The Texas State Center for Early Childhood Development

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(No Transcript)
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Working for the Future of Texas TEEM School
Readiness Texas School Readiness Certification
System
The Texas State Center for Early Childhood
Development University of Texas Health Science
Center, Houston, Texas
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The Childrens Learning Institute

• The University of Texas Health Science Centers
  Childrens Learning
• Institute (CLI), under the direction of
  Developmental Psychologist and
• Michael Matthew Knight Professor Dr. Susan H.
  Landry, draws from
• psychology, neuro-development, education and
  child development to
• provide proven learning solutions derived
  from, and supported by,
• documented research.
• Prior to the creation of CLI, the Dept. of
  Developmental Pediatrics
• housed two nationally recognized centers the
  Center for Academic
• and Reading Skills (CARS) and the Center for
  Improving the
• Readiness of Children for Learning and
  Education (CIRCLE).
• To encourage the expansion of CARS, CIRCLE, and
  other initiatives,
• and to focus, develop and orchestrate the
  implementation of best
• practices statewide, the Childrens Learning
  Institute was formed.

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The Texas State Center for Early Childhood
Development

• In 2003 Governor Rick Perry named the Center for
  Improving the Readiness of Children for Learning
  and Education (CIRCLE) as the Texas State Center
  for Early Childhood Development (SCECD) to work
  with the Office of the Governor and the Texas
  Education Agency to design plans for implementing
  the Governor's Early Start Initiatives. As the
  designated State Center, work is carried out to
• Develop training for early childhood providers
  in Texas,
• Enhance pre-literacy skills development for
  young children,
• Further coordinate efforts among early childhood
  education funding
• streams and programs, and
• Develop a system to certify early childhood
  education programs as
• getting children ready for formal schooling.

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Current State Of Affairs In Early Childhood

• At the current time, states estimate that as
  many as half of their children, particularly
  those from low socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds
  and/or learning English as a second language
  (ESL), are entering kindergarten programs without
  the basic cognitive foundational skills necessary
  for them to succeed (NAEP, 2003).
• Discrepancies between early skills for children
  from low SES versus more advantaged families are
  known to persist throughout formal schooling
  (Snow, Burns, Griffin, 1998 National Center
  for Education Statistics Report Card on
  Mathematics, 2001, Reading, 2001).
• Understanding how to provide young children with
  an early foundation in school readiness skills is
  becoming a primary goal of many states in order
  to decrease the high incidence of school failure
  and drop-out particularly by children from low
  income homes (NAEP, 2003).

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Current State Of Affairs In Early Childhood

• Legislators across the country are becoming
  aware of the critical nature of this problem and
  are looking for solutions to improve the
  situation as it can have a grave impact on the
  economic future of a state and the country.
• Recent evidence from longitudinal intervention
  studies demonstrates that there is a long lasting
  positive influence of quality prekindergarten
  education (Campbell, Ramey, Pungello, Sparling,
  Miller-Johnson, 2002 Reynolds, Ou, Topitzes,
  2004 Schweinhart, Barnes, Weikart, 1993).
• This research further supports that a childs
  experience during their early years influences
  the way the brain is developing that, in turn,
  establishes a trajectory for future learning
  (e.g., Dawson, Klinger, Panagiotides, Hill,
  Spiker, 1992 DiPetro, 2000).
• Thus, the solution many states are seeking is
  how to provide children from low income
  backgrounds with a quality early education.

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Addressing the Issue

• For young children, a quality education includes
  teachers being skilled in the use of
  instructional approaches that are sensitive to
  the childs developmental needs and expose them
  to experiences with language, emergent literacy,
  and math within a responsive environment that
  supports social-emotional development (Landry,
  2005).
• Support of the importance of early cognitive
  skills for reading success comes from a newly
  released National Report (National Institute for
  Literacy, 2007). This large meta-analysis
  demonstrates that young childrens language
  skills, including vocabulary and complex
  language, as well as early literacy abilities,
  specifically phonological awareness and letter
  knowledge, are the most important and unique
  predictors of reading.
• Thus, in finding solutions to better preparing
  children for school, attention needs to be given
  to training teachers in instructional practices
  that support childrens learning of these
  cognitive skills.

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The Context for the SCECDs Work

• Texas had the fastest growing child population
  in
• the US between 2000-2003.
• There are almost 650,000 three- and
  four-year-old
• children in Texas.
• Approximately 22 of Texas children under 5
  years
• of age live in poverty.
• By 2040, Texas school enrollment will double.

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Cost-Benefit for Texas

• Texas could see an increased income of 19
  billion from 3- and 4-year-old children when they
  become future workers IF these children attend
  high-quality, targeted pre-k programs.
• The Education Policy Institute calculates these
  amounts to be in place by 2050. Crime-related
  savings in Texas would amount to 9.9 billion.
• Those two figures, along with the 8.9 billion
  generated from taxes collected- and welfare not
  paid - would bring a financial benefit to Texas
  of 37.8 billion in just 44 years.

