Massachusetts State Advisory Council on
Early Childhood Education and Care:
Draft Strategic Report
April, 2010
1
Purpose of the Report
This report, required under federal law,
provides the basis for submittal of the
State Advisory Council’s three-year
$1,137,560 ARRA non completive grant
application (due no later than August
1,2010). State required match
$2,654,307 over three years.
The report summarizes progress on the 7
federally designated functions of a State
Advisory Council and one additional
function identified specific to the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
2
State Advisory Council Functions
3
A.
Needs assessment
B.
Early education and care collaboration
C.
Early education and care enrollment &
outreach
D.
Unified data collection
E.
Quality improvement in early education
and care (NEW MA Item)
F.
Professional development
G.
Early education-higher education
workforce preparation partnerships
H.
Early learning standards
What We Found (in brief)
Strong progress in each of the 8
areas of work, but 8% - 30% of MA
young children vulnerable to
developmental and readiness
challenges
Significant new opportunities for
collaborative development of B
through 8 early childhood systems
at state and community levels
4
Six Areas for Possible ARRA Grant
5
1.
Early Childhood Information System
development and use (2010-2013)
2.
Needs Assessment (2010-2012)
3.
B-8 Community Planning and PreK-3
Partnerships (2010-2013)
4.
Early Education/Higher Education Data
Partnership (2010-2011)
5.
Policy/Best Practices: Limited English
Proficient Children & Families (20102013)
6.
ARRA Council Implementation Support
and Accountability (2010-2013)
Early Education and Care System Components
The early education and care system is comprised of connected
components that form a complex unit with an overall function that
is achieved through the actions/interactions of the components.
6
Systems and Strategic Plan Alignment
7
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Standards
Higher Ed
Partnerships
Professional
Development
X
X
X
Quality
Improvement
Data Collection
Enrollment/
Outreach
Collaboration
Strategic Plan Area
Quality
Family Support,
Access, Affordability
Workforce
Communications
Infrastructure
Needs
Assessment
SAC Functions
X
Healthy, Safe and Ready Children
Early Care and
Education
B-3rd grade
Health, Oral
Health and Mental
Health Care
Healthy,
Safe and
Ready
Children
Family Support,
including,
economic self
sufficiency,
parental literacy
Early
Intervention
5
8
Key Sectors of the Service System
A sample of programs included within each sector in a
birth through age 8 system:
 Physical, oral and mental health services:
health insurance, prenatal care, developmental
screenings, well child visits, nutrition and food
programs, dental care
 Family supports and services: family literacy,
parenting education, fiscal supports, family friendly
work policies, parental mental health, domestic
violence, substance abuse or incarceration, housing,
child welfare
 Early education and care: licensed and
unlicensed family-based child care, center-based
child care, preschool and Head Start, and
 Early intervention: Early Head Start, B-3
programs and preschool special education.
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Data
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DATA: MA Young Child Demographics
In 2008, Massachusetts was home to slightly less than 1.8
million children under the age of 18
 475,131 under 6 years old
 231,083 under 3 years old
 Annual births in Massachusetts number nearly 78,000.
 One third of Massachusetts’ adults had children

Massachusetts Population Distribution of Children
Race/Ethnicity, states under the age of 18 (2008)*
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MA
# of Children
MA
Percent
White
1,118,400
73%
Black
114,700
7%
Hispanic
187,500
12%
Other
115,200
7%
Total
1,535,800
100%
*Data Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, 2008
by
DATA: Economic Insecurity
In 2008, 17% of children under age six in MA lived in
families at or below the Federal Poverty Level ($18,310 for
family of 3). 28% lived in low-income families (200% of
FPL)
Towns With 20% + Young Children @ FPL Poverty
Commissioner’s Districts
All Other Towns
Boston (25%)
Chelsea (27%)
Brockton (21%)
Cummington (20%)
Fall River (31%)
Gosnold (78%)*
Holyoke (45%)
Greenfield (22%)
Lawrence (34%)
Hawley (23%)
Lowell (21%)
Montague (23%)
Lynn (22%)
North Adams (33%)
New Bedford (34%)
Peru (26%)
Springfield (39%)
Pittsfield (20%)
Worcester (26%)
Revere (21%)
Wareham (21%)
West Springfield (22%)
* population = 86 total
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DATA: Risk Factors in Early Childhood
Multiple risk factors in the early lives of children has
been shown to result in short and long term health,
development and learning challenges
The National Center on Children in Poverty Profile for
Massachusetts reports:

