Early Childhood

Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood, Parental Involvement

Reinventing the Way We Measure Family Outcomes

The lack of family focus and inability to measure family outcomes has many people wondering if we need to reevaluate this entire process. Connecticut’s Office of Early Childhood recently publicly proclaimed their initiative to reinvent how government organizations can interact with families. The goal of this new method is to measure the outcomes of voluntary at-home visits and acknowledging when financial incentive is reasonable.

Connecticut has been at the forefront of many advancements in the past, and they are once again leading the country in a more positive direction. As the first program of its kind, the department is working to join parental programs and welfare policies while incentivizing success. 

What are Home Visitation Services?

These services include any involvement of a trained professional nurse, peer educator, or social worker. Previously the Office of Early Childhood had different policies governing each aspect of home visitation services.

Now, the focus is on working with families, not just the children. During home visitation services, the professionals involved will observe, interact, and report on child and parent well-being. Even medical aspects such as brain development and growth milestones, which seem limited to the child involved, can impact the parent’s daily life as well.  

Programs which provide home visitation services include:

  •     Healthy Families of America
  •     Nurse-Family Partnership
  •     Parents as Teachers

The programs all strive to provide parents with professional help to:

  •     Develop parenting skills
  •     Support social development
  •     Support emotional development
  •     Build the relationship between parent and child

Home visitation services have had a substantial impact on family outcomes. When families can access these programs and develop within their homes, children show increased well-being. Parents also show improvement in returning to work or school.

What is the Best Way to Measure Family Outcomes?

At-risk people and families, which contain at-risk individuals, need guidance. They also need tangible metrics to identify successful outcomes from program failure. The Office of Early Childhood now uses a rate card system.

What defines success and what is available for the state to “purchase” for families? There are four metrics on Connecticut’s rate card:

  1.     Healthy Birth
  2.     Safe Children
  3.     Family Stability
  4.     Caregiver Employment

The rate card system comes with two sides. First is a clear standard of expectations for families. Second, it’s a type of menu which the state will “order” from, and the family should deliver in exchange for a financial initiative.

Where is this funding coming from? Although some of it is through government funding, much of it also comes from the philanthropic community.

Those deemed “at-risk,” including infants, children, and parents have access to services through the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood. Since Connecticut announced their initiative, many private programs, and regionalized county or state offices outside of Connecticut have adopted similar initiatives. 

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Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood, Parental Involvement

We Should Give Free Learning Materials and Professional Development to the Parents of Preschool Age Students

Parents are their child’s first teacher, and teachers are only as good as the learning materials that they have access to, and the training and support they receive. In many parts of the world, parents don’t have the funds to purchase learning materials. What if school districts provided learning materials and children’s books to the parents of children under the age of five? Some of the materials can be loaned out, but some materials such as workbooks might require the student to have their own copy, which they will be allowed to keep.

This would ensure that students receive a foundational education before they enter kindergarten. Well, provided that the school district provides parents with a professional development series that gives them tips on how to use the materials. Nothing too fancy, just 5 to 10 professional development sessions, sprinkled throughout the year and taught by expert teachers or professors.

This may seem like a huge burden to place on a U.S. education system that in some states, is not fully funded. But I promise it will save taxpayers millions of dollars. How? Remember, there are a lot of children that don’t attend a structured preschool program, and so their parents or family members are responsible for their educations. In some instances, these students enter kindergarten as blank slates, without an understanding of what a number or letter is, or the ability to follow directions.

So, helping parents and caregivers provide foundational skills to their children would save the U.S. education system billions of dollars. Why? Because students who lack school readiness usually end up repeating kindergarten, which means the school district must pay for an additional year of kindergarten and the cost of performing expensive interventions. School districts can prevent this, by providing parents with some learning materials and professional development sessions. Talk about a sound investment.

Do you think this is a good idea? Why or why not?

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Matthew Lynch published in Child Development, Early Childhood, Policy & Reform

Do Preschool Teachers Really Need to Be College Graduates?

