Commitment to Professionalism. Due by Day 7. As leaders in early childhood education we are in the unique position of creating partnerships with the community, organizations, and local government in an effort to promote the needs of the children we are serving. Through a program’s daily operation, we are witnesses to the specific issues that are facing the children, families, and community in which we work. When we highlight and broadcast these issues and advocate for a community’s needs, we are also advocating for increased awareness of the value and professionalism of the field of early childhood education. When we participate in advocating in our field we are further demonstrating that we are professionals that deserve to be valued and respected.
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After reading the week’s text, write a reflection in two parts:
Part I
Identify the focus of your advocacy efforts and give an example of an issue you would like to address as an advocate.
Identify one individual or group (local policy maker, state-level legislator, corporate leader, etc.) that you can contact for support of your issue and provide a rationale for choosing this individual/group.
Describe the strategies you would use to gain the support needed for this issue through individual advocacy.
Describe the strategies you would use to attract the support needed for this issue through collective advocacy.
Create two talking points (as discussed in Chapter 13) using one concrete example (refer to key term in chapter reading for precise definition) for each point to demonstrate the importance of the issue.
These talking points should be appropriate to use when talking to legislators or the media about the issue for which you are advocating.
Part II
Create a Commitment to the Profession Statement. Remember, this is a draft that will continually be revised and modified as new information is acquired. Address the following:
Describe how you will advocate on behalf of young children, their families, and the profession.
Describe how you will support the development of future practitioners and leaders in the field.
Refer to Figure 13.1 “A Professional Continuum” and describe how your efforts will support the field away from unskilled workers and toward paradigm professionals.
The Commitment to Professionalism paper
Must be at least two double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined
Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of paper
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
Use the text and two outside sources to support your responses.
The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
Must document all sources in APA style as outlined.
Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined
CHAPTER
1
1
Child Assessment: An Essential Component of Quality Early ChildhoodProgramming
NAEYC Administrator Competencies Addressed in This Chapter:
Management Knowledge and Skills
4. Educational Programming
· Knowledge and application of different curriculum models, standards for high-quality programming, and child assessment practices
Early Childhood Knowledge and Skills
3
. Child Observation and Assessment
· Knowledge and application of developmentally appropriate child observation and assessment methods
· Knowledge of the purposes, characteristics, and limitations of different assessment tools and techniques
· Ability to use different observation techniques, including formal and informal observation, behavior sampling, and developmentalchecklists
· Knowledge of ethical practice as it relates to the use of assessment information
· The ability to apply child observation and assessment data to planning and structuring developmentally appropriate instructionalstrategies
4. Curriculum and Instructional Methods
· Ability to evaluate outcomes of different curricular approaches
Learning Outcomes
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Contrast the characteristics of appropriate and inappropriate approaches to assessing young children.
2
. Identify performance assessment strategies that are appropriate for documenting what children know and are able to do.
3. Describe some ways teachers of young children share their insights about what they know and are able to do with their families.
4. Discuss the origins of kindergarten readiness assessments, the challenges faced by those tasked with their development, and factorsthat make it difficult to compare states’ results.
Grace’s Experience
Grace’s many years as a classroom teacher gave her a great deal of experience observing and documenting children’s learning, growth, anddevelopment. She used what she learned through this process to inform her teaching and was able to develop portfolios based on her observationsand documentation to describe children’s accomplishments to their families. Since becoming the program director, Grace has observed that someteachers collect very little documentation, mostly in the form of checklists and rating scales, to describe their children’s learning, growth, anddevelopment. She realizes she must use what she learned in the classroom to lead her teachers in the implementation of authentic,developmentally, and culturally appropriate assessment strategies that align with the program’s core values, mission, and vision. She is hopingthis chapter will help her develop an assessment plan that will serve children, families, and staff well.
Child Assessment is the process that early childhood educators use to understand a child’s current development, what he knows, or whathe is able to do. They use this information to describe children’s progress to their families and as the basis for decisions that they make atthe classroom or programmatic level. As the program director, you are responsible for taking the lead by developing a “clearly written, well-organized, complete, [and] comprehensive assessment plan” that teachers and families can understand (
Copple & Bredekamp, 2009
, p.178). Programs receiving public funds are typically accountable for enhancing children’s learning, growth, and development in measurableways. They are usually required to administer specified assessments to demonstrate how children have benefited from those investments.
Chapter 2
addresses child assessments that are measures of program outputs. In this chapter, we will focus on assessments that are used tokeep families informed about their children’s learning and development and to support children’s learning by informing instruction. Referto
Figure 11.1
Common Assessment Terms
for definitions of words and phrases commonly used when discussing assessment of youngchildren. It will be a useful resource as we apply the principles of appropriate child assessment practices to programs of early care andeducation.
Figure 11.1
Common Assessment Terms
11.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF APPROPRIATE ASSESSMENT
The first of the influential National Education Goals adopted by the first President Bush and the nation’s governors in 1990 created theexpectation that “by the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn.” It soon became clear that a definitive definitionof “ready to learn” was elusive, and existing assessments were ill suited to accurately describe what diverse populations of young childrenknow and are able to do. To prevent the widespread use of existing, on-demand tests and the adoption of potentially harmful assessmentpractices to measure school readiness, a workgroup made up of leading early childhood educators was asked to create guidelinesidentifying appropriate approaches to assessment in early childhood. They stressed the importance of using assessments only for theirintended purpose and avoiding subjecting young children to frequent assessments. What’s more, they identified four legitimate purposes ofassessment: (a) to promote children’s learning and development; (b) to identify children for health and special learning services; (c) tomonitor trends, evaluate programs, and services; and (d) to assess academic achievement and hold individual students, teachers, andschools accountable (
Shepard, Kagan, & Wurtz, 1998
).
During this period as many as seven professional associations, whose members include teachers and caregivers, program administrators,policy makers at both the state and national levels, and researchers, issued position statements that expressed their concerns about therisks to children’s well-being posed by inappropriate assessment practices. They warned, in particular, about the damage that can be causedby on-demand high-stakes pencil-and-paper tests that are stressful and frustrating for children and fail to provide an accurate picture oftheir knowledge and skills because they violate what we know about how children demonstrate what they know and are able to do (
Walker& Feeney, 2014
). These position statements advocate for alternative approaches to assessing young children’s knowledge and skills.Concern about the potential for harm that can come from inappropriate assessment practices is also evident in the Code of Ethical Conductof the
National Association for the Education of Young Children
, which has nine items addressing issues related to appropriate assessmentof young children. At the heart of the National Education Goals Panel guidelines, these professional organizations’ position statements, andthe NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct is the mandate that assessments used in early childhood be “ethical, appropriate, valid and reliable …developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically responsive, tied to children’s daily activities, supported by professionaldevelopment, [and] inclusive of families” (
NAEYC & NAECS/SDE, 2003
). Additionally, appropriate assessments:
· benefit children and families.
· must be used for their intended purpose.
· assess meaningful and significant skills and knowledge.
· collect information from a variety of sources.
· must be embedded in classroom activities and consistent with curricular goals.
· help teachers make informed decisions about teaching.
· must be the focus of professional development designed to enhance teachers’ knowledge and skill.
· must be shared with families to help them understand their children’s learning, growth, and development. (
Copple & Bredekamp,2009
;
NAEYC, 2014
; NAEYC & NAECS/SDE, 2003)
As noted above, the National Education Goals Panel workgroup advised that developmental screenings and assessments based onteachers’ observations should be essential features of quality programs of early care and education. Directors of early childhood programsand their teaching team play an essential role by administering developmental screenings to all children to identify those who might benefitfrom further evaluation to identify developmental disabilities or delays that would require specialized interventions. They have theopportunity to serve as a bridge connecting families to available services to meet identified children’s special needs. Descriptions ofdevelopmental screenings and their use are addressed in more depth in
Chapter 9
of this text as part of the discussion of how to meet eachchild’s individual needs. This chapter will focus, in particular, on performance or observational assessments,1 the process of observing,documenting, and interpreting children’s behavior to inform instruction and to share information about children’s learning, growth, anddevelopment with their families.
11.2 PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
Performance assessments involve observing and documenting children’s behavior. Performance assessments are considered to be authentic when children demonstrate their knowledge and skills in the context of ordinary classroom interactions and events (
Meyer,1992
). High-quality performance assessments of young children are closely aligned with applicable learning standards, such as states’ earlylearning guidelines or the Common Core, as well as families’ and the program’s values and goals for children. They reflect an understandingof typical development, taking into account the variations likely to be found in culturally and linguistically diverse communities and amongchildren who have developmental delays or disabilities; use multiple observation and documentation strategies; and involve multiplestakeholders, including children’s families and other early childhood professionals (NAEYC & NAECS/SDE, 2003;
Riley-Ayers, 2014
).
Performance assessment requires teachers to collect, over time, evidence of children’s approaches to learning as well as their cognitive,language, social, emotional, and physical development; and to interpret this information to gain insights into individual children’s interests,strengths, and needs to make meaningful adaptations to their instruction (NAEYC, 2014; Riley-Ayers, 2014). These are some of the manybenefits of performance assessment that should be a routine part of every classroom serving young children.
· Teachers who document and interpret children’s behavior and learning are able to individualize instruction.
· Systematic documentation of what children know and are able to do can help teachers identify children who may have adevelopmental or learning delay. Early intervention can sometimes keep a small problem from becoming a larger concern.
· Teachers’ documentation communicates to children that their learning is important. They can appreciate what they have accomplishedwhen they see samples of their work that has been collected over time.
· Documentation of what children know and are able to do is an important starting point for teachers’ work with families and givesthem an opportunity to seek families’ perspectives on their children’s learning, growth, and development (
Seitz, 2008
).
Performance assessment requires teachers to plan, to be organized, to devote time and effort to the process, and to reflect. It is theprogram administrator’s responsibility to provide them with the structural supports as well as the professional development and coachingthey need to collect, organize, interpret, and use assessment information to inform instruction.
Structural supports that teachers need to implement performance assessment strategies include digital cameras and audio and videorecorders to document children’s activities; equipment and materials such as a printer, filing cabinet, file folders, binders, highlighting pens,and Post-It® notes to help them organize their data; resources to help them interpret their data; and time to reflect on that they havelearned.
