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Newsworthy information for early childhood professionals....
Blueprint for Early ChildhoodSuccess
Blueprint’s Early Educator Landscape Report
Early childhood education has been a longstanding and heavily debated issue in our state, and Nashville is not immune. We know there are significant inadequacies in the field—from professional compensation and credentialing to aligned high-quality standards and access to universal child care. And this report details a year-long effort to shed light on the root causes of the fragmented early education workforce—all through the perspective of early educators and operators. The facts are clear and the opportunity to act is now. High-quality, affordable and accessible child care is an essential service, and we need an appropriately compensated and highly trained early education workforce to sustain it.
We hope the report, Blueprint’s Early Educator Landscape, humanizes the challenges early educators face to stay in the profession and shines a light on the growing number of early educators fleeing the profession—so that we can spur city-wide action.
Please share this newly released report with your networks and learn more about our city-wide movement, Blueprint for Early Childhood Success, to advance Nashville through literacy justice for all children.
Child Care WAGE$® TENNESSEE rewards early childhood educators with financial incentives based on their education and continuity of employment. By increasing teacher retention, WAGE$ provides children with more stable relationships and better-educated teachers. WAGE$ addresses individual professional development efforts and low wages, but does not affect budgets, regular wages or parent fees within the child care program.
The WAGE$ Program was initially funded by the City of Chattanooga. Over a six-month period, beginning April 2019, $75,000 in supplements went to 73 early childhood educators from 29 child care centers. Because of the success of the local program, the Tennessee Department of Human Services has expanded the program statewide and it is administered through Signal Centers.
Child Care WAGE$® TENNESSEE is licensed by Child Care Services Association of Chapel Hill, NC. Signal Centers is the program administrator of WAGE$.
Through this partnership, WAGE$ is enhancing professional development of early childhood educators in TENNESSEE to ultimately improve the quality of care and education for the children in their classrooms.
To learn more about the WAGE$ Program or to become a participant contact us at: 423-698-8528 #650 or email us at: wages@signalcenters.org
NEW POSITION STATEMENT:
NAEYC Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education Position Statement
All children have the right to equitable learning opportunities that help them achieve their full potential as engaged learners and valued members of society. Thus, all early childhood educators have a professional obligation to advance equity. They can do this best when they are effectively supported by the early learning settings in which they work and when they and their wider communities embrace diversity and full inclusion as strengths, uphold fundamental principles of fairness and justice, and work to eliminate structural inequities that limit equitable learning opportunities.
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Early Childhood Education
Vision
The mayor is working to ensure that every young person in Nashville gets a fair start, regardless of family income, neighborhood, English language proficiency, or parents’ educational attainment. We are committed to ensuring that all 4-year-olds have access to high-quality Pre-K that lays a foundation that prepares children for success in school and life.
A high-quality start for all means being clear about what research says are high-quality environment for 4-year-olds. It also means keeping families at the core, intentionally leveraging strengths across programs, and using data to identify where additional services and changes are most needed to ensure all of our programs are preparing young people for success in school and life.
Early Childhood Education Working Group
Local research has found that there is a lack of consensus of what constitutes high-quality Pre-K, that families experience barriers when navigating a disconnected and disparate system, and the city lacks the infrastructure to highlight best practices and identify opportunities for collective problem solving. In addition to these quality concerns, there is an additional need for Pre-K classrooms as the city continues to grow.
In January 2017, The mayor convened an Early Childhood Education Working Group of leaders from the city’s and state’s early childhood community to work on these important issues. After months of collaboration, their work produced “High-quality Start for All,” a comprehensive five-year education roadmap for improving quality and access of Pre-K throughout Nashville. It contains a research-based definition of quality that all Nashville Pre-K programs, whether run by Metro Nashville Public Schools, Head Start, or community providers, should subscribe to, train, and evaluate against. The report also includes a set of strategies that are aligned with structural areas that are key for successful early education environments and address barriers faced by parents, children, and educators.
Read the strategy: High-quality Start for All or review a summary of the Pre-K strategy.
· Today we launched a five-year roadmap to deliver high-quality Pre-K for all, go to ECE.Nashville.Gov #PreKforAll
· Early education can make all the difference, Nashville has set new universal standards for our schools. Go to ECE.Nashville.Gov #PreKforAll
· Universal Pre-K standards are pivotal to delivering high quality early education for all of Nashville’s children, more at ECE.Nashville.Gov
· Today we unveiled new quality and instructional standards for all Pre-K providers in Nashville, visit ECE.Nashville.Gov #PreKforAll
· Nashville’s new universal quality and instructional standards will help every child get a leg up, more at ECE.Nashville.Gov