Source Education Policy Institute, 2007
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Cost-Benefit for Texas

• A 2005 cost-benefit analysis of high quality
  prekindergarten conducted by the Bush School of
  Government and Public Service at Texas AM
  University found that for every 1 invested, at
  least 3.50 was returned specifically to Texas
  communities.
• Source A Cost Benefit Analysis of Universally
  Accessible Prekindergarten Education in Texas by
  the Bush School of Government and Public Service
  at Texas AM University, 2005.

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History of TEEM and SRCS SB 76

• The Texas Legislature directed the SCECD under
• Senate Bill 76, passed in 2003, to explore how
  to
• better integrate the delivery of early
  childhood
• education for three- and four-year-old children
  at risk
• for school failure.
• From this effort a model was found to be robust
• enough to implement more widely and to form the
  
• basis for a statewide early childhood education
  
• program quality rating system of school
  readiness.

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History of TEEM and SRCS SB 23

• Senate Bill 23, passed in 2005, charged the SCECD
  with
• Overseeing a project using the TEEM model to
  provide cost-effective coordinated integrated
  services among early childhood care and education
  programs by demonstrating that 1) program
  quality would be enhanced, 2) number of children
  being served by full-day, full year programs
  would be increased, 3) effective professional
  development would be increased, and 4) no
  weakening of standards or diminishment of
  services would have occurred, and
• To develop and adopt a school readiness
  certification system (SRCS) for use in certifying
  the effectiveness of early childhood care and
  education programs.

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Research Basis
With grants from IES, NIH, and USDOE, CIRCLE
experimentally confirmed the powerful and
necessary combination of key instructional
components that maximize positive change for
teachers and children across a wide variety of
early childcare programs. These results
provided the strong design for TEEM The Texas
Early Education Model.
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Research Underpinnings of TEEM School Readiness

• Responsive teaching promotes social and
  cognitive
• development.
• Cognitive readiness can be achieved in ways that
  support the
• whole child.
• Early childhood is a critical period for social,
  emotional,
• language, and cognitive foundational skills
  known to predict later
• school success.
• Research-based comprehensive curricula are
  critical classroom
• tools.
• Progress monitoring that directs teaching better
  assures school
• readiness.
• Effective professional development for teachers
  is key to
• assuring goals are achieved.

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Three Key Instructional Components of TEEM
Technology Driven Progress Monitoring of Child
Learning
Research Tested Curriculum
Web-Based Professional Development
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TEEM School Readiness Research Findings
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TEEM School Readiness Research Findings
Early Child Literacy Gains
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TEEM School Readiness Research Findings
Teacher Gains in Quality Learning
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Expansion of TEEM
Increased Number of School Ready Children Year
1 (SB 76) 2,000 children in 11 communities in
2003-04 Year 2 (SB 76) 4,500 children in 15
communities in 2004-05 Year 3 (SB 23) 13,000
children in 20 communities in 2005-06 Year 4 (SB
23) 25,000 children in 32 communities in
2006-07 Year 5 40,000 children in 38
communities in 2007-08
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TEEM Communities Established by SB 76 (03) 23
(05)
Goal Improve school readiness and increase
access to quality early childhood programs for
Texas
Independent School District Head Start
Program Faith Based Program Non-Profit For
Profit Child Care New Sites
Problem Extremely high percentage of Texas
children enter Kindergarten not ready to succeed
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• TEEM Today
• TEEM is now in the fifth year.
• 38 communities across Texas are participating in
  TEEM this year.
• There are approximately 2500 TEEM classrooms.

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Current TEEM Communities Abilene, Amarillo,
Austin, Beaumont, Beaumont/Nederland, Belton,
Brazoria, Brownsville, Copperas Cove/Ft. Hood,
Corpus Christi/Kingsville, Dallas, El Paso, Fort
Worth, Galveston, Houston, Huntsville,
Kilgore/Tyler, Killeen, La Joya, La
Marque/Hitchcock, Lampasas, Laredo,
LaSara/Raymondville, Lubbock, McAllen,
Midland/Odessa, NE Texas, Pearsall/Crystal City,
Richardson, San Angelo, San Antonio, Stockdale,
Temple, Tri-County/ Ft Bend, Victoria, Waco
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TEEM In the Early Childhood Classroom
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TEEM In the Early Childhood Classroom
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Texas School Readiness Certification System
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What is the System?