Many teachers of young children report that they are not knowledgeable about effective strategies for documenting their observations ofchildren’s behaviors; identifying children’s strengths and needs; and using that data to adapt and adjust instruction (
Banerjee & Luckner,2013
;
Heritage, Kim, Vendlinski & Herman, 2009
;
Roderick, 2012
;
Turner & Coburn, 2012
). These findings indicate that teachers needprofessional development opportunities that:
· ensure that they have a firm grasp of child development.
· give them practice documenting their observations.
· provide them with opportunities to practice assessing children’s knowledge and competencies.
· inform them about commercially available tools that can help them collect and interpret documentation.
· give them opportunities to practice using the results of their assessments to inform instruction.
These trainings can take the form of both in-person, hands-on instruction and coaching as well online videos and training tools (
Banerjee &Luckner, 2013
; Riley-Ayers, 2014).
When directors ensure that teachers have the professional development, materials and equipment, and time they need, teachers are morelikely to be motivated to continually monitor children’s development and learning, to reflect on their teaching and success meetingchildren’s needs, and to adjust their instruction to support children’s learning and development (
Carter, 2008
). Directors have found thatencouraging teachers to create study groups that give them opportunities to hone their data-collection skills, to discuss their data analysis,and to support each other in applying these findings to their teaching can be an effective extension to the coaching they are able to provide(Riley-Ayers, 2014).
Teachers can use a variety of strategies to document and assesses children’s knowledge and skills. Several are illustrated in
Figure 11.2
. An
Anticipatory Web Showing Appropriate Ways to Document and Assess Children’s Learning
. It shows the many ways teachers can asseswhat children have learned about wind.
Performance Assessments
Performance assessments involve systematically focusing on a child or small group of children to document their behavior, which will beused as the basis of assessments of what individual children know and can do and can inform teachers’ efforts to support their learning,growth, and development. Observations can be of short duration or can take extended periods of time. They can be used to assess alldevelopmental domains, and even multiple domains simultaneously. Some performance assessment techniques are open-endedobservations that require observers to record and then interpret what they have seen and heard, and others are focused observationsthat require the observer to describe or tally specific behaviors.
Open-Ended Observations:
Open-ended authentic observational assessment techniques are very flexible and are popular ways for teachers and caregivers to assessyoung children’s development and learning because they allow them to carefully observe and analyze their rich descriptions of whatchildren do as they play and interact with their peers. They also help teachers get to know each child well and help strengthen theirrelationships with individual children—an important part of quality programming because strong relationships provide children afoundation for their exploration and learning (
Jablon, Dombro, & Dichtelmiller, 2007
). Some disadvantages to these approaches toassessment are that they are time-consuming to record and interpret. It is also difficult to assess some domains, such as cognitivedevelopment. In addition, the validity of the observation depends on the skill of the observer, and teachers need a significant amount ofprofessional development and practice to record observations objectively and analyze them insightfully so that they can meet individualchildren’s needs. As the program’s director, you can support teachers’ efforts to conduct these observational assessments by coaching themto avoid the temptation to draw any conclusions by recording just what they see and hear; by reviewing their records with them; and byhelping them interpret their observations to assess children’s learning, growth, and development and to inform their teaching.
Figure 11.2
Anticipatory Web Showing Appropriate Ways to Document and Assess Children’s Learning
Two forms of open-ended authentic observational assessments are anecdotal records and running records. An anecdotal record is abrief, objective, accurate description of a significant incident in one child’s day that:
· includes the child’s and observer’s names and indicates that date, time, context (where and when the incident took place).
· describes what the child did, the reactions of anyone else involved, and the child’s response to those reactions.
Figure 11.3
Example of an Anecdotal Record
· includes the child’s exact words, and those of others involved.2
· describes the child’s nonverbal communication—the posture, gestures, voice quality, and facial expressions that indicate the child’sfeelings. It does not label the child’s feelings but provides cues that allow the reader to interpret what his feelings might be.
In addition to these facts, in a separate section, an anecdotal record includes the observer’s interpretation of what this episode illustratesabout the child’s learning, growth, or development and/or his professional opinion about what he can do to support the child’s progress.See Figure 11.3. This Example of an Anecdotal Record illustrates how to describe a significant classroom event and interpret its meaning.
Application Activity
Watch this video clip of 4-year-old Feng playing in the sand. Write an anecdotal record describing your observations. Rememberthat your description of the incident should report only what you can see (this clip has no sound), including any nonverbalcommunication that you notice. When you write your comments and interpretation, assume the role of Feng’s teacher. Describe whyyou believe this incident is significant and explain what it tells you about Feng’s attention span, persistence, fine motor development,or anything else you think is noteworthy.
Keeping anecdotal notes is an everyday, routine way that teachers document what children know and are able to do.
Suzanne Clouzeau/Pearson Education
A running record is a narrative report that records what one child or a small group of children do and say. As when completing ananecdotal record, the observer records what he sees and hears without interpretation, and describes the context; however, a runningrecord adds an extra dimension by noting the time of each entry. This form of documentation was popularized by
Piaget (1952)
. See
Figure11.4
, an
Example of a Running Record
. Note that this is the same incident that is presented as an example of an anecdotal record in
Figure11.3
.
Figure 11.4
Example of a Running Record
Focused Observations:
Focused observations describe what happens before and after a specific, usually challenging, behavior or describe children’s behaviors in aparticular setting. Two types of focused observations are event sampling and time sampling. The program’s director plays a particularlyimportant role by conducting these kinds of observations because teachers who are responsible for the entire classroom cannot focus theirattention on one child or one area of the classroom for the extended period that these forms of data collection require. You can also helpclassroom teachers interpret the data to gain insights into what causes (and how to prevent) negative behaviors, and how to encouragepositive interactions. An advantage of these structured observations is that they are less time-consuming than open-ended observationsand can record the behaviors of several children at one time; however, a disadvantage is that they lack the detail and richness of anecdotaland running records.
Event sampling is a description of events preceding and immediately following a specified target behavior during a particular classroomroutine or event (e.g., Sarah had biting episodes on Monday and Tuesday as the class was transitioning into circle time, and you want to findout what might trigger this behavior). For these observations, the target behavior and a particular classroom routine or event are carefullydefined. To conduct an event sampling observation, the observer must describe the target behavior along with what was happening beforeand after its occurrence (see
Figure 11.5
an
Example of an Event Sampling Record
). Notice how it describes what happened before,during, and after Jamie hit his classmates.
Figure 11.5
Example of an Event Sampling Record
Time sampling is a tally of observations in a specified classroom area or center at pre-determined time intervals (e.g., every 5 minutes,every 10 minutes). Expected behaviors are identified in advance and then observed and recorded at specified intervals (
Mindes & Jung,2015
). Because less writing is required than when completing an event sampling, the observer can record her observations of severalchildren in one session by recording the actions of each of the children in a predetermined, consistent order (e.g., record what Jerome isdoing, then Alice, Victoria, Ralph, and back to Jerome, etc.). A time sample record like the example in
Figure 11.6
is likely to show trends,such as which children engage in play for a sustained time and which are apt to wander or mainly observe, as well as which areas oractivities are the most appealing. It is helpful for the observer to include a summary of the trends he identifies.
This
Example of a Time Sampling Record
shows what four children chose to do while in the housekeeping center during a 15-minuteobservation. It includes an interpretation/reflection highlighting the trends that the observer noticed.
Structured Observations:
A third category of performance assessments includes checklists and rating scales. Checklists are structured observations that provide alist of behaviors or traits with a system for recording if or when they are observed. They can be an effective way to keep track of children’sattainment of developmental milestones or their mastery of specific skills. Rating scales are similar to checklists, but in addition to listingexpected behaviors, they also provide a way to indicate how well, how often, or how independently a child exhibits the identified behaviorsor traits. Checklists and rating scales can be formatted to track an individual child’s achievements over time or to record observations of anentire group of children’s mastery or behaviors (
Feeney, Moravcik, & Nolte, 2016
). Teachers often create them to meet their particularneeds.
Figure 11.6
Example of a Time Sampling Record
Figure 11.7
, an
Example of a Developmental Checklist for One Young Infant
. It illustrates how a caregiver can quickly and easilydocument when one infant attains specific developmental milestones.
Figure 11.8
is an
Example of a Developmental Checklist Used for Several Young Infants
. It illustrates how a primary caregiver can useone checklist to record the attainment of several development milestones of all her assigned infants.
Rating scales describe children’s abilities along a continuum. They can collect data about individuals or a group of children. Sometimes theyuse terms such as “independently,” “with a little help,” or “with a lot of help,” or “not yet,” “sometimes,” and “always.” In other instances, theyuse a numerical continuum to describe children’s skills or competencies.
Figure 11.7
Example of a Developmental Checklist for One Young Infant
Figure 11.8
Example of a Developmental Checklist Used for Several Young Infants
Figure 11.9
Example of a Rating Scale for a Group of Children
Figure 11.9 is an Example of a Rating Scale for a Group of Children that uses symbols to show children’s competence mastering specificself-help skills.
Figure 11.10
is an
Example of a Rating Scale Using Words
to describe one child’s mastery of these same self-help skills, and
Figure 11.11
is an
Example of a Numerical Rating Scale
that uses numbers to describe one child’s large motor skills.
Some commercial checklists and rating scales have been shown to be reliable and valid (
Mindes & Jung, 2015
). Two examples are The EarlyLearning Observation Rating Scale (ELORS) (
Coleman, West, & Gillis, 2010
) and the Work Sampling System (WSS) (
Meisels, Marsden, Jablon,& Dichtelmiller, 2013
). The ELORS is meant to be used with 4-year-olds preparing to enter kindergarten and is designed to identify childrenwho may have learning disabilities, while the WSS includes checklists based on Common Core State Standards and states’ early learningguidelines. They give teachers a quick and efficient way to track if children’s performance of expected skills and abilities is “proficient”, “inprocess”, or has “not yet” been demonstrated.
Figure 11.10
Example of a Rating Scale Using Words
Figure 11.11
Example of a Numerical Rating Scale
Many kinds of ordinary classroom activities give teachers opportunities to assess children’s skills.
