 

This online directory provides lists of universities and colleges that have early childhood education programs in each State.

Continuum of individual and group supports

Title:

"Innovations in E-Learning: New Promise for Professional Development," Beyond the Journal. Young Children on the Web.

Author:

Chip Donohue and Roger Neugebauer, for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

Publisher:

NAEYC

Date:

May 2004

URL:

www.journal.naeyc.org/btj/200405/InnovationsinELearning.pdf

 

This resource presents trends and examples of successful e-learning programs and practices for professional growth and development of those who teach early childhood education. Examples of higher education institutions that offer online degree programs for early childhood professionals are listed. Collaborations are also listed that are expanding e-learning opportunities. Examples are provided of technology tools and solutions that support provision of training programs and courses. Guidelines for appropriate practice and faculty development are also presented. The article emphasizes that policy discussions should address outcomes from distance learning, access, articulation, accreditation, implementation, and funding.


Title:

Leadership Pathways for Early Education: Community Strategies to Enhance Professional Development

Author:

Valora Washington, Tamara Bates, and Theresa Mayberry-Dunn

Publisher:

Caroline and Sigmund Schott Foundation and Schott Center for Public and Early Education

Date:

2003

URL:

www.schottfellowship.org/files/publications/Deborah%202.pdf

 

This report provides a description of the Massachusetts’s programs as part of the Leadership Pathways initiative, which focused on developing early childhood education leaders in communities of color and promoting racial, ethnic, gender, and economic diversity in the early care and education field.

Title:

Putting the Pro in Protégé: A Guide to Mentoring in Head Start and Early Head Start

Author:

American Institutes for Research, for the Head Start Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Publisher:

Head Start Bureau

Date:

2001

URL:

To order this publication, visit the Head Start Information and Publication Center Web site at www.headstartinfo.org.

 

This resource describes basic principles, key components, and necessary supports for effective mentoring.


Title:

Supporting Early Childhood Professionals Through Content-Focused Mentoring: A Resource Guide

Author:

Kimberly Elliott, Susan Washburn, Patricia Fahey, Satu Mehta, Christine Pond, Leslie Ross-Degnan, Carla Seymour, Su Theriault, and Karen White, Center for Children and Families

Publisher:

Education Development Center, Inc.

Date:

2003

URL:

http://ccf.edc.org/PDF/MentorRG_Eng.pdf

 

This report includes five aspects of content-focused mentoring and provides extensive lists of related resources for each. The topics include the following:

  • Charting a course for content-focused mentoring;
  • The change process;
  • Training and support for mentors;
  • Training and support for protégés; and
  • Evaluation and continuous program improvement.

Multiple professional development delivery methods

Title:

"Innovations in E-Learning: New Promise for Professional Development," Beyond the Journal. Young Children on the Web.

Author:

Chip Donohue and Roger Neugebauer, for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

Publisher:

NAEYC

Date:

May 2004

URL:

www.journal.naeyc.org/btj/200405/InnovationsinELearning.pdf

 

This resource presents trends and examples of successful e-learning programs and practices for professional growth and development of those who teach early childhood education. Examples of higher education institutions that offer online degree programs for early childhood professionals are listed. Collaborations are also listed that are expanding e-learning opportunities. Examples are provided of technology tools and solutions that support provision of training programs and courses. Guidelines for appropriate practice and faculty development are also presented. The article emphasizes that policy discussions should address outcomes from distance learning, access, articulation, accreditation, implementation, and funding.


Title:

A Long-Awaited Conversation: Dialogue to Bridge the High-Tech/High-Touch Gap in Early Childhood Workforce Preparation and Professional Development

Author:

Douglas Clark, for the Child Care Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Publisher:

Child Care Bureau

Date:

2004

URL:

http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/bridgegap/bridgegap.pdf

 

This report describes events and discussions around the topic of technology and professional development that took place at the 2004 Leadership Connections conference held in Chicago. Outcomes from the meeting are summarized as five cross-cutting themes: (1) "What We Already Know About Learning and Effective Teaching Also Applies to Training Models That Are Delivered Via Media and Technology," (2) "Now Is the Time to Get Intentional About Capacity Building," (3) "Collaboration Is Key," (4) "Behind the Hype, the Hope, and the Hearsay: The Practical Realities of Technology-Mediated Distance Learning," and (5) "Important Questions Remain."