Two NACCTEP Executive Board members were invited to attend a September 2009 meeting with the Academy for Educational Development (AED) in Washington, D.C. involving a critical issue regarding early childhood education teachers across the nation. Present was the National Migrant & Seasonal Head Start Collaboration Office and other stakeholders from across the country. The goal of the meeting was to identify obstacles and recommend solutions to the Head Start Reauthorization Act that requires that 50 percent of Head Start teachers in center-based programs nationwide have at least a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education or a related field.

Obstacles identified were:

• Lack of access to higher education in rural and remote communities.
• Difficulty transferring credits among institutions.
• Lack of year-round employment in teaching, where programs are seasonal.
• Unfamiliarity with college processes and cultures.
• Lack of proficiency in English, which can make enrolling and succeeding in credit-bearing college courses extremely difficult.

These obstacles lead to the following recommendations:

• A needs assessment should be developed to measure the individual college readiness level of teachers currently serving as Head Start teachers and teacher assistants.
• Community colleges should create new degree and credentialing programs that meet the needs of diverse populations.
• Community colleges should develop new delivery mechanisms such as mobile classrooms and distance education.
• Culturally relevant strategies should be used to support teachers by creating more opportunities that may encourage them to finish their degrees.
• Increased cooperation among higher education systems and professional organizations such as NACCTEP should be encouraged.
• Target financial aid, grant, and scholarship policies to provide greater opportunities for Head Start teachers and teacher aides.

The identification of obstacles and recommendations to overcome them progressed to an initiative to develop a White Paper designed to create awareness among policy makers at the state and federal level. The final outcome was a well written document that focuses on removing the obstacles and improving opportunities for Head Start teachers to realize their goals of earning an associate’s or bachelor’s degree and ultimately fulfilling the mandate.

NACCTEP reached out to AED and the National Migrant & Seasonal Head Start Collaboration Office to present the White Paper at the Executive Board meeting preceding the recent annual conference in Baltimore, Maryland. The writer, Sean Cavanagh, explained in detail the contents of the paper and the executive board was impressed with the content and quality. In addition, NACCTEP’s involvement in early childhood issues prompted more related sessions at the national conference in Baltimore.

Early childhood education sessions included were entitled Practical Preparation: Incorporating Real World Online Assessment into Early Childhood Education Degree Programs and Preparing for Quality: Growing Culturally Responsive, Inclusive Early Childhood Teachers. Two other sessions were more specific to the issues faced by early childhood educators in Head Start; Accreditation Self Study as a Community of Practice and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start – Key Partners for Solutions. The four aforementioned sessions serve as evidence that NACCTEP is indeed a committed partner in progressing toward improving early childhood education and the overall qualifications of teachers in this field.

Access the Building From Within White Paper on the NACCTEP website, or by clicking here.