David Kostelnik/Pearson Education
Interviews
Teachers can also gain valuable insights into what children understand, are interested in, and are curious about by interviewing them.Teachers conduct informal interviews when they ask children about their block structure or what they did over the weekend. Theseinterviews are likely to be spontaneous and grow out of teachers’ observations and classroom events. Some of the insights they can provideare into children’s language development as well as their interests, friends, relationships, and fears. A good way to document theseconversations is to record them as anecdotal records.
In formal interviews, teachers ask each child the same questions. They need to plan for these interviews by identifying a focus, such aswhat children learned from a recent trip to the fire station. For interviews to serve as useful documentation of children’s learning anddevelopment, teachers must keep complete and accurate notes of what they say as well as their nonverbal communication. When usedintentionally, interviews can become part of effective teachers’ efforts to identify children’s interests, strengths, and needs (
Feeney,Moravcik, & Nolte, 2016
).
Collecting Work Samples
Collecting samples of children’s work is a particularly effective way to document their learning, growth, and development; it also givesteachers opportunities to clearly illustrate children’s progress to their families (
McAfee, Leong, & Bodrova, 2004
). The samples of children’swork used as a form of performance assessment can include:
· video or audio recordings of child dictating stories, singing, reading (or “reading” favorite books from memory), and other classroomevents.
· drawings, paintings, and other two-dimensional art projects—children might prefer that you take photographs so that they can taketheir artwork home.
· photographs of three-dimensional artifacts, such as art projects, block constructions, and science experiments.
Work samples that effectively illustrate what children know and are able to do should be collected on a regular basis and organizedlogically. They must be dated with notes describing their creation and interpreted to indicate what learning, growth, and development theydemonstrate.
It is important to remember that teachers must be intentional and strategic in saving work samples that accurately demonstrate children’sknowledge and skills. Program directors have a responsibility to coach teachers in effective data collection strategies, to provide them withthe resources they need to collect and organize data, and guide them as they learn to interpret their collected work samples in terms ofappropriate developmental guidelines, standards, and program goals.
Portfolios
A portfolio is a performance-based assessment that is a compilation of evidence demonstrating children’s competencies while celebratingtheir learning, growth, and development. It can be organized to show growth across social, emotional, cognitive, and/or physicaldevelopmental domains; to address applicable learning standards; or to showcase how the child has met the particular program’s goals.Portfolio assessment is an important feature of programs accredited by NAEYC (NAEYC, 2014). Portfolios provide much more informationthan any checklist or rating scale alone possibly can and are a particularly effective approach to assessment when working with childrenwith developmental delays and children who are learning English as a second language because they are based on real-life examples ofwhat each child can do. The process of developing a portfolio begins by making a decision about its purpose.
Teachers of young children most often use portfolios as a formative assessment. When used in this way, they are designed to demonstrateto children, their families, and their teachers their progress over time and to identify their strengths as well target areas for improvement toinform instruction. Formative portfolios are particularly useful when conducting parent conferences. They can be shared as “works inprogress” several times throughout the year and can be presented to parents and passed on to the child’s new teachers when shetransitions from one classroom to the next or moves on from preschool into kindergarten. When portfolios are used as a summativeassessment, they document for families and next year’s teacher what the child knows and can do at the end of the year.
Both formative and summative portfolios begin as working portfolios, extensive collections of the child’s work that include samples of herdrawing and writing, paintings, and photographs of three-dimensional constructions. It may include a list of books she has read or enjoyedhaving read to her; notes from parent conferences; and anecdotal notes, checklists, rating scales, and other documentation of her learning,growth, and development collected throughout the year. All work samples should be dated and annotated with short notes describing theirsignificance before they are filed. If it is to be a formative portfolio, these work samples must be saved over time. But whether it is to be aformative or summative portfolio, it is important to remember that a portfolio is not a scrapbook. This collection of “everything” the childhas done is the raw material for the presentation portfolio. Artifacts can be collected in boxes, drawers, and file folders.
The next step is for teachers, who sometimes involve older preschoolers, kindergarteners, or primary-age children in the process, is todevelop a presentation portfolio. This step requires them to select from the working portfolio the artifacts that most clearly demonstratewhat the child knows and is able to do, and that, when taken together, create a well-rounded portrait of her learning, growth, anddevelopment. Children can benefit from being involved in this selection process because it is likely to make them appreciate what they haveaccomplished and helps them to understand the purpose and process of assessment. When children join in the selection of artifacts, theycan also help teachers draft the rationale or interpretation for each item. They can consider:
· Does it show their best work?
· Do several artifacts taken together show growth over time?
· Do selected artifacts illustrate their favorite classroom activities, including their favorite classmates for work and play? (Mindes & Jung,2015)
Presentation portfolios are often presented in a folder or binder with page protectors; or documentation can be collected and organizedelectronically and presented using PowerPoint or other presentation software that can incorporate pictures and video recordings. Thedecision about whether to store and present materials in hard copy or electronically needs to take into account teachers’ as well as families’access to and expertise in using digital tools (Feeney, Moravcik, & Nolte, 2016).
Teachers take the final step in developing children’s presentation portfolios when they reflect and analyze what they have learned abouteach child’s learning, growth, and development. They should put each child’s progress into the context of developmental guidelines and/orappropriate learning standards; and identify the child’s interests, strengths, and any areas for concern. This reflection and analysis areessential components of presentation portfolios. They help families put the documentation included in the portfolio into the context ofdevelopmentally appropriate expectations for their children’s learning, growth, and development.
As the program’s director, it is your responsibility to create a structure and expectations for how the teachers in your program will developand present portfolios. You may specify:
· that teachers use a checklist to ensure that they keep documentation across all developmental domains and addressing all appropriatelearning standards on a regular basis.
· a timeline for collecting and interpreting artifacts.
· that all portfolios include specific items such as drawings from preschoolers’ first and last weeks of school.
· that all portfolios include evidence of how children complete specific activities, such as a recording of their speech, a photograph of ablock structure, or samples of their “writing” or drawing.
· the topics that must be included in teachers’ portfolio reflections and summaries.
· a schedule for conferences for teachers to present portfolios to families several times throughout the year (
Feeney, Moravcik, & Nolte,2016
).
Figure 11.12
Information and Documentation to Collect for Students’ Portfolios
lists materials that teachers should collect to help themdevelop portfolios to be used as a form of formative assessment.
Tools for Structuring Documentation and Analysis
A number of commercially available tools designed to guide teachers’ documentation of children’s learning, growth, and growth across alldevelopmental domains are briefly described below. All of these assessments have demonstrated their reliability and validity when used byteachers trained in their use. Your program might be mandated to use one of these assessment systems if it is sponsored by a governmentalagency or receives other external funding. You may, however, be in a position to lead the decision-making process to determine if one wouldbe the right fit for your program. We recommend that you review these brief descriptions and visit each system’s informative website tofind additional information to guide your selection.
Figure 11.12
Information and Documentation to Collect for Students’ Portfolios
· Child Observation Records (COR). The Infant/Toddler Child Observation Record (COR) (
High/Scope Educational Research Foundation,2002
) together with the second edition of the Preschool COR (
High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, 2003
) are designed toassess children from 6 weeks to 6 years of age. Although they were developed to align with the HighScope curriculum, they can beused by programs implementing other developmentally appropriate approaches. Teachers complete the assessment process two orthree times each year, beginning after children have participated in their program for at least 6 weeks. Data can easily be digested intoreports to share with families or to give teachers data organized in a number of ways to give them information about their entire class.The authors recommend that teachers participate in a COR training, which is available either in person or online, before using it intheir classrooms.
· The Work Sampling System. The WSS (
Meisels, Marsden, Jablon, & Dichtelmiller, 2013
) is designed to assess the skills, knowledge,behavior, and accomplishments of children from 3 to 12 years of age three times a year using the information teachers collect throughobservations, photographs, checklists, running records, portfolios, and children’s dictations. It is available in paper-and-pencil andonline versions. Teachers can use the data they gather through the WSS to modify instruction and to generate reports describingchildren’s learning and development in a variety of ways, including formats that are appropriate to share with children’s families.Trainings in its use are conducted in many communities, and the publisher regularly posts training webinars on its website (
Maccow,2015
).
· The Ounce Scale.3 The Ounce Scale (
Meisels, Marsden, Dombro, Weston, & Jewkes, 2003
) assesses the development of infants andtoddlers from birth to 3½ years of age. Its purpose is to help teachers and parents recognize and appreciate children’s rapid growthduring this period and to help ensure that their daily interactions with children reflect their knowledge of child development and whatthey know about a particular child’s developmental trajectory. The Ounce has three essential components: the observation record forcaregivers’ use; the family album, a small booklet for parents to keep mementoes and record their observations of their child’sdevelopment; and the developmental profile, for caregivers to compare individual children’s development with accepted developmentalnorms. Reports can be easily generated from data gathered through its use to describe individual children’s growth as well as tosummarize the development of an entire class of children. Trainings on the use of the Ounce are offered in many communities, andonline webinars provide overviews and regular updates on its use (
Maccow, 2014
).
The WSS is a comprehensive observational assessment used frequently inprograms of early care and education. Watch this video for an overview of theWSS process.
) is a performance-based assessmentsystem for use with children from infancy through kindergarten. It was developed to accompany the Creative Curriculum; aligns withthe Head Start Early Learning Framework, Common Core State Standards, and each state’s early learning guidelines; and can be usedby any program using a developmentally appropriate curricular approach. Teaching Strategies GOLD® is appropriate to use to assesstypically developing children as well as those who have disabilities and those who are English language learners. It also offersassessments of Spanish language and literacy development. Assessments are to be completed three times annually, but teachers andcaregivers are encouraged to collect artifacts and observation notes to document children’s development on an ongoing basis.Training is available on-site and online and the publishers host periodic online webinars.
· The Early Learning Scale. The Early Learning Scale (ELS) (
Riley-Ayers, Boyd, & Frede, 2008
) was developed by researchers at theNational Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) in response to early educators’ request for a comprehensive standards-basedassessment system. It is based on states’ early learning guidelines, is designed to assess what children from 3 to 5 years old know andare able to do, and can be used in classrooms using a variety of curricular approaches (
Rile-Ayers, Frede, & Jung, 2010
). Training isavailable either in person or online.