27% of the state’s children <6 years old
experience 1-2 risk factors; 8% experienced 3+
risk factors

Risk factors include economic insecurity; family
and child health:
• Low birth weight babies
• Children of single parents incl. teen parents
• Children living at or below the poverty level
13
DATA: Screening and Intervention
 Early
Childhood Periodic Screening, Diagnosis,
and Treatment (EPSDT) guidelines call for six
screening visits in the first year of life.
 In
2008 100% of EPSDT eligible children
ages 12 months or younger received at
least one screening
 89%
of children ages one to two years and
83% of children ages three to five years
received at least one screening
14

Massachusetts does not have a measure of
“school readiness” determined at entry to
kindergarten

Need data from Early Intervention
Progress
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PROGRESS: Collaboration


16
Head Start Collaboration survey feedback: MA
Head Start agencies scored 2.8 out of 4 points
on interagency working relationships

Highest levels of coordination between Head
Start agencies and education, disability, child
care, and higher education sectors

The lowest level of engagement was with
programs serving immigrant, migrant,
refugee and seasonal workers
Coordinated Family Community Engagement
local coordination within mixed delivery
system (0-8)
PROGRESS: Collaboration
Department and Local Agency Cooperative Work

Community meetings on early childhood assessment system

Parent Advisory Group and the Provider Advisory Group

Coordinated Family and Community Engagement (CFCE) grant

Community meetings on the Birth to School Age Task Force to
establish a statewide strategy

Co-sponsored conference on diverse children, families and staff

Early Literacy conference with ESE focused on birth to 8
State-Level Interagency Cooperative Work
 Department
of Elementary and Secondary Education
 Department
of Higher Education
 Departments
 Head
of Public Health, Mental Health
Start State-Based Training and Technical Assistance
 Massachusetts
 Office
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Head Start Association
of Immigrant and Refugees
 Department
of Children and Families (DCF)
PROGRESS: Enrollment and Outreach
Parent Advisory Team
 Quarterly Parent Advisory Team meetings assure
continuous flow of guidance from parents and families to
Commissioner and Board
Outreach to Families
 Several EEC grants fund reaching out to families and
communities with information and support on children’s
development
 Commissioner conducted a series of parent outreach
meetings to discuss effective communication strategies
Specialized Support for Vulnerable Families
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
Literacy: professional development on fostering early
literacy, including targeting family child care providers

Priority Populations RFR: Homeless families, teen
parents, and families requiring supportive services from
the Department of Children and Families (DCF)
PROGRESS: K-12 Data Partnerships
 ESE
“Massachusetts i-Passport” application for ARRA
Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) grant; goals:

Integrated P-20 Data System - assignment of State
Assigned Student Identifiers (SASIDs) across EEC, ESE
and the Department of Higher Education (DHE)
 “Early
warning and opportunity system” that starts at
birth and continues through high school
 State
SLDS
Education Agency student and educator data in the
 Identify
prospective educators through assignment of
unique “education personnel identifier”
 Continued

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improvements in the SLDS data audit system
EEC and ESE MOU on SASIDs and work with the Council of
Chief State School Officers to develop an assessment
system and implement a joint PreK-3 initiative
PROGRESS: Promoting/Supporting Quality
System- building to promote and support quality:
 adoption of early childhood standards;
 a Quality Rating and Improvement System
(QRIS) model;
 access to well-planned system of professional
development opportunities based on core
competencies; and
 a data system capable of tracking teacher
effectiveness and program quality, and linking
data to child outcomes.
 In January 2010 research-based changes to child
care licensing regulations went into effect
 EEC allocated funds for grants to preschool
programs to meet and maintain Universal PreK
quality requirements

20
PROGRESS: Quality Improvement

2009 evaluation of quality in a
statewide sample of early childhood
settings
 significantly
lower levels of quality in
instructional support
 Higher
levels in emotional support or
classroom organization

21
In response, awarded assessment grant
to support training statewide
PROGRESS: Professional Development
EEC
has completed its review of
eight core workforce competency
areas and indicators

22
Career qualifications are built into
each QRIS level
PROGRESS: Higher Education Partnerships
23

Created Task Force with DHE to
review Early Childhood Educator
Scholarship applicant data