Let’s get right into it. Yes, preschool teachers need to be college graduates. As a matter of fact, they need a bachelor’s degree, not and associates. Why? Because they need to have a well-rounded understanding of child development, early childhood education, etc. For instance, an associates degree (2-year) in early childhood education at Jay Sargent Reynolds Community College in Virginia requires you to take 15 courses that are devoted to early childhood education or child development. The curriculum is robust, but it only tackles the fundamental or introductory knowledge and skills that a competent early childhood educator should have.

Many students in this program end up finishing their associate’s degree and transferring to Virginia Commonwealth University to complete their bachelor’s degree (4-year) in early childhood education. With the 15 courses that they took at Jay Sargent Reynolds and the 14 courses that they took at Virginia Commonwealth University, students end up taking a grand total or courses in fulfillment of their bachelor’s degree. This gives students enough time to really understand the nuances of child development and early childhood education, which will help them to be competent preschool teachers.

What states require preschool teachers to have a degree, and why does it matter?

Unfortunately, the scenario that I just laid out is not the norm. As of 2015, 27 states require that preschool teachers have a minimum of a bachelors degree, 34 states require that they have an associates degree, and 7 states only require preschool teachers to have a high school diploma. For too long, we have thought of early childhood education as child’s play, something that any high school graduate can do. However, this is an antiquated practice that is detrimental to the development of our most precious resource, our children.

We spend too much time during the high school years trying to convince students not to drop out, but the seeds of academic failure were planted years before, in early childhood education. Because of this, it makes sense to require that the teachers who will be helping students build their educational foundations be highly educated and qualified.

How degree holding teachers impact the achievement gap

We know that the inequities and achievement gaps that exist in the education system develop way before Kindergarten, mainly because preschool teachers in low-income areas are often less qualified than those in middle-class neighborhoods. Here is the dirty little secret. In middle-class neighborhoods, their preschool teachers are more likely to have 4-year degrees, even if the state only requires preschool teachers to hold a high school diploma.

That’s why I get upset when I hear critics say that there is nothing about teaching preschool that requires an education beyond high school. I mean what planet are they on? They usually go on to say that mandating that preschool teachers possess a teaching credential will cause the price of child care to skyrocket as daycares and preschools would have to pay educators on a K-12 teachers scale.

Research studies of early childhood programs in New Jersey and Oklahoma have reported positive outcomes for students who were taught by teachers who had college degrees, as opposed to teachers who only had high school diplomas or the equivalent. However, convincing teachers with 4-year degrees to teach in early childhood education is a long shot. Why? Because the average salary for a preschool teacher with a bachelor’s degree is $27,200 to $42,800, depending on the setting and children’s age, and the average salary for an elementary school teacher with a comparable college education is $56,100.

How do we get around this? It’s simple, pay preschool teachers, the same salary that you pay elementary school teachers. Wouldn’t this cause the price of preschool and daycare to skyrocket? Sure, but I have a solution. We offer every child a free K-12 education, why not extend that to PreK-12 and offer universal preschool to all students, regardless of economic status. Wouldn’t that be the American thing to do?

Also, ensuring that students receive a strong educational foundation will help them become academically successful later on in life, provided that the K-12 system does its job. Also, it would help reduce the number of school dropouts and close the school to prison pipeline. In turn, more citizens would be ready to contribute to our burgeoning democracy, which would give our economy a boost. Theoretically, this would lower the unemployment rate and lower the number of people who resort to crime as a means to sustain themselves financially.

So you see, requiring all preschool teachers to have 4-year degrees can pay for itself and have a positive impact on the economy and citizens of the United States.

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Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Assistive Technology, Career Readiness, Child Development Tech, Classroom Management,

The Edvocate Podcast, Episode 7: How Digital Age Teachers Can Win Over Parents

Education is a collaborative process, as it takes many stakeholders working in unison to help students succeed academically. One of the most integral parts of this collaborative team is parents, as teachers know all so well. So, if you are a teacher struggling to increase parental engagement, how do you fix this issue? In this episode, we will discuss 7 ways that digital age teachers win over parents.