Directors must not only determine if one of these assessment tools is appropriate for use in their program, but they must also consider thecost of its adoption. Purchasing materials and arranging for the needed staff development can be very expensive, but can be excellentinvestments if the assessments are used not only to identify what children know and are able to do, but also to guide teachers’ efforts toadapt instruction to meet children’s changing needs and to keep families informed about their children’s learning and development.
11.3 SHARING CHILD ASSESSMENT INFORMATION
Just as it is important for teachers to collect and interpret data illustrating what children know and are able to do, it is also essential thatthey schedule regular opportunities to gain insights about the children with whom they work from the children’s families. Teachers canencourage informal two-way communication with families by writing frequent notes and emails about classroom happenings and havingphone conversations to share insights and respond to families’ questions and concerns. Teachers must also schedule regular conferenceswith children’s families on a regular basis, however, to give them opportunities to systematically share evidence of children’s strengths andneeds.
Most programs schedule individual conferences with members of each child’s family on a regular basis, typically two or three times a year.Conferences give teachers and parents opportunities to discuss children’s progress, share any concerns about what is happening at homeor at school, and set goals for the future. They also help to build relationships of mutual trust and respect. Teachers should prepare foreach conference by creating a list of talking points that they want to be certain to address. If formative portfolios are the centerpiece of theprogram’s child assessment plan, teachers should use the documentation they include as well as her reflections and analysis as theframework for parent conferences. It is important to put families at ease, providing them with plenty of opportunities to ask questions,share observations, and express any concerns both as they review the documentation presented in the portfolio and as a response to theteacher’s analysis and reflection. When addressing concerns, teachers should plan to start by describing a strength, then addressing theconcern, taking care to end all parent–teacher conferences on a positive note by summarizing any plans to follow up with promisedinformation or to answer any questions that could not be addressed during the conference.
Parents enjoy seeing artifacts showing what their children can do.
Suzanne Clouzeau/Pearson Education
Directors play an important role in supporting teachers during these conferences. They can give teachers feedback on the presentationportfolios they have developed and can provide teachers opportunities to practice their presentations to parents. They should also plan toparticipate in conferences when teachers are planning to raise a sensitive issue, such as recommending that a child receive additionalscreenings or evaluations because of a possible developmental or learning delay. A director’s objective perspective can help smooth thesepotentially emotional discussions for parents and teachers alike. Directors should also stress to teachers how important it is that they neverlabel a child’s behavior or use a term that they are not qualified to apply. For example, a teacher should never state that she thinks a child ishyperactive. She can, however, share her anecdotal and running records that describe a child who is always on the go and can sit for just afew minutes, seldom long enough to see a task through to its completion.
A Better Way
As a new director, Grace soon realized that documenting children’s learning, growth, and development and using that data to assesschildren’s progress, inform instruction, and to share insights about children’s development and learning with families, was many teachers’most pressing professional development need. At the next staff meeting, she asked teachers to reflect on how they documented theirobservations of what children know and are able to do and to consider how they used what they learned for assessing children’s progress, foradapting their instruction to meet children’s needs, and for describing children’s strengths and needs to their families.
It became apparent that all of the center’s teachers faced the same challenges. The first was having the time to systematically documentchildren’s learning, growth, and development; another was that they lacked expertise interpreting their observations in the context ofdevelopmental guidelines and their state’s early learning guidelines. The teachers were enthusiastic about Grace’s willingness to help themrefine their observation and documentation skills and her offer to help them interpret the documentation they had collected. Grace asked forvolunteers to join her in developing a school-wide child assessment plan. She was pleased that several of the most experienced teachersoffered to contribute their time, effort, and expertise to this project, and she felt certain the center was on track to implementing aperformance-based school-wide child assessment plan that would benefit children, families, and teachers.
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
In this chapter we have stressed how important it is that teachers keep detailed and comprehensive records describing children’sexperiences in your program as well as what they have learned about what children know and are able to do. As you and your staff collectthis information about children and their families, you should be aware of how the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act(FERPA) safeguards the privacy of these records.
All programs receiving federal funds must abide by FERPA; however, it is advisable that all programs, regardless of the source of theirfunding, be aware of and adhere to its guidelines. Programs must notify families of their rights under FERPA. It permits schools to sharestudents’ names’ address and phone numbers in a directory, but must give parents the opportunity to opt out of being included. These areadditional relevant provisions of this law, and you can find additional information by visiting the FERPA website hosted by the U.S.Department of Education:
· Program officials must notify parents and guardians of their FERPA rights.
· Parents or legal guardians of children who attend a program receiving federal funding may see information in the program’s officialfiles, including any test scores or assessment records, health records, psychological reports, notes on behavioral problems,information about the family’s background, attendance records, and all other records except personal notes made by a member of thestaff solely for their own use.
· Parents or legal guardians have the right to request that a school correct any records which they believe are inaccurate or misleading.
· Generally, programs must have written permission from a child’s parents or legal guardians before releasing any information aboutthe child’s education; however, schools may share records without consent with:
· another school to which the student in transferring.
· accrediting organizations.
· to comply with a judge’s orders or subpoena.
· Programs must keep written records indicating who has seen or requested to see a child’s records.
· Parents or legal guardians have the right to know where records are kept and which program personnel are responsible for them.
· Unless a divorced parent is prohibited by law from having any contact with the child, divorced parents have equal access to officialrecords.
11.4 KINDERGARTEN READINESS ASSESSMENTS
The federal Enhanced Assessment Grants program that began in 2002 and the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grant programthat began in 2011 required states receiving those awards to develop and implement kindergarten readiness assessments. Theseaccountability mandates were part of national efforts focused on improving the quality of preschool programming and accurately assessingwhat young children know and are able to do (
Gerwertz, 2014
). Creating useful kindergarten readiness assessments has proven to be amore difficult task than policy makers might first have imaged. There is no consensus definition of “kindergarten readiness”; nor is thereagreement about how it should be evaluated or how states, communities, schools and teachers should use the data they generate. For thosereasons it is not surprising that states’ kindergarten readiness assessments:
· use different definitions for readiness.
· differ in their focus (e.g., is the child ready for school, is the school ready for all children, does the family support school readiness, oris the community contributing to children’s school readiness?).
· use their assessments in different ways (e.g., to support instruction, or to determine if children are ready to be successful inkindergarten).
· address different developmental domains (e.g., some assessments measure academic readiness such as children’s knowledge of thealphabet or numbers, others assess the development of the whole child including social and emotional domains).
· are administered at different times (e.g., at the end of preschool in the spring or in the first weeks of kindergarten in the fall).
· take different forms (some are on-demand tests, others rely on teachers’ observations including rating scales and checklists, and insome instances they combine several assessment strategies (
Walker & Feeney, 2014
).
These factors reduce the usefulness of kindergarten readiness assessments and make it difficult to gauge states’ success in preparingchildren for school.
Advocates warn against the implementation of high-stakes developmentally inappropriate kindergarten readiness assessments and advisethat any instrument used to measure children’s kindergarten readiness must be used for its intended purpose and align with learningstandards and instructional goals while satisfying accepted levels of reliability, validity, and standardization (
Snow, 2011
). Appropriateassessments must also reflect children’s and families’ language and culture. Teachers must not “teach to the test” or make them the focus ofthe curriculum by overemphasizing academic skills that the children they teach are unlikely to be ready to master.
As the program administrator, you need to be informed about whether your state assesses children’s kindergarten readiness, and, if it does,it would be wise to learn about the test children may be required to take when they leave your program. It is important, however, to avoidthe temptation of coaching your program’s teachers to let this assessment determine how and what they teach. They may be responsiblefor addressing your state’s early learning guidelines that describe what young children should know and be able to do, but it is thedirector’s responsibility to support their efforts to keep instruction hands-on, meaningful, and linguistically and culturally relevant to thechildren they teach.
Application Activity
Investigate your state’s (or a neighboring state’s) kindergarten readiness assessment. Identify its definition of “readiness,” thepurpose of the assessment, its focus (i.e., the child, the school, the family, or the community), the developmental domains it addresses,when it is administered, and its form. Based on what you have learned, explain why you believe it is, or is not, an appropriateapproach to assessing children’s kindergarten readiness.
SUMMARY
Quality programs of early care and education make observing, documenting, and assessing children’s learning, growth, and development aroutine part of every day. These processes are not simple or easy to implement, however. They depend on a well-prepared staff anddirectors who can model, teach, and coach teachers to use observation and documentation to assess children in developmentally, culturally,and linguistically appropriate ways.
· Contrast the characteristics of appropriate and inappropriate approaches to assessing young children.
Young children should be assessed in “ethical, appropriate, valid and reliable … developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguisticallyresponsive” ways (NAEYC & NAECS/SDE, 2003). Appropriate assessment is imbedded into children’s ordinary daily activities, incorporatesinformation from a variety of sources, and is used to help teachers respond to children’s interests and needs. Appropriate assessmentprocesses also involve families and keep them informed about their children’s learning, growth, and development.
On-demand high-stakes pencil-and-paper tests are inappropriate ways to assess young children. They are stressful and frustrating. What’smore, they fail to provide an accurate picture of children’s knowledge and skills because they violate what we know about how theydemonstrate what children know and are able to do (Walker & Feeney, 2014).
· Identify performance assessment strategies that are appropriate for documenting what children know and are able to do.
Authentic performance assessments are based on teachers’ observations of what children know and are able to do in the context ofordinary classroom interactions and events. Anecdotal records and running records are two open-ended authentic assessments, and eventsampling and time sampling are two focused authentic assessment strategies appropriate for use with young children. Checklists andrating scales are structured performance assessments that can be used to keep track of children’s attainment of developmental milestonesor mastery of specific skills. Additional forms of performance assessments include interviews and samples of children’s work that are firstcollected into a working portfolio and then refined into a presentation portfolio.
· Describe some ways teachers of young children share their insights about what they know and are able to do with their families.
