Early Childhood Education Initiative: 1998-2003 Accomplishments

• The number of ECE professional development opportunities has dramatically increased from only two (2), serving 548 early childhood professionals in 1999-2000 to an average of 48 activities that included 1389 professionals each programmatic year since 2000.

• The evaluations from participants at SERC’s ECE professional development opportunities have remained positive across this period of expansion, for example in the 2002-3 year of the 795 participants who completed an evaluation 629 agree that the professional development opportunity would impact their work with young children.

• The ECE initiative has provided many professional development opportunities that align with the State’s goal of closing CT Achievement’s Gaps. The Symposia on Full Day Kindergarten (2000) encouraged administrators to examine the provision of full day kindergarten. The establishment of an annual statewide conference for kindergarten teachers has been coordinated in collaboration with CSDE. In 2002-3 the focus of the kindergarten conference was the project approach. Other professional development opportunities aligned with this goal provided teachers with research on best practice about specific curriculum areas Literacy, Oral Language Development, Mathematics, and Science (2003). In 2003 SERC collaborated with CSDE and other CT agencies to host the launch of the universal preschool campaign.

• In order to improve the quality of Early Childhood Education programs SERC has provided professional development opportunities about the national instruments designed to measure the quality of early childhood programs: the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Accreditation system, the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS), the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation (ELLCO), and the Division of Early Childhood (DEC) recommended practices

• SERC’s ECE initiative has provided opportunities for CT stakeholders to stay abreast of National research and movements in early childhood education. For example in 2001 SERC collaborated with SDE to provide a one day seminar featuring Barbara Bowman chair of the Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy who shared the recommendations made by the National Research Council (National Academy of Science) in their publication, Eager To Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers. The session included a response from Connecticut "stakeholders", as well as representatives of Institutions of Higher Education, Connecticut Charts-A-Course, and the Connecticut Association for the Education of Young Children.

• Over the last five years SERC has provided more job embedded professional development, and fewer one-day workshops. Participants can attend follow-up activities that provide opportunities for clarification on issues they may encounter as they implement new ideas. Districts can also apply to have national presenters deliver technical assistance and feedback to their staff after they have attended a statewide workshop. An example of job embedded professional development is the ECE Autism Consortium in which a small number of districts select a specific goal to work toward over the course of the consortium. SERC identifies resources to help districts achieve their goal/s, but more importantly districts have access to the expertise of a national expert on autism and young children, as well as the opportunity to learn from other districts.

• Early Childhood professionals have been very responsive to the in depth two/three day summer institutes that have been offered over the last two years.

• SERC’s mission of promoting inclusive practices is evident in the ECE Initiative’s activities Administrators’s Guide to Inclusive Practices (2001 and 2002) and The Summer Institute on ECE Inclusive Practices (2003). Teams of community and public school personnel attended the ECE Summer Institute on inclusive practices. Participants examined research and national trends in inclusive practices, and started to develop action plans to expand and improve their inclusive practices. SERC has also provided professional development opportunities for Administrators on LRE and due process implications as related to preschool. In addition, SERC has provided professional development opportunities that assist all teachers to assume responsibility for teaching children with special needs at Welcoming All Children (2001) Building Blocks for Teaching Preschoolers with Special Needs (2003), Co-teaching Workshops (2001-2003), and workshops on Differentiating Instruction (2003).

• SERC has collaborated with the multiagency planning team and coordinated the annual Together We Will Conference for the past ten years. The TWW conference attracts approximately 450 early childhood/ early childhood special education professionals. Components of the conference include a national keynote speaker, sixteen concurrent sessions identified by a combination of RFP and invitation, and exhibits by commercial and non-profit early childhood organizations. Themes for the conference over the last five years have been:

• support language, literacy, and learning in the early year;
• maximize the impact of effective communication for young children, families and professionals;
• build responsive programs
• support cultural competence.

• The ECE initiative has collaborated with CSDE and SERC’s Focus on Autism Initiative to provide many professional development opportunities utilizing leading experts from across the nation addressing research about Autism and an array of research based interventions for young children with autism including discrete trial, picture exchange communication systems (PECS), and play based interventions.