Looking ahead - lessons from advocates in other states

Voices for America’s Children, a nation-wide network of early childhood advocacy groups, released a report outlining lessons learned and best practices from advocates in states who have increased investment in early care and education.

Increasing State Investments in Early Care and Education: Lessons Learned from Advocates and Best Practices.

The report outlines the recent work done by advocates in 10 states: Alabama, Colorado, Missouri, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

The report lists a quick summary of lessons learned.

• Know Where You are Going. Create a Focused Policy Agenda.
• Create Accountable ECE Investments.
• Build and Sustain Broad-Based Coalitions.
• The Message Really Matters. Get it Right. Keep it Short. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat.
• The Messenger who Delivers the Message is Critical.
• Build Relationships with Elected Officials.
• Cultivate the Grassroots.
• Build Relationships with the Media.
• Do not Move too Fast for the Field.
• Change is Gradual. Small Steps Over Time Create Big Change.
• Start Early.
• Understand Politics and Play the Game as it is – Not as You Wish it Would Be.
• Create Strategies for Long-term Success.

As we close the chapter on the 2008 legislative session and begin to look toward 2009, these lessons are especially timely. When I read the report I found my copy marked up with notes and highlights on every page. There were many helpful observations from the advocates in the profiled states.

We have made progress and done some of these things. This legislative session we set the table and made strategic policy changes that will lead to greater change over time. We have built a coalition and developed strong relationships with key legislators. We are working to build accountability through the Parent Aware Quality Rating System and work that the Build Initiative is doing around Outcomes and Indicators. We have cultivated a strong grassroots movement with more room to expand.

But we have more to learn and a ways to go. Taking what has been effective in other states and applying our own Minnesota flavor is the next step. I hope you will join us.

Don’t forget to share your opinion in our online poll, at the right of the main blog page. Let us know what early learning topics most interest you.

It's all about you - online poll

This blog is all about you. Well, you and the young children in Minnesota. We hope this is a helpful resource to you on early care and education. So, we want to know what specific early learning topics most interest you. Is it policy and advocacy? Child development? Parenting? or News and events?

Complete our online poll to the right of the main page and let us know. If there is something else you're interested in seeing highlighted here, leave your ideas in the comments below.

Thanks!

photo by Orin Optiglot

Small Gains at the Minnesota Legislature

Legislative Session ends with a few small victories

After a weekend of tough negotiations between the Governor and legislative leaders, the 2008 Legislative Session wrapped up Sunday evening with the legislature passing a budget balancing bill, a bonding bill, and several other provisions. For early childhood, all the provisions that were in the bills going into the weekend stayed in the final bills. Most notably, the supplemental budget bill includes funding for early screening, the creation of a State Advisory Council on Early Education and Care, a cut to basic sliding fee child care, and cuts to child care quality improvements. Additionally, the Governor and key Republicans would not agree to include bonding for early childhood facilities in the final bonding bill.

Specifically, the supplemental budget bill includes the following provisions:

The State reimburses school districts for a portion of the actual cost of health and development screening for three to five year olds, as required by law. The law change increases these reimbursements from $30 to $40 for 5 year olds, from $40 to $50 for 4 year olds and recognizing the importance of screening earlier, $50 to $75 for 3 year olds. This is a marked improvement and will help identify children who need assistance in getting ready for school earlier.

The bill as passed by the legislature creates a State Advisory Council on Early Education and Care. Under the federal Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007, state governors are required to create such a council. The adopted language recognizes this process, and adds to the council's duties and membership. In addition to representatives from state departments overseeing early childhood programs, and from Head Start, school districts and local ECE providers, the legislation adds four legislators and two parents with children under the age of six. Parental involvement in the Council is paid for by transferring $12,500 from the Pre-K Allowances and $12,500 from the administrative costs of the Child Care Development Fund, unless other funds become available.

Unfortunately, the bill also includes several cuts to early care and education.