Regular notes, phone calls, and emails are informal ways teachers can share information about children’s development and learning withtheir families. Teachers should also schedule formal conferences with children’s families on a regular basis to share insights about theirchildren’s progress and to set goals for their future learning. Portfolios that include the teacher’s reflections and analysis make an effectivecenterpiece for parent–teacher conferences and give teachers opportunities to talk with families about what is happening at home and atschool.
· Discuss the origins of kindergarten readiness assessments, the challenges faced by those tasked with their development, and factors that make itdifficult to compare states’ results.
States that were awarded federal Enhanced Assessment and Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grants were required to developand implement kindergarten readiness assessments. This has proven to be a difficult assignment because there is not an agreed-upondefinition of “readiness.” The resulting assessments differ in their focus, are used in different ways, assess different developmentaldomains, are administered at different times of the year, and take different forms. These factors reduce their usefulness and make itdifficult to gauge states’ success preparing children for school.
USEFUL WEBSITES
Defending the Early Years
This advocacy group focuses on efforts to support the rights and needs of young children. Its leaders are among the most respectedexperts in early childhood education. They provide guidance about how to respond to inappropriate standards, assessments, andclassroom practices.
FairTest: The National Center for Fair and Open Testing
This organization is committed to promoting fair, open, valid assessment practices that benefit children, families, and schools. It works toeducate the public about issues related to testing practices from kindergarten through college admission, stressing the importance of usingtests appropriately and evaluating students and schools with data collected over time.
National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER)
NIEER’s research addresses a wide variety of topics of interest to early childhood educators, including child assessment and assessments ofthe programs they attend.
Child Trends
Child Trends conducts research on topics of importance to early childhood educators. It takes a “whole child” approach to its work withchildren from infancy through the school years, with an emphasis on exploring ways to increase children’s chances for being successful inschool and beyond.
TO REFLECT
1. It is essential that assessment practices used with vulnerable young children are ethical. Using the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct(
Appendix 2
), evaluate the extent to which your center’s assessment and evaluation plan might be considered appropriate. If yourcenter does not yet have a child evaluation plan, design a sample plan that would be considered ethical.
2. The director of an early childhood center decided that authentic assessment took too much time and that administering a standardizedliteracy assessment in the pre-K year would show the quality of her program if the children scored well. What concerns would youshare with this director on the use of one standardized assessment as a reflection of children’s learning and her program’s overallquality?
1 The terms observational assessment and performance assessment, sometimes called “classroom assessment,” are often usedinterchangeably when discussing child assessment strategies. We will use them interchangeably here.
2 Children’s speech is not always clear or accurate. Observers should record what they heard, not what they believe the child meant. Forexample, if a child says “I’s needs that k-on” the observer should record that utterance, not “I need that crayon,” which is what the childprobably meant.
3 This tool is named The Ounce Scale because funding for its development was provided by the Ounce of Prevention Fund based in Chicago.
CHAPTER
1
3
Contributing to the Profession
NAEYC Administrator Competencies Addressed in This Chapter:
Management Knowledge and Skills
1. Personal and Professional Self-Awareness
· The ability to evaluate ethical and moral dilemmas based on a professional code of ethics
8. Leadership and Advocacy
· Knowledge of the legislative process, social issues, and public policy affecting young children and their families
· The ability to advocate on behalf of young children, their families and the profession
Early Childhood Knowledge and Skills
1. Historical and Philosophical Foundations
· Knowledge of research methodologies
10. Professionalism
· Knowledge of different professional organizations, resources, and issues impacting the welfare of early childhood practitioners
· Ability to make professional judgments based on the NAEYC “Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment”
· Ability to work as part of a professional team and supervise support staff or volunteers
Learning Outcomes
After studying this chapter, you will be able to:
1. Describe how the field of early childhood education has made progress achieving two of the eight criteria of professional status.
2. Identify the advocacy tools that early childhood advocates should have at their disposal.
3. Discuss opportunities that program administrators have to contribute to the field’s future.
Grace’s Experience
Grace had found that working with children came naturally, and she considered herself to be a gifted teacher after only a short time in theclassroom. She thought she would spend her entire career working directly with children. She is now somewhat surprised how much she isenjoying the new responsibilities that come with being a program director. She is gaining confidence that she can work effectively with allfamilies, even when faced with difficult conversations; and her skills as a supervisor, coach, and mentor are increasing as well. She is nowcomfortable as a leader in her own center and is considering volunteering to fill a leadership role in the local early childhood professionalorganization. That would give her opportunities to refine her leadership skills while contributing to the quality of care provided for childrenthroughout her community.
Early childhood administrators are leaders. They contribute to the profession by making the public aware of the field’s emergingprofessionalism, including its reliance on a code of ethics; engaging in informed advocacy; becoming involved in research to increase whatwe know about how children learn, grow, and develop; and coaching and mentoring novices, experienced practitioners, and emergingleaders.
13.1 PROMOTING PROFESSIONALIZATION
1
Lilian Katz, one of the most influential voices in the field of early care and education, began discussions about the professionalism of thefield in the mid-1980s. Her work extended a foundation that had been laid by sociologists, philosophers, and other scholars and continuesto influence how early childhood educators think about their work and the contribution they make to society. These are some of theattributes that are commonly used to distinguish professionals from other workers and to determine whether an occupation is, or ismoving toward becoming, a profession:
1. Professionals possess specialized knowledge. They acquire this knowledge and skill in its application by following a course of prolongedtraining.
2. Professions have rigorous requirements for entry into professional training, and training is delivered in accredited institutions.
3. Members of a profession have agreed-upon standards of practice that guide their efforts to meet their professional obligations.
4. A profession has a commitment to meet a significant social need.
5. Professionals are altruistic and service oriented rather than motivated by opportunities for personal gain. Their primary goal is tomeet clients’ needs.
6. Professionals provide an indispensable service and are recognized as the only group in society that can perform its function.
7. A profession is characterized by autonomy—it has control over entry into the field, oversees the quality of the services offered by itsmembers, and regulates itself.
8. A profession has a code of ethics that spells out its obligations to society (
Feeney, 1995
;
Katz, 1995
;
Feeney, 2012
).
We will focus on two particular dimensions of professionalism in which the field has made the most progress. The first is the acquisition of specialized knowledge attained through prolonged training (number 1 in the list above), and the second is reliance on a code of ethics(number 8). We will also acknowledge some of the areas where progress has been slow, or where early childhood educators’ approach toworking with young children and their families means they will never compromise the field’s traditions to satisfy all criteria that setprofessions apart from other occupations.
Moving Toward Professionalism: Professional Preparation and Reliance on the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct
Professional Preparation:
Many states’ licensing regulations continue to require child care teachers, caregivers, and directors to have only a high school diploma orGED; the CDA Credential, which is generally considered to be equivalent to 9 to 12 credit hours of professional education, is the mostfrequently required form of specialized training that an individual needs to be qualified to become a center director (
Child Care Aware® ofAmerica, 2013
). Publically funded programs, however, have raised the bar for entry into the field. The Improving Head Start Act of 2007required 50% of all center-based teachers to hold at least a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education or a related field by 2013(
Administration for Children and Families [ACF], 2007
). States’ QRIS systems and publically funded 4K programs have followed suit. Mostrequire teachers to have specialized training to prepare them to teach young children, requiring them to hold at least a bachelor’s degreeor to be making progress toward attaining that degree (
The National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) Program Accreditation Standards also, over time, raise educationalrequirements across the board. They stipulate that by 2020, 75% of the teachers in accredited programs must have a minimum of abaccalaureate degree in early childhood education or a related field. NAEYC Accreditation also requires directors to hold at least abachelor’s degree and requires them to have specialized coursework in administration, leadership, management, and child developmentand learning, or a plan to meet these requirements within 5 years (
NAEYC, 2014
).
The effects of these policy changes are being felt by the entire field of early care and education, raising expectations for educationalattainment in nonprofit and for-profit programs operated under a wide variety of auspices. These developments point to progress that thefield has made in one criterion of professionalism: requiring early childhood practitioners to have specialized knowledge gained byfollowing a course of prolonged training.
Reliance on the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct:
Reliance on a code of professional ethics is a second criterion of professionalism in which early childhood educators have made significantstrides. The NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct (
NAEYC, 2011a
) includes statements of the profession’s core values and guides practitioners intheir efforts to meet their responsibilities to children, families, colleagues, and society. It articulates ideals (how we aspire to behave) andprinciples (standards of conduct describing what we must and must not do). A Statement of Commitment accompanies the Code. It is not apart of the Code but attests to members’ resolve to abide by the Code as they work with young children and their families.
NAEYC first adopted its Code of Ethical Conduct in 1989 (
Feeney & Kipnis, 1989
), revised it in 1992, 1997, and 2005, and reaffirmed andupdated it in 2011. The field has also taken steps to enhance practitioners’ reliance on the Code and to make this reliance more apparent tothose outside the profession.
One way that NAEYC has promoted the visibility and encouraged reliance on the Code is by making it an important criterion in NAEYCAccreditation Standards that apply both to programs serving young children and to postsecondary programs preparing teachers for everyrung along the professional ladder—beginning with the CDA and extending through associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degreelevels (
NAEYC, 2011c
;
NAEYC, 2012
). These standards ensure that all practitioners in accredited programs are knowledgeable about theCode, and all who graduate from accredited postsecondary programs have demonstrated that they know it and know how to apply it intheir work. It is noteworthy, however, that the NAEYC Code is not enforced. That is because NAEYC is a membership organization and isopen to all, regardless of their professional preparation or the role they play in the field.
Two Supplements extend the reach of the Code beyond those working directly with young children and their families. The first Supplementaddresses program administrators (
NAEYC, 2011b
). It provides guidance as you face situations with ethical dimensions unique to thedirector’s roles and responsibilities, such as how to prioritize applicants when filling a much-sought-after opening in the infant room, howto proceed when you must terminate a teacher because decreased enrollment is forcing you to downsize, and how to manage relationshipswith families in a way that lets you keep the needs of children paramount in your decision making. This Supplement is found as
Appendix 3
in this text.
The second Supplement guides adult educators (
NAEYC, 2004a
). It extends the original Code to meet the needs of those providing trainingand education, whether in credit-granting institutions such as colleges or universities or in informal professional development activities. Asa program director, you are likely to provide professional development designed to meet the particular needs of your staff. This Supplementreminds you, for example, to remain true to the approved training plan and helps you have the courage to deny credit to the caregiver whoslept through the training activity instead of participating and learning from it.