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Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Assessment, Assistive Technology, Black Boys in Crisis, Child Development Tech,

The Edvocate Podcast, Episode 6: 8 Ways That Digital Age Teachers Avoid Burning Out

Being a teacher is a tough job. So much so, many new teachers end up leaving the field within their first three years. To ensure that the next generation of students have qualified teachers, we must nip this phenomenon in the bud. In this episode, we will discuss 8 ways that digital age teachers avoid burning out.

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Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Assistive Technology, Black Boys in Crisis, Bullying, Child Development,

The Edvocate Podcast, Episode 4: How to Create a Culturally Responsive Classroom

Building a culturally responsive classroom is hard. To help you along your journey, here is your guide to exploring and respecting the cultural backgrounds of your students while also using diversity as an asset. If you you listen to this episode of the podcast, and take my advice, you will have a culturally responsive classroom in no time.

References

Culturally responsive teaching is a theory of instruction that was developed by Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings and has been written about by many other scholars since then. To read more of her work on culturally responsive teaching and other topics, click here to visit her Amazon.com page.

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Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Assistive Technology, Black Boys in Crisis, Bullying, Child Development Tech,

The Edvocate Podcast, Episode 1: 8 Attributes of Successful Digital Age Teachers

Regardless of where you go in the world, teachers are the backbone of the education system. Without quality teachers, school districts cannot provide students with the skills that they need to be successful academically. Without teachers, the next generation will not be able to compete in the global economy. These are sureties, and you will find few people who would disagree.

If you have been studying the field of education closely, as we have, you know that it is undergoing a metamorphosis. Students no longer respond to the teacher-centered pedagogy that our forefathers did. No, today’s students are immersed in a technologically advanced world and possess attention spans that last only a few seconds.

Because of this, today’s teacher needs to add a new skill set to their repertoire to be successful. In this today’s podcast, we will discuss the 8 key attributes that successful digital age teachers possess.

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Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood, Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech, Education Leadership, Higher Education, Higher Education EdTech

10 Essential Skills for the Education Leader of Tomorrow

What will the schools of tomorrow be like?

No one can say for certain. But one thing we do know: schools are under pressure to keep up with the ceaselessly rapidfire changes occurring in our culture. It is difficult to prepare students for the future when we have no way of knowing exactly what that future will be like.

In this context, educational leaders need a unique skill set to make sure that students get what they need. The prevalence of technology inside and outside the classroom, as well as the increased accountability for student achievement, have drastically changed the educational landscape.

Here are the skills that tomorrow’s educational leaders will need to keep up.

  1. An understanding of student outcomes. Curriculum must evolve to reflect the skills that students will need in the future. The educational leader of the future will understand the practices and environment necessary for student achievement.
  2. The ability to implement large-scale turnarounds. The bar is set increasingly high for student achievement in numeracy and literacy. Educational leaders must institute programs that lead to deep and lasting learning.
  3. An understanding of the variety of tools available to educators. Educational leaders must have knowledge of the array of available tools and the precise ways in which they can support teaching and learning.
  4. The ability and the desire to reform school culture. The leaders of the future must have a compelling vision and a commitment to high standards, so that they can implement deep and lasting reform.
  5. A commitment to quality professional development. The leaders and educators of tomorrow know that they must learn something new every day to keep their methods fresh in changing times.
  6. Knowledge of the best ways to support staff. Tomorrow’s leaders will understand what staff needs to carry out school and district goals effectively.
  7. An unwavering moral compass. The school leaders of the future have a strong social conscience and always keep the best interests of students in the forefront of decision-making.
  8. The ability to measure progress and success. As new tools are introduced, it’s important to evaluate their effectiveness and their impact on student learning.
  9. Personal use and exploration of new tools. The school leaders of tomorrow will model learning for others by adding new tools to their own repertoire.
  10. Emotional intelligence. When guiding their schools through disruptive changes, school leaders will need to maintain strong relationships with students, teachers, parents and the community.

The future is a moving target, but one thing is clear: effective school leaders demonstrate courage, care and determination. These qualities will serve our schools well in any culture or time period.

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