• $9.227 million is cut from the Basic Sliding Fee child care appropriation. In a typical year, funds unspent by counties, due to projections with the current distribution formula, are redistributed to counties with families on child care waiting lists. This $9 million would have provided child care assistance to many of the approximately 3,700 families currently on the waiting list.
• $250,000 is cut from the Pre-K Allowances pilot project. Earlier in the session, one budget bill had proposed that Pre-K allowances be cut $2 million but advocacy efforts by a number of early childhood organizations and action by Senator Dick Cohen, chair of the Finance Committee, made the cut much smaller. Thank goodness for small victories.
• 1.8%, or $110,000, is cut from Child Care Development Grants, which affects a small amount of dollars for Pre-K Allowances, the FFN grants, quality improvements, and child care resource and referral services.

As mentioned previously, bonding for early childhood facilities was not included in the final bonding bill. The Early Childhood Learning and Child Protection Facilities grant program is for facility construction and rehabilitation, for use by Head Start, early childhood family education, early childhood intervention, and crisis nurseries programs. Funding for the program was line-item vetoed in the first bonding bill, and despite strong leadership from some legislators who fought for the inclusion of early childhood bonding until the end, we were unable to secure funding in the final negotiations. Even so, Ready 4 K was successful in making some changes to the statute to make the grant program clearer and easier to use. Legislative leaders encouraged Ready 4 K and our allies to come back next year with another proposal and to do more work to educate legislators about the effectiveness of this bonding program.

The second year of the biennium, in addition to bonding, is also typically used for promoting changes to state policy. Key changes were made to child care, including the creation of a statewide task force to make recommendations about barriers facing families applying for and receiving child care assistance. Additionally, some changes were made to the formula by which basic sliding fee funds are allocated to counties to more accurately reflect the actual need in counties. These changes will help prevent situations such as the state faced this year, with regard to unspent funds.

Ready 4 K knew going into the 2008 Legislative Session that with the state facing a massive budget deficit, the opportunity to infuse the necessary dollars for young children would be difficult to realize. Despite the setbacks we incurred, the changes and funding allocated this year are meaningful, and will continue to help improve school readiness. Please look for a more detailed 2008 Session Summary soon.

Thank you for all you have done this session, and we look forward to your input and involvement as we prepare for this fall's election (including all members of the Minnesota House) and the 2009 Legislative Session.

Learning how to ride a bike

With schools finishing up their programming and summer right around the corner (plus, today is National Bike to Work day), I thought this article to be timely.

Cycling experts are saying that the way most of us likely learned how to ride a bike is not the most effective way to get ourselves pedaling on two wheels. Rather, children should learn on their own how to balance and ride rather than be taught by someone else.

The article says that children as young as 3 can begin to teach themselves to ride by taking the pedals of their bike and lowering the seat to convert it to a "scooter". From here, children can learn the essentials of balance, steering and stopping while pushing with their feet on the ground. Eventually, the pedals can be replaced on the bike and the seat gradually raised until your child is able to zip along with the rest of the family. And don't forget, a properly-fitted helmet is essential bicycling gear.

Read more about Scooting Towards Riding a Bicycle.

What do you think? Do you know any kids who have learned to ride this way?

photo by RJ Ramos

Helping State Agencies Coordinate Early Learning

A strong governance system, including coordinated state agencies, is an important part of providing accessible early learning. Ready 4 K's BUILD Initiative is specifically focused on creating the framework for a strong, coordinated early learning system in Minnesota.

One piece of legislation that Ready 4 K has been following is the creation of an Office of Early Learning. A great article summarizing this legislation and other related pieces can be found here. From the article:

Researchers, including Art Rolnick, senior vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, see positive results from early childhood education. But it wasn’t until bank staff crunched the numbers that anyone had looked at this as an economic investment. By Rolnick’s calculations, the return would be equivalent to 16 percent annually on a $22,000 investment.

More focus on early childhood learning by establishing an Office of Early Learning might just help boost the bottom line, supporters say. The office would gather employees of the Health and Human Services departments who oversee day care programs and Department of Education employees who deal with programs like Head Start.

Rep. Sandra Peterson (DFL-New Hope) sponsors HF2983, which would create the office and appoint a director to coordinate childhood systems between the two organizations.

The Minnesota Legislative session is scheduled to end May 19. Stay tuned here for updates and an end-of-session summary.