Several efforts have helped to make the Code widely accessible. The original Code is now reprinted in many textbooks; the Code and bothSupplements are posted on the NAEYC website, the original Code in both English and Spanish; and the Code is available from NAEYC in bothEnglish and Spanish as inexpensive brochures. NAEYC also offers an attractive laminated poster of the Statement of Commitment. Programsthat display this poster attest to their pledge to abide by the field’s ethical standards.
In addition to making the Code widely available, NAEYC has made efforts to support practitioners’ efforts to apply the Code to their work.NAEYC has published two books focusing on professional ethics: The first book, Ethics and the Early Childhood Educator (
Feeney, Freeman,& Pizzolongo, 2012
), provides a comprehensive introduction to the Code. It includes discussions of the role of morality and ethics in earlychildhood education, makes a distinction between early childhood educators’ responsibilities and the dilemmas they are likely to face, andoffers guidance in addressing ethical situations involving early childhood educators’ responsibilities to young children, families, colleagues,and the community. This book is often a required text in 2-year and 4-year institutions’ early childhood programs. The second book, Teaching the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct: A Resource Guide (
Feeney, Freeman, & Moravcik, 2016
), includes advice for instructors planningto teach about the Code and its application and describes many activities for teaching the Code, including reproducible masters that canhelp you prepare for effective trainings.
NAEYC’s journal, Young Children, includes a regular column that might help you include discussions of ethics in your regular staff meetings.“Focus on Ethics” alternates descriptions of commonly occurring dilemmas with an analysis and resolution of a previously publisheddilemma. All past columns are posted on the NAEYC website and can be used as the basis for staff development on professional ethics. Thiscolumn is based on NAEYC members’ submissions. You might decide to submit a dilemma that your center has been grappling with to beconsidered for publication and analysis. Specifics about how to become involved are included with each article.
The NAEYC has posted several video clips of Stephanie Feeney, one of theCode’s original authors and a leader in the field’s work on professional ethics.Watch this video to see her provide an overview of the Code in this discussion withPeter Pizzolongo, a member of NAEYC’s staff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=28&v=-R-gh3Z9BPY
You can help make the families you serve and others outside the profession aware of the field’s reliance on the Code of Ethical Conduct.Ways to accomplish this goal are to include the Code (or a link to its location on the NAEYC website) in your program’s family handbookand to put families on notice that they can expect your behavior, and that of all members of your staff, to reflect the program’s commitmentto these ethical principles. You can also prominently display the Statement of Commitment poster attesting to your program’s reliance onthe Code. You are likely to think of other ways to make the Code more visible in your particular setting.
Other Criteria of Professionalism:
Early childhood education’s rich and unique history illustrates why it is appropriate for early childhood education to satisfy some criteria ofprofessionalism but not others. For example, the field would not want to abandon its commitment to its career ladder, which welcomesemployees who work with young children while they pursue their associate degree, often with the support of the popular T.E.A.C.H.®scholarships.
Application Activity
Rely on the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct (
Appendix 2
) and the Supplement for Early Childhood Program Administrators (Appendix 3)to resolve one of the following dilemmas. Analyze each dilemma by identifying to whom you have responsibilities. Find guidance inthe NAEYC Code and Supplement for Early Childhood Program Administrators (note item number[s]), brainstorm possible resolutions,then decide what the “good director” should do in each of these situations.
· An enrollment issue: The mother of the next child on your list for admission has told you that she has had her child in 5 differentpreschools in the past 6 months. She tells you very emotional stories about what she found wrong with each of them.
· A personnel issue: Your enrollment is down. You must close a classroom and let a teacher go. Do you choose to terminate the lastperson hired, who is an excellent teacher, or the long-time employee, who has never done a very good job?
· A family issue: A parent who has been rude and abusive to staff withdraws her child but then wants to come back to the center.
Other criteria of professionalism remain beyond our reach. For example, we would like to achieve greater professional autonomy, but thefact remains that regulations and standards that determine who is eligible and qualified to teach and care for young children are not likelyto have been developed by early childhood educators. Efforts to include experts in early childhood education in the groups that createthese regulations are the focus of advocacy efforts in some states.
For these reasons, it is now generally agreed that early childhood education is an “emerging” profession (Feeney, 2012). It is neither like the“paradigm professions” of law and medicine, nor are early childhood educators unskilled workers, such as day laborers or short-ordercooks, who enter the workplace with little prior training or specialized knowledge, and whose employers are likely to consider them to beinterchangeable. Consider where early childhood education falls on the professional continuum illustrated in
Figure 13.1
.
As the field moves toward increased professionalism, it is important that program administrators, as leaders in the field, are active inorganizations that support their efforts to remain informed and engaged professionals. Review the list of professional organizations foundin
Appendix 4
. We recommend that you join one or more that you find to be of particular interest and that you select one to become activein at the local, state, or national level. Doing so can enhance your knowledge and expertise and connect you with the larger community ofearly childhood professionals.
Figure 13.1
A Professional Continuum
Application Activity
Our discussion focuses on efforts to increase the professionalism of the field by setting higher expectations for professionalpreparation and by making our reliance on our Code of Ethical Conduct explicit, and we discuss the issues created by the field’s lack ofautonomy. Select one of the other five criteria of professionalism. Decide where the field of early care and education falls on theprofessionalism continuum that puts doctors and lawyers at one end and unskilled workers at the other. Provide a rationale for yourconclusion.
13.2 ENGAGING IN INFORMED ADVOCACY
Advocacy is speaking out for and taking action in support of causes that protect and support vulnerable populations. Early childhoodeducators have a long history of advocacy on behalf of young children, their families, and the field of early care and education (
Feeney,2012
). Our commitment to advocacy is established by the Statement of Commitment that accompanies the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct andis reiterated in several of the Code’s Ideals, including those that urge early childhood educators to advocate for children who have specialneeds and to promote environments that are physically and emotionally healthy and support young children’s learning, growth, anddevelopment (NAEYC, 2011a).
Advocacy can involve everything from working on behalf of a particular child or family to speaking out at the national level. Yourpersonality, your passion, your available time and energy, and your stage of professional development are all likely to influence the kinds ofadvocacy that are right for you. When you are a novice in the field, advocacy on behalf of a particular child or family will probably be thebest fit for your interests and abilities. As you become more experienced, and particularly when you move into an administrative role, it willbe time to reevaluate your strengths and interests in light of the responsibilities you have accepted by becoming a leader in the field. It maybe time for you to assume a leadership role in your local community, and perhaps on an even larger stage. Consider the following list toidentify the kinds of advocacy activities that are right for you:
· Individual advocacy involves professionals in working on behalf of children or families. You engage in this form of advocacy whenyou help a particular child or family gain access to needed services. An example of this kind of personal advocacy is pursuing speechtherapy for the child whose poor articulation is making it difficult for him to have positive interactions with his peers. Your individualadvocacy efforts may also involve sharing your views with individuals or groups to raise their awareness about an issue. This kind ofadvocacy can be either spontaneous or planned (
Robinson & Stark, 2002
). Distributing information about the Campaign for aCommercial-Free Childhood to the families of the children in your program and encouraging them to limit the number of commercialmessages to which their children are exposed are examples of individual advocacy. You are also engaged in individual advocacy whenyou write a letter to the editor or submit a guest editorial to your local paper.
· Collective advocacy involves professionals working together on behalf of a group of people, for example, young children, familieswho need child care, or caregivers who are not earning a working wage or receiving appropriate benefits. As an early childhoodadvocate, you are probably focused on securing a “greater societal commitment to improving programs for young children and moresupport for early childhood educators” (
Jacobson & Simpson, 2007
, p. 92) and in speaking up “because all is not right for children inour country and the world” (Feeney, 2012, p. 71). Two kinds of collective advocacy target decision makers far removed from the dailylives of young children and their families:
· Public policy advocacy may involve you in efforts to influence public policies and practices to make them more responsive to theneeds of children and families. Public policy advocates challenge those who develop laws, regulations, and policies to support youngchildren, their families, and the caregivers with whom they spend their days (Robinson & Stark, 2002). When a professionalorganization such as your state NAEYC affiliate communicates its position on an issue related to children and families to the statelegislature, the organization’s spokespersons are engaged in collective public policy advocacy.
· Private-sector advocacy is designed to influence business leaders’ practices and policies. Some private-sector advocates work tomake the workplace more family friendly, while others focus on eliminating violence in toys and children’s media, or work to ensurethat toys are made from safe, nontoxic materials. Successful private-sector advocacy efforts have increased the number ofcorporations that offer employees flexible schedules, job sharing, telecommuting, and part-time employment. They also haveincreased the number of corporations that offer on-site employer-supported child care and have led to the removal of unsafe toysfrom store shelves.
We hope that you will continue the field’s tradition of advocacy by seizing opportunities to speak out for those who are most vulnerableand unable to speak out for themselves.
Application Activity
Identify an issue facing your center, your community, or your state. Identify who might help you resolve this issue. Should the targetof your advocacy be local policy makers, state-level legislators, or corporate leaders? Identify strategies likely to be most effective tobring attention and eventually action to remedy the problem or resolve the issue.
Becoming an Effective Advocate
Becoming an effective advocate is an important part of becoming a mature professional. However, many early childhood educators whoenjoy their work with children find it difficult to speak with authority to adults, particularly to public-sector or business policy makers. Thatmay be because working directly with children requires a different skill set than speaking out in a public arena. Nevertheless, we know thatif we are to attract the public support needed to create a robust, high-quality, and sustainable system of early care and education, we mustbe effective advocates.
One strategy that helps ensure success is to create coalitions of support and to network with other individuals or groups who share yourcause (
Ellison & Barbour, 1992
;
Levine, 1992
). That may mean linking with providers of special services such as speech or occupationaltherapists, or working with support groups for mothers such as Mom’s Rising, a grassroots effort designed to support family-friendlypolicies and practices. Review
Figure 13.2
,
Characteristics of Effective Advocates
. It may inspire you to take action about an issue relatedto children, families, and child care personnel.