• Building from TEEM, the Texas School Readiness
  Certification
• System allows early childhood education
  programs across Texas
• to be certified as Texas School Ready!TM
  Programs by determining
• if the program is getting children ready for
  kindergarten.
• Voluntarily, information about the early
  childhood program along
• with assessments when children enter
  kindergarten, determine a
• programs having prepared children for school.
• The School Readiness Certification System is a
  web-based
• application that looks at early childhood
  education program and
• instructional approaches and exposure of
  children to the program
• on the preschool side and reading and social
  functioning of
• children on the kindergarten side.

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Who Had Input Into the SRCS?

• Advisory Committee
• Task Force
• Resource Panel
• National Expert Panel
• Early Childhood Education Providers
• School Districts
• Parents of Preschoolers

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Less Subjectivity Around Quality

• The focus of the System is to
• Be fair and objective
• Be evidence driven
• Concentrate on outcomes
• Link to existing indicators
• Align with later school performance expectations

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The School Readiness Certification System
will not replace NAEYC standards or Texas
Licensing regulations, but be a seal of approval
equally available to all types of early childhood
program providers.
A Seal of Approval
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The On-line Application
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The SRCS On-line Process

• In the fall, participating early childhood
  education programs begin to complete the School
  Readiness Certification System application by
  setting up information on their classrooms,
  teachers, and children.
• In the spring, programs submit information about
  their instructional program for preschoolers.
• In the spring, preschool teachers complete a
  survey about their teaching practices.
• In the following fall, the preschool children
  enter kindergarten and their kindergarten
  teachers enter reading and social screener scores.

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Who Has Already Participated in the SRCS?

• TEEM Communities representing
• Texas Licensed Childcare (Profit or Non-Profit
  Childcare, and Faith-based)
• ISD Title 1 Pre-Kindergarten Programs
• Head Start
• Over two years, 2000 classrooms/teachers
• Approximately 200 licensed Texas
• child care providers not participating in TEEM
• Approximately 34,000 children

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• Texas School Ready! Launches Pioneer Group
• From the first year of the School Readiness
  Certification System (2005-2006 school year),
  Texas School Ready!TM certification has been
  awarded to almost 500 preschool classrooms across
  Texas.
• The children who graduated from these classrooms
  entered kindergarten with the reading and social
  skills needed to be successful.
• The preschool classrooms they attended had
  evidence of the three strongest preschool
  indicators analyses found to predict kindergarten
  school readiness
• Teacher professional development
  
• 2) Teacher instructional practices, and
• 3) Early literacy activities.

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Pioneer Group Shows Children in Poverty
Comparable to Middle Class Children The SCECD
was able to successfully connect the kindergarten
reading and social behavior scores with preschool
practices for 7000 children. The Texas School
Ready!TM certification model shows that children
who graduated from these classrooms entered
kindergarten with BOTH the reading and social
behavior skills needed to be successful. Further,
children in poverty were comparable to middle
class children in reading and showed better
social behavior.
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Pioneer Group Shows Children in Poverty From All
Settings Can Be School Ready The formula for
certification demonstrates that poverty children
in child care, Head Start, and public school
classrooms were equally able to enter
kindergarten with the reading and social behavior
skills needed to succeed. This means that all
types of early childhood education settings can
be successful in preparing children for formal
schooling.
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Current Status of the SRCS

• The SRCS is now in the 3rd year.
• This year, all classrooms in TEEM buildings with
  kinderbound children will enter into the system
  to move toward program level certification.
• In addition to TEEM buildings, invited nonTEEM
  programs will participate.
• An evaluation consisting of 10 of the classrooms
  is currently underway.

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Technical Assistance

• The School Readiness Certification System
  Application also has the potential to serve as a
  guided self-assessment for technical assistance
  for those programs that do not meet criteria.
• The goal is that the System will be a tool
  supporting all children, especially those at-risk
  for school failure, in having an opportunity to
  attend a program with demonstrated ability to
  prepare children for school.

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Impact of TEEM and the SRCS on Texas

• Better use of resources at the kindergarten
  level as more
• children come to school better prepared,
• Potentially fewer referrals to special
  education,
• Parents as better consumers in choosing early
  childhood
• programs,
• Communities able to be more in touch with the
  quality of their
• programs and knowledge that they have
  capacity to serve
• more children in high quality programs,
  and
• A more prepared workforce when children reach
  adulthood.

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Cost-Effective School Readiness

• TEEM costs only approximately 525 per child in
  the first year. The cost drops substantially the
  second year, and dramatically the third year.
• Much of TEEM is intellectual property for the
  teacher.
• Once trained in the TEEM model, the benefits to
  additional children continue with each new school
  year.

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Why TEEM SRCS Can Make a Difference

• TEEM and the Texas School Readiness Certification
  
• System can be used to
• Prepare more children for school readiness in
  cost-
• effective ways,
• Focus on proven and demonstrated outcomes, and
• Provide parents with tools to make informed
• decisions.