Moved up application release to
April 1, 2010 to give students
more advanced notice and
expedite processing
PROGRESS: Early Learning Standards
24

Adopted preschool standards in
2003

Hired consultant to draft new
standards and guidelines for
infants and toddlers

Held “Closing the early literacy
proficiency gap” conference with
the Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education (DESE)
Plan
25
PLAN: Needs Assessment
26

Design needs assessment in 2010-11

Conduct needs assessment in 2011-12

Partner with University of
Massachusetts Lowell Open Indicators
Initiative for data reporting tools

Implement March 2010
recommendations of the Massachusetts
Birth to School-Age Taskforce
PLAN: Collaboration
27

Strengthen partnerships with
public school districts (e.g.
Springfield)

Coordinated Family Community
Engagement grant focus on birth
to 8 plans
PLAN: Enrollment & Outreach
Focus
on the needs of families most
vulnerable to job loss, and prioritize early
education and care funding for children
already in care, families already in care.
ARRA
funding to increase access
Increase
number of contracted slots for
homeless families to 600
Develop
28
Language policies to inform
educators about emerging and best
practices and approaches to use with
limited English proficient (LEP) children
PLAN: Unified Data System
EEC’s
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Unified IT data system design:
Child/Family Access and Assistance: manage and
support all Commonwealth children/ families
Licensing, Monitoring, and Support: manage and
support all programs funded by EEC including
those licensed by EEC and license exempt
providers
Professional Development: maintain a repository
of educators and their qualification, and
information about professional development
opportunities
Purchase of Services: support a standardized
contracting process for the various services
purchased by EEC, including contracts, vouchers,
and grants.
PLAN: Early Childhood Information System

30
SAC funding to support design of an Early
Childhood Information System (ECIS) that:

links data on children, the workforce and
program services within DEEC

Links data systems of other state agencies
that serve the state’s young vulnerable
children

Incorporates several EEC initiatives:
• QRIS
• transformation of the EEC educator
registry into a professional development
data management system; and
• system for assessing school readiness and
child outcomes
PLAN: Quality Improvement
31

QRIS will be piloted and evaluated
with CCDBG funds beginning this
spring, with full implementation to
be phased in over the next 18
months.

Train-the-trainers model for the
development of departmental staff
as raters
PLAN: Professional Development

Professional registry is under
development, linked with EEC’s new data
system and supported by new
regulations requiring the annual
registration of all educators in the field
of early education and care

Implement systemwide efforts to build
workforce:
 Career
planning
 Coaching
32
 Competency
development
PLAN: Higher Education Partnerships

33
Contract to map existing network of IHEs
that offer certificates and/or degrees in
early childhood education, elementary
education or a related field

profiles of each program

trends and gaps noted across programs

assessment of the current capacity of the
MA higher education system to meet the
post-secondary education needs of the
EEC and out-of-school time workforce

recommendations for next steps
PLAN: Early Learning Standards
34

Adopt early learning standards for
infants and toddlers aligned with
current preschool standards

Work with ESE and DHE to examine
alignment of early learning
standards (B-5) with emerging
national standards (K-12) and
teacher preparation programs

Follow up regional conferences
w/ESE in June
Priority Areas
Recommended SAC Strategic Priorities 2010-13
Early Childhood Data Development (2010-2013)
 Data development, analysis; interagency ECIS;
assign program, workforce, child identifiers; report
data on child needs, programs
Needs Assessment (2010-2012)
 Design and implementation of needs assessment,
special emphasis on multi-risk families with infants,
toddlers and preschoolers
B-8 Planning, PK-3 Partnerships (2010-2013)
 Community B-8 strategic plans using data on
child/family needs, and quality/effectiveness of
PreK – Gr.3 aligned systems
35
Priority Areas (Cont’d)
Recommended SAC Strategic Priorities 2010-13
Higher Ed Workforce Prep Partnership (2010-11)
 Finish development of workforce prep data infrastructure
with DHE and public/private higher ed to create access for
adult learners
Policy and Practices: Children, Families (2010-13)
 Develop policy, best practices, recommended models for:
 Programs serving low English proficient children/families
 Children with developmental delay and multiple risk
factors (DCF, EI)
36
Implementation, Support, Accountability (2010-13)
 Staff to advance SAC agenda and integrate SAC priorities
with EEC’s comprehensive system of early childhood
services