Figure 13.2
Characteristics of Effective Advocates
Sources: Based on
Blank, 1997
; Robinson & Stark, 2002;
Teles & Schmitt, 2011
.
Application Activity
Learn about the career of a successful early childhood advocate. Consider the list below of advocates who championed the causesimportant to early childhood educators. You can probably identify others who have been successful speaking out on behalf ofchildren and families in a local, state, national, or international arena. Learn about the major accomplishments of the advocate youhave selected to research and identify how they contributed to the well-being of children and families. Be prepared to share yourfindings with your class.
· Susan Blow opened the first public kindergarten in St. Louis in 1873. Her goal was to give children experiences that would makethem love learning.
· Margaret McMillan and her sister Rachel opened the first nursery school in London in 1911 to provide the children of factoryworkers with opportunities to play outdoors in a safe environment.
· James L. Hymes, Jr. was one of the founders of Head Start in 1963. He spent his entire career teaching parents and caregivershow to support children’s learning, growth, and development.
· Marian Wright Edelman founded the Children’s Defense Fund in 1973 to address inequalities created by poverty and other riskschildren face to their well-being.
· Susan Linn founded the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood in 2000 in response to concerns about marketing to childrenand the commercialization of childhood.
· J. Ronald Lally founded For Our Babies, an advocacy initiative focused on quality programming for very young children in 2014.
An Advocate’s Toolbox
Effective advocates are good communicators. They know what they want to achieve. They express the facts clearly, directly, and accurately,and are explicit about their goals (Jacobson & Simpson, 2007). Advocates sometimes need to be ready to act on short notice, such as whenthe legislature is preparing to vote on an issue affecting children and families. In other instances, advocates have time to set goals for whatthey want to accomplish in the future and can build coalitions around specific issues. In these instances, when time is not of the essence,they may become involved with political action campaigns and can take their time to identify candidates receptive to helping advance issuesin support of children and families.
Effective advocates have many tools at their disposal. Every advocacy effort must be tailored to meet a particular audience’s need forinformation about the problem you have identified and the role they could play to help you reach the solution you propose. Consider howeach of these advocacy tools might contribute to the success of your own efforts to advocate on behalf of children, families, and those whocare for them.
· Position statements are expressions of professional organizations’ official stance on issues related to their mission. NAEYC, the Division ofEarly Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), the Southern Early Childhood Association (SECA), and the Associationfor Childhood Education International (ACEI) have developed position statements addressing controversial or critical issues related to earlychildhood education practice, policy, and professional development. Sometimes two or more professional organizations develop positionstatements together. For example, Early Childhood Mathematics: Promoting Good Beginnings (
NAEYC and the National Council of Teachers ofMathematics, 2010
) is a joint position statement of NAEYC and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). In other instances,allied organizations embrace each other’s position statements, as SECA did when they endorsed the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct.
Position statements include extensive reviews of the literature and are a valuable foundation upon which to base your advocacy efforts.They can be extremely helpful as you prepare to testify on behalf of legislation or to meet with policy makers in other settings, but are notusually appropriate to share with legislators or other decision makers because they are too in-depth and detailed for their purposes.
· White papers are reports developed by organizations to describe a problem and propose a solution. These advocacy documents ofteninclude many facts and figures that can be used to support the solution you propose.
· A briefing paper or issue brief typically describes one problem, describes the policy you propose, and gives an example of how the policyyou propose is working in another locale. Legislators are particularly interested in policies in neighboring states, so provide close-to-homeexamples whenever possible (Robinson & Stark, 2002).
· Talking points are short and to the point. They include “‘sound bites’ telling why you support or oppose a particular policy or decision”(Robinson & Stark, 2002, p. 82). Advocates find talking points very useful then they meet with policy makers or talk to the media.
· Key facts handouts are an advocacy tool intended for the public, policy makers, and the media. They are short (one- or two-page) to-the-point summaries of the basic facts surrounding your issue and clearly state the steps that you recommend policy makers take based onthese facts. Any statistics you reference must be accurate and up to date (Robinson & Stark, 2002). See
Figure 13.3
for an example of a KeyFacts Handout that advocates for changes to South Carolina’s child care regulations.
Figure 13.3
Key Facts Handout
Sources: AAP/APHA/NRCHSCC, 2011;
Child Care Aware® of America, 2013
; NAEYC, 2014;
NAEYC, 1993
;
South Carolina Department of Social Services, 2005
.
This Key Facts Handout briefly highlights research that supports low ratios and class size, provides information about neighboring states’child care regulations, and makes specific recommendations for South Carolina policy makers to consider.
· Concrete examples are compelling and often effective ways to demonstrate the importance of the policy or initiative you arerecommending. If you are advocating for quality programs for 4-year-olds, for example, you will want to give policy makers a glimpse into aclassroom with many authentic hands-on experiences, and you will need to identify what children learn when they build with blocks ordress up in the dramatic play center. You can do this by inviting policy makers to your center or by taking the center to them with photos,short videos, and real-life success stories (Jacobson & Simpson, 2007). Or your advocacy efforts might focus on efforts to make quality caremore accessible and affordable. In that case, you could give policy makers the opportunity to hear from a family struggling to gain access toquality care for their young children.
Watch this video to hear a father describe the challenges his military family,who was new to the community, faced when trying to find quality child care fortheir young child.
· Action alerts mobilize advocates to take immediate action. They are typically emailed to supporters and urge them to contact theirlegislators immediately to ask them to support children and families when they cast their votes on specific legislation. You can expect actionalerts to include the phone numbers and email addresses of targeted legislators and specific facts advocates can use in their message(Robinson & Stark, 2002).
Application Activity
Find examples of a variety of advocacy materials online. Position papers are typically linked directly from organizations’ websites.Other advocacy materials can be found by searching on the Internet. Look, for example, for NAEYC’s current public policy talkingpoints, the American Library Association’s white paper, “The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and Materials Collections forChildren,” or the National Art Association’s series of white papers describing the value of arts education. Evaluate how successful youthink the materials you find are likely to be.
Many organizations focused on young children and their families have become more active in the advocacy arena in recent years. It is likelytheir stepped-up efforts have been prompted by their hope that they can restore funding that was cut from bare-bones local, state, andfederal budgets in the aftermath of the 2008 economic slowdown. As the economy has recovered, some initiatives have been successful inincreasing support for programs focused on children’s issue, but the competition for these monies is intense. We recommend that you relyon advocacy materials created by national organizations that support your own local- or state-level advocacy efforts, whether you areconcerned with expanding infant/toddler or 4K programs, or increasing services to young children with special needs and their families.Some organizations active in leading advocacy efforts are listed at the end of this chapter. You may know of other advocacy groups thataddress issues faced in your own community.
Watch this Week of the Young Child video to see how one state effectivelyhighlighted the benefits of quality early childhood programming. Videos like thesecan be emailed to policy makers or used by television stations as public serviceannouncements.
NAEYC sponsors an annual Week of the Young Child in mid-April. This might be an ideal advocacy opportunity when used as a platform forinforming the public and elected officials about issues related to young children and their families; to spotlight a local champion forchildren; or to grow grassroots advocacy efforts by involving students, programs, and providers in high-profile activities (
Advocates inAction, 2009
). By coordinating advocacy efforts in your community, city, or state, you can increase the chances for presenting a unifiedmessage that is likely to have a greater impact than would be a single, isolated effort. The NAEYC website has many suggestions for how youmight take Week of the Young Child activities out into your community.
Watch this video to see how one community has engaged its local TV station intheir efforts to share information about the Week of the Young Child and thecontributions of quality early childhood programming.
Important Reminders!
We hope we have inspired you to become an effective advocate for young children and families on the local, state, or national level. It isimportant to remember, however, that some agencies or organizations prohibit their employees from taking a public stand on controversialissues. Before you or members of your staff speak out publically, you need to be certain that you are following your employer’s policiesrelated to advocacy activities. You may not be permitted to participate in rallies or other demonstrations during work hours, and may beprohibited from identifying yourself as a public employee in a letter to the editor or a guest editorial in your local paper. It is best to find outabout any restrictions that might limit how you can speak out before your community is engaged in heated public debate. That way, you canbe assured that center personnel will appreciate that the limits you set are not intended to silence their weighing in on a particular issuebut are, instead, designed to adhere to the agency’s established policies.
You also need to be aware of limitations that apply to 501(c)(3) affiliates of NAEYC and other nonprofit organizations, and to your programif it has this nonprofit designation. It is not permissible, for example, for nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations to recognize elected officials whoare candidates for reelection with an award during an election year. That means that it would not be possible for your local NAEYC affiliateto honor your local state senator as a Champion for Children after she has announced her candidacy for reelection (
NAEYC, 2004b
).
If the kinds of advocacy efforts described earlier are not permitted by your employer, we encourage you to share information with yourfriends and family. Maybe you will inspire them to advocate on behalf of children and families.
A Better Way
Grace has become comfortable as a supervisor, mentor, and coach to the teachers in her center, and she is beginning to see herself as a leaderin the local early childhood community. She was not willing, however, to talk to the newspaper reporter who recently asked her to commenton proposed changes to the state’s child care regulations. She does not consider herself an expert on that issue and did not want to make amisstatement she would later regret.
After studying the guidelines describing tools of effective advocates, Grace decided that she needed to become better informed about how theproposed reduction in child–staff ratios for licensed centers could improve child outcomes. She attended public hearings on the issue andnetworked with the directors of other high-quality programs in her community. After checking with her board of directors to be certain publicadvocacy would not violate any established policies, she studied relevant position statements and prepared a key facts handout to summarizethe points she wanted to make. She called back the reporter and agreed to be interviewed on the topic. She knew she had done the right thingwhen the parents of the children in her program thanked her for speaking out publicly on behalf of quality.
13.3 INVESTING IN THE PROFESSION’S FUTURE
Supporting Developing Professionals
When you help others find their place in the profession of early care and education, you are engaging in a particular form of leadership.Some of the ways program administrators can help others find their place in the profession are by:
· being a resource for those who want to know more about career options for those who specialize in early childhood education.
· welcoming students enrolled in internships or other courses that require them to observe or interact with young children or families.