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Next Steps

• The original funding request (80th Session) from
  the governor for TEEM School Readiness and the
  SRCS was 80 million.
• The final funding was static at 15 million,
  representing a great shortfall.
• Many others would like to receive the program as
  it has proven its ability to get children school
  ready.

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Recently Completed and Ongoing Early Childhood
Education Research from CLI
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Recently Completed Research IERI

• This study compared the effectiveness of four
  professional development (PD) conditions
  (eCIRCLE) and a business as usual condition for
  teachers of at-risk prekindergarten children.
• Compared were mentoring vs. nonmentoring and two
  progress monitoring conditions where teachers
  received detailed, instructionally linked
  feedback on childrens language and literacy
  acquisition through the use of a personal digital
  assistant (PDA) vs. a paper/pencil approach.
• Across four states, 158 schools (n 262
  classrooms) were randomly assigned to one of five
  conditions.
• Results showed that the most powerful
  intervention condition included the on-line
  course combined with mentoring and detailed,
  instructionally relevant feedback from the PDA on
  gains in teaching behaviors and childrens
  academic progress.

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Ongoing Research Raising a Reader

• The primary goal of this project is to determine
  the effectiveness of a school-based book exchange
  program, called Raising a Reader, and a
  school-based parent educational program, called
  Family Nights.
• These programs aim to improve the school
  readiness of 3- and 4-year-old children from
  economically disadvantaged backgrounds by
  increasing the frequency and quality of language
  and literacy activities in children's homes.
• Nearly 2000 children and families in Houston will
  participate between 2006 and 2009.

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Revision of Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines
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Guidelines Revision Background Charge

• Under the direction of the Texas Education
  Agency, the Texas State Center for Early
  Childhood Development convened a Working Group to
  revise the 1999 Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines.
• A series of forums was held across the state to
  share the work to date, receive feedback, and
  continue the process of developing a strong
  research-based, teacher friendly, and child
  relevant set of guidelines that can be supported
  with parental involvement.

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Timeline
January 2008 --Texas  Prekindergarten Guidelines
Revision Research Summit February 2008 --
Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines Revision
Forums (12 cities across Texas) March 2008 --
TEA Receives Research Summit and Forum
Comments April 2008 -- Texas Prekindergarten
Guidelines Submitted to TEA
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Rationale For Guidelines

• The learning experiences of the preschool years
  provide a foundation that guide children
  academically, socially, and emotionally. These
  experiences can influence the rest of a childs
  life.
• Childrens learning and intellectual growth are
  affected by the specific experiences (e.g.,
  instruction, guidance) they have in a preschool
  classroom.

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Approach And Use Of Guidelines

• The revised Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines
  offer detailed descriptions of expected behaviors
  across multiple skill domains that should be
  observed in 4 year old children by the end of
  prekindergarten.
• The Working Group retained and incorporated
  those important concepts and elements found in
  the old guidelines.
• The revised guidelines also offer suggestions on
  ways to deliver developmentally appropriate
  learning experiences so as to help assure that
  the prekindergarten year is effective and
  efficient.

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Guidelines Document Organization

• Introduction
• A Developmental Approach to Promoting School
  Readiness
• Effective Practices for Promoting School
  Readiness
• How Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines Support
  Instruction for English Language Learners (ELL)
• How Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines Support
  Children with Disabilities
• The Learning Environment Physical Arrangements,
  Activities, and Social Relationships
• Professional Development The Key to
  High-Quality Prekindergarten Programs
• Parents Critical Players in Childrens School
  Readiness and Prekindergarten Experience
• Monitoring Childrens Learning and Development
  in Ways that Provide Feedback and Evidence of
  Success

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Guidelines Document Organization

• Domains
• Skill Areas
• Outcomes
• Examples of Child Behaviors
• Examples of Instructional Strategies

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Domains

• Social and Emotional Development
• Language and Communication
• Emergent Literacy Reading
• Emergent Literacy Writing
• Mathematics
• Science
• Social Studies
• Fine Arts
• Physical Development
• Technology

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Community and Legislative Involvement and
Support for Early Childhood Education In Texas
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Partners
TEA TWC Region Service Centers TECEC United Ways
of Texas Susan and Michael Dell
Foundation Kellogg Foundation Houston Business
Council
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Future Legislative and Governmental Action and
Agendas

• PreK Expansion
• Subsidy Rates through TWC
• TECEC
• United Ways of Texas

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For More Information
Susan H. Landry, Ph.D., Director, Childrens
Learning Institute and Texas State Center for
Early Childhood Development (CIRCLE) Phone
713-500-3710 Email CIRCLE_at_uth.tmc.edu
Website http//cli.uth.tmc.edu