Time to speak up – to each other this time!

There are some very exciting opportunities in the NC Early Learning Challenge grant for those of us who work to improve the quality of child care programs and settings for young children.  There is no doubt that the time has come to push  to effect even greater, sustainable, deep change in teacher and program practices.  The changes that have been made need to be supported and encouraged.  “Relationship-based professional development” has become the new catch-all for mentoring, coaching, consulting – an acknowledgement that people make changes in the context of relationships. Changes are not easy or we would have accomplished them long ago.  We have moved the needle significantly in NC – but not far enough.

But there is a choice right now in NC between business-as-we-have-done-in-the-past and and  new opportunities driven with a relentless focus on true collaboration, shared leadership and the linking of arms to really step together into the hard work. No one project or agency can do what is needed by itself.  It is time to connect the dots – from infant/toddlers to NC PreK – from one star family child care to NAEYC Accreditation – from Early Head Start to Smart Start – from health consultants to higher education – and everything in between.   We  need a cross-silo, integrated, talk-to-each-other-often, turf-free approach that will allow us to put our heads together to really bring young children the programs they need and deserve.  We cannot afford to waste one penny of this grant to turf or exclusivity.  We have strong programs in NC but they don’t always work well together. Can I say that out loud?  Its time for that to change. Everyone has a piece of the solution, its time to knit them together. Our leadership at DCDEE provides us clear support, the open sharing of information and the four advisory committees it convenes are a testimony to that vision.  But who knows what the political future holds? 

I challenge us to all speak up – to each other, this time.  If we don’t, we will have no one to blame but ourselves. But  if we insist on  true collaboration at each and every meeting,  if we refuse to be afraid of differences of opinions, if we ask the hard questions, risk the resistance, say out loud what we think is really good for children, then I am looking forward to what this spring holds. Lets get to work.  Together.

Lets ask the people who do the job!

Please consider weighing in on a brief survey to share your thoughts about how our work might be structured in NC.  Its anonymous and I will take the results to a committee that meets Feb 6th to discuss how the Race to the Top grant mentoring activities will roll out.  Please fill it out and share it with colleagues!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZHL8WCP

WA State study finds coaching improves quality of child care

While this is a little old news, it still is the first – and only? – scientific evidence that coaching  makes a difference in improving the quality of child care as measured by ERS and CLASS…Perhaps we would be smart to look at this as we plan for NC’s new mentoring focus.

http://www.childcare.org/Press-Release-9-22-10.pdf

worrying about mentoring

I know, I know – we all love “mentoring!”  Those of us who do this work in early childhood TA recognize that its “new” attention in the QRIS and Race to the Top world means there is an increasing understanding that relationships – on going relationships – are the key to creating successful and sustained changes in teacher and administrator practices.  If acknowledging that relationships are important were enough, how simple it would be to fine-tune our quality support efforts!  But mentoring is a very big bucket of strategies, attributes and approaches.  There is also a very similar bucket called coaching.  As policy makers tackle translating this new appreciation of “relationship-based TA” (Kagan, 2010)  into standards and projects, we hope they resist a simplistic, superficial nod to mentoring without a careful investment in the details.  If we simply reframe our current TA by calling it mentoring, without preparing the TA field with serious professional development and guidance, the result could be the worst possible missed opportunity yet.  Loosely applying the term “mentoring” on existing, TA Lite strategies would mean an incredible lost opportunity.  An appreciation of the importance of mentoring is one of those big shifts in thinking that will make the difference for young children – or not.  If we can hold our decision-makers to the true wisdom in mentoring strategies, even in light of its significant costs, then we can make real headway in improving children’s experiences.  If we can’t, we will continue to tinker around at the edges of making changes and continue to frustrate TA professionals!  I hope those of us in the TA field will loudly advocate for true mentoring – and coaching, and other effective strategies – so that we can finally get some real traction for change!