· mentoring and coaching novices to enhance their skills and knowledge of young children and early childhood education.
· encouraging emerging leaders to enhance their professional knowledge by enrolling in postsecondary degree programs; pursuingadvanced professional development opportunities; and participating in professional organizations, including attending and presentingat local, regional, and national conferences.
Supporting Research
One way your program can contribute to the profession is by serving as a practicum site for beginning students.
David Kostelnik/Pearson Education
Another way you can contribute to the future of the field is by inviting researchers with projects investigating topics related to children,families, teaching, or learning to consider conducting their research at your center. You will first want to be certain any research involvingthe children or teachers at your center is in compliance with NAEYC’s Code of Ethical Conduct. That means no research that could jeopardizechildren’s well-being would be permitted; and that potential participants in the study, both teachers and children’s families, are informed inadvance and have the opportunity, but are not required, to participate.
Then you will want to ask researchers if their project has been approved by the appropriate institutional review board (IRB). This reviewrequires researchers to have a plan to gain participants’ consent and to have procedures in place to protect the privacy of participatingchildren and adults. Once you are convinced those requirements have been met, we advise you, whenever possible, to grant researchrequests and invite researchers involved in expanding the field’s knowledge base into your program.
Teachers as Researchers
It is important to appreciate that research can be conducted not only by scholars such as university-based researchers, but also by teachersin their own classrooms (
Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999
). Teachers involved in this kind of action research (which is sometimes called teacher research) explore practical questions within their own world of work “to better understand teaching and learning and to improvepractice in specific and concrete ways” (
Stremmel, 2007
, p. 4). Teacher research supports reflective teaching, and has the potential tobecome an everyday event that informs practice (
Paley, 1981
;
Murphy, Bryant, & Ingram, 2014
).
When teachers become researchers in their own classrooms they move away from the view that they transmit knowledge to children andtoward the view that they construct knowledge and understandings with the children they teach (
Moran, 2007
;
Murphy, Bryant, & Ingram,2014
). Action research can also take teachers to the cutting edge of best practices and can give them opportunities to collaborate withcolleagues, university researchers, and preservice teacher preparation programs (
Charlesworth & DeBoer, 2000
;
Cooney, Buchanan, &Parkinson, 2001
; Moran, 2007).
Program administrators who are committed to action research often support their teachers’ inquiry by making it part of the program’sculture. They can help to build beginners’ confidence by giving novices opportunities to conduct research projects with a mentor or apartner. When two or more teachers work together, they bring broader perspectives to their inquiry, and the analysis of their findings maybe more insightful (
Dietze et al., 2014
). Directors can also encourage teachers to create study groups where they work together to“intentionally and systematically research and answer their own questions” (Murphy, Bryant, & Ingram, 2014, p. 29). When teachersembark on teacher research, directors often find that it has become a very powerful and effective form of professional development thatmakes room for in-depth, intellectual conversations during which teachers ask and answer their own questions (Murphy, Bryant, & Ingram,2014, p. 29).
SUMMARY
When you become a program administrator, you are taking the first step toward becoming a leader in the field. You will have increasedopportunities to contribute to efforts to enhance the quality of programming for young children. We hope you are looking forward to thechallenges and opportunities to come.
· Describe how the field of early childhood education has made progress achieving two of the eight criteria of professional status.
Professionals possess specialized knowledge, have rigorous requirements for entry, and have agreed-upon standards of practice. Practitioners meet a significant societal need, are altruistic and service oriented, provide an indispensable service, and are recognized as the only group insociety that can perform its function. Professions have autonomy and have a code of ethics that spells out its obligations to society. The fieldclearly meets the code of ethics criterion. NAYEC’s Code of Ethical Conduct was first adopted in 1989 and has been revised regularly sincethat time. And publically funded programs have, in recent years, raised the bar for entry into the field. As a result, more are coming intoearly childhood education with specialized training that prepares them to teach young children.
· Identify the advocacy tools that early childhood advocates should have at their disposal.
Early childhood educators engage in both individual and collective forms of advocacy, which may address either those who shape publicpolicy or decision makers in the private sector. They rely on position statements and white papers to develop a comprehensiveunderstanding of the issues, issue briefs, talking points, key fact handouts, and concrete examples to take their message to their audience;and action alerts to mobilize fellow advocates to take action.
· Discuss opportunities program administrators have to contribute to the field’s future.
Program administrators have opportunities to develop future leaders by being a resource to those considering a career in earlychildhood, by welcoming students into their centers to complete assignments, by mentoring and coaching novices, and by encouragingemerging leaders to enhance their knowledge and skills. They can also make their program available to qualified researchers and supporttheir teachers’ implementation of action research to promote reflective practice and to inform their teaching.
USEFUL WEBSITES
Websites for Professional Ethics Resources
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
· Follow the Position Statement link to the Code of Ethical Conduct and its Supplements:
· NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct (2011)
· El Código de Conducta Ética y Declaración de Compromiso (2011)
· Supplement for Adult Educators (2004)
· Supplement for Program Administrators (2011)
Websites for Advocacy Resources
Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood
This nonprofit is dedicated to raising families’ and caregivers’ awareness of the pervasive influence of commercial messages targetingchildren and to support their efforts to raise healthy families by ending the exploitive practice of marketing directly to children.
Family and Work Institute
This nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization focuses on the changing workforce, the changing family, and the communities in whichthey live.
Moms Rising
This grassroots advocacy organization strives to raise the public’s awareness and build support for issues related to children and families.Its goal is to build more family-friendly communities.
NAEYC Advocacy Toolkit
This comprehensive resource addresses many facets of effective advocacy. It includes helpful information about the legislative process andeffective strategies for creating relationships with legislators.
Zero to Three
The mission of this nonprofit organization is to promote the health and development of infants and toddlers through training ofprofessionals, policy makers, and families.
Website for Reports of Teacher Research
Voices of Practitioners
The collection of teacher research reports found by following links from this website demonstrates how teachers conduct inquiry projectsin their own classrooms to help them understand their children, teaching, and learning. They are inspiring examples that might encourageyou to try similar projects in your classroom or center.
TO REFLECT
1.
Have you ever noticed that professional conference sessions focused on public policy or systems development are likely to have plentyof empty seats, whereas sessions such as “Music for Monday Mornings” are standing room only? What do you think this says about ourprofession? How could this situation be changed?
2. A class in administration is discussing collaboration. One student commented, “We always talk about all we can accomplish throughcollaboration, but doesn’t collaboration come at a cost?” What are the costs of collaboration?
1Versions of this discussion have been published in “The New Face of Early Childhood Education: Who Are We? Where Are We Going?” byN. K. Freeman and S. Feeney, 2006, Young Children, 61(5), pp. 10–16, and also in “Professionalism and Ethics in Early Care and Education,”by N. K. Freeman and S. Feeney, 2009, Continuing Issues in Early Childhood Education (3rd ed., pp. 196–211), by S. Feeney, A. Galper, and C.Seefeldt (eds.), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Runninghead:
Commitment to Professionalism
1
Commitment to Professionalism
3
Commitment to Professionalism
Your Name
Course Number & Title
Instructor’s Name
Month Day, Year
Commitment to Professionalism
Advocating for _________
Identify the focus of your advocacy efforts and give an example of an issue you would like to address as an advocate. You may want to start off with something like: A great passion of mine is to advocate for __________ because___________. Research shows that this is a critical issue______________.
In the next few paragraphs be sure to:
· Identify one individual or group (local policy maker, state-level legislator, corporate leader, etc.) that you can contact for support of your issue and provide a rationale for choosing this individual/group.
· Describe the strategies you would use to gain the support needed for this issue through individual advocacy.
· Describe the strategies you would use to attract the support needed for this issue through collective advocacy.
· Create two talking points (as discussed in Chapter 13) using one
concrete example
(refer to key term in chapter reading for precise definition) for each point to demonstrate the importance of the issue. These talking points should be appropriate to use when talking to legislators or the media about the issue for which you are advocating.
Commitment to the Profession
In this section be sure to
· Describe how you will advocate on behalf of young children, their families, and the profession.
· Describe how you will support the development of future practitioners and leaders in the field.
· Referring to to Figure 13.1 “A Professional Continuum” and describe how your efforts will support the field away from unskilled workers and toward paradigm professionals.
Don’t forget specific details, examples, and citations to help you get a top grade
References (Text and at least TWO outside sources)
Ashford Textbook (Online edition): *
Author, A. (Year published). Title of book: Subtitle of book (edition, if other than the first) [Electronic version]. Retrieved from from URL
Example:
Witt, G. A., & Mossler, R. A. (2010). Adult development and life assessment [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/4
Online Journal Article (such as from the Ashford Library):**
Author, A. (Year Published). Article title. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), page range. doi:# or Retrieved from journal’s homepage URL
**When including a URL for an online journal, you must search for the journal’s home page and include this in your reference entry. You may not include the URL found through your university library, as readers will not have access to this library.
Examples:
Churchill, S. D., & Mruk, C. J. (2014). Practicing what we preach in humanistic and positive psychology. American Psychologist, 69(1), 90-92. doi:10.1037/a0034868
Santovec, M. (2008). Easing the transition improves grad retention at Trinity U. Women in Higher Education, 17(10), 32. Retrieved from http://www.trinitydc.edu/education/files/2010/09/Women_in_higher_
Ed_Trinity_Transistions_10_08
Online Magazine:*
Author, A. (Year, Month Date Published). Article title. Magazine Title. Retrieved from URL
Example:
Walk, V. (2013, April 29). Can this woman fix Europe? Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,213969.html
YouTube Video:*
Author, A. [Screen name]. (Year, Month, Day). Title of video [Video file]. Retrieved from URL
Example:
Apsolon, M. [markapsolon]. (2011, September 9). Real ghost girl caught on video tape 14
[Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nyGCbxD848
Web Page:*
Author, A. (Year, Month, Date Published). Article title. Retrieved from URL
Example—Corporate web page:
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2008). Police and detectives. Retrieved from http://bls.gov/oco/pdf/ocos160
Example—Article or section within web page with no author:
Presentation tools. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://web2014.discoveryeducation.com/web20tools-presentation.cfm
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