Will my child be ready? Creativity and the Arts

Today we continue our series exploring Minnesota’s Early Childhood Indicators of Progress by looking at the topic of Creativity and the Arts. Previously, we’ve taken time to look at Social and Emotional Development, Approaches to Learning, and Language and Literacy Development.

This domain emphasizes how children actively and receptively engage with the arts. The three components of this domain (Creating, Responding, and Evaluating) show how children can demonstrate what they know and expand their thinking through creative endeavors. The indicators for each component are taken directly from the ECIPs manual.

Creating
Creating is a wonderful opportunity to interact with the world in a new way. Children are developing in their creativity when they:

1. Use a variety of media and materials for exploration and creative expression
2. Participate in art and music experiences
3. Participate in creative movement, drama, and dance

Families can support children in creating by providing opportunities for their children to try out a variety of art materials and experiences and participating in community art events. Families can also encourage children's interest in the full range of arts expression such as dance, movement, music and displaying artwork around the home.

Teachers and Caregivers can encourage children to create by providing time and space for a variety of opportunities to explore and experiment with different materials and media. Additionally, teachers may Include exploration of space and objects in addition to color, balance and design.

Responding
Creativity doesn’t happen in a vacuum, we must all react and respond to what’s happening around us to grow in creativity. Children are showing progress in responding when they:

1. Show others and/or talk about what they have made or done
2. Show interest and respect for the creative work of self and other

Families can help children develop in their responding by showing interest in their child's creative activities and encouraging awareness of the arts and creative expression in their own and other cultures.

Teachers and Caregivers can help facilitate children's responding by encouraging children's participation in a variety of creative activities and spending time with children to describe and discuss their creative process as well as the product of their creativity.

Evaluating Open and honest evaluation is the last step in developing our creativity (a process many of us adults wish to recapture!). Children are growing in their evaluating skills when they:

1. Share experiences, ideas, and thoughts about art and creative expression
2. Share opinions about likes and dislikes in art and creative expression

Families may encourage children in evaluating by encouraging children to discuss their own art and the art of others as well as their likes and dislikes about the arts while respecting their work and the work of others.

Teachers and Caregivers can support children in their evaluating by helping children to develop their own personal preferences through discussions of likes and dislikes, by maintaining a collection or access to a variety of books and/or recordings depicting various media and cultures, and helping children develop an appreciation for the arts through attending events and performances.

For all components of this domain, community members and policy makers can encourage children and families in their creativity and the arts development by sponsoring and supporting community-based arts programs and resources for families to access arts education.


What do you think? How do you support and encourage creativity in your preschool age children?

Check back soon! Our next topic in their series is Cognitive Development.

Look to the Stars: Quality Rating Systems in Early Childhood

Ready 4 K has promoted and many states are implementing Quality Rating Systems for early learning providers, much like hotel or restaurant ratings. According to NAEYC, there are 32 states (including the District of Columbia) that have implemented some form of a Quality Rating System (*** see comments for update). In Minnesota, our QRS is called Parent Aware Ratings and it’s being piloted in a few targeted areas by the Minnesota Early Learning Fund (MELF). The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) has a column from 2007 about the expansion of quality ratings around the country.

Ratings are important because they help families to quickly know the level of quality a program provides. With a quick snapshot, parents know what type of care their children are receiving and the quality of that care. Ratings also provide a framework for allowing resources to flow to programs to help them improve and sustain their quality. and a rating system can lead to improvements to the quality of all the programs in a given area.

Rating systems vary by state. In Minnesota, we have a 4 star system that looks at how the program uses family partnerships, teaching materials and strategies, track learning progress, teacher training and education, and child safety. Programs are rated in each of the five areas and then are given a composite score of 1-4 stars. When programs are rated as one or two stars, they are eligible to work with resource personnel to help them improve their quality and be able to be rated again in the future.

Currently, the ratings are being piloted in just four areas: St Paul, North Minneapolis, Wayata School District, and Blue Earth and Nicollet counties. Visit the Parent Aware Ratings site for more information.

Do you work in a program that has participated in a Quality Rating System? What was it like? As a parent, how would a rating system be most helpful for you?

photo by barnabywasson