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What is Your Return Rate?

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EDT

In Part 2 a two-part series, "Out of the Box Ideas for Director Evaluation," in the Exchange CD Book Taking Stock: Tools and Strategies for Evaluating Programs, Directors, Teachers and Children, I outline five quantifiable and five subjective measures of director performance. One idea offered was that of "return rates":

"Financiers measure the success of their investments by their return rates — the percent of profit an investment returns. Centers can measure their success by another form of return rate — the rate at which families return to the center.

"For directors who have been in charge for less than ten years, there is only one return rate that applies — the frequency with which families return to the center to enroll their subsequent children. If families routinely enroll additional children in a center, this is a probable sign that the center is doing something right. I emphasize the qualifier probable because for parents the convenience of having children in one location may weigh heavily in enrollment decisions.

"For directors who have been on the job for 12 or more years, a second return rate comes into play — people who graduated from a center returning to work as teachers. If a teenager who spent a significant portion of his early years at your center applies for a job, this is a strong indication that your center provided a positive experience for that child. No qualifiers here — this is 100% good news.

"Now, for the veterans in our profession, directors who have been on the job for more than 20 years, there is a third return rate — people who graduated from a center returning to enroll their own children. Once again, this return rate is a solid indicator that the children in your center are having a memorable and positive experience. What more perfect testimonial could there be than to have attendees of your program wanting to share this experience with their own children?"

Exchange CD Book Package

Exchange has packaged seven of its CD Books into a single package and is offering the entire set at a 40% discount — separately these resources would cost $286, but we are offering all six for only $170. Included in the package are the following CD Books:

The Art of Leadership CD Book
Developing Capable, Creative Teachers CD Book
Leading People in Early Childhood Settings CD Book
Taking Stock: Tools and Strategies for Evaluating Programs, Directors, Teachers and Children CD Book
Early Childhood Education Trend Report CD Book
The Complete Parenting Exchange Library

Haiti: How You Can Help

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EDT

In last weeks Exchange Insta Poll we asked readers how we can help children and families in Haiti. The options you gave the most support to:

Establish/rebuild orphanages and day care centers
At present, contributing money is best
Collecting early childhood learning materials to send to centers in Haiti
Twinning — partnering with an early childhood program in Haiti to exchange communication and to provide support

We are researching to see how best to implement these options, especially those focusing on more long-term support when all the press moves on to the next story. Here are some ideas so far:

Caroline Hudicourt, World Forum National Representative from Haiti, sent this message:

"I had two meetings in the past two days with heads of educational organizations. We came to the conclusion that the best way to help children immediately would be to set up early childhood centers in tents around the tent cities where most of Port-au-Prince\'s population lives right now to give children a place dedicated to them where they would play, express themselves, and learn. We plan to meet members of the UNICEF staff to discuss this idea. I\'ve just joined an organisation that gathers most of the association of school directors and other institutions involved in the non-public sector. They all agree with this idea. We have also heard in the news that the wife of the president has a plan to put educational opportunities with an emphasis on art in the tent cities. It will have to be in tents. Presently in Haiti most people are very fearful of getting into concrete buildings and the great majority of the population in the Port-au-Prince area sleeps in tents even if their houses are OK."

Ms. Hudicourt will be reporting to us as plans develop as to what support will be needed from the early childhood community worldwide. If you want to be put on a list to be notified on developments with this project, contact us at info@WorldForumFoundation.org.

Phyllis Kalifeh from the Children\'s Forum in Florida shared this request from Project K.I.D.:

"I would ask you to consider helping us to put together 25 PlayCare Kits for Haiti with the goal of doing so in 25 days! PlayCare provides temporary respite and emergency child care relief for children and their families in the areas impacted by disaster recognizing that children need an opportunity to be children. This is particularly important, as families must go to various locations to get food, water, and medical care. PlayCare provides safe, nurturing child care to allow families to begin putting their lives back together post trauma. Sites are set up (tents, fencing, tables, toys, materials, food, water, first aid, etc.) in areas where families most need help. Trained volunteers manage the sites and also help to link families to the other aid resources available. We have folks on the ground and they\'re just waiting for these PlayCare Kits to arrive. Please help us to help our partners, Project K.I.D. For more information on Project K.I.D., visit their website at: www.project-kid.org.

World Forum Alliance member, Save the Children, is doing this work:

More than three weeks after the catastrophic 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti, Save the Children is distributing rice to children and families in partnership with the World Food Program. Latest Field Report Highlights:

172,751 beneficiaries have been reached to date.
Save the Children is responsible for providing health care in 32 camps/locations.
17 Child Friendly Spaces were established in Jacmel and Port-au-Prince, providing activities for over 10,400 children.

Save the Children has worked in Haiti since 1978 and currently has about 250 staff on the ground. Click here to learn more.

Another World Forum Alliance member, the Consultative Group on Eary Child Development and its Early Childhood in Emergencies Working Group (EEWG) are working to mobilise and coordinate the following activities:

Mapping and assessing early childhood needs on the ground in Haiti
Identifying and involving key national and international partners for ECCD planning and relief and revitalization services
Developing shared inter-agency strategies for developing key ECCD activities and services;
Ensuring that a mosaic of funding support for ECCD initiatives is developed and directed effectively to appropriate, feasible activities
Linking recovery work with ongoing activities to support medium-term ECCD policy planning, which is already at an advanced stage of preparation in Haiti

Updates will be posted at: www.ecdgroup.com/emergencies.asp

Exchange Curriculum Resources

Exchange has packaged seven of its most popular curriculum resources into a single “Curriculum Tool Kit” and is offering the entire set at a 33% discount — separately these resources would cost $166, but we are offering the entire Curriculum Tool Kit for only $112. Resources in the kit include:

Beginnings Workshops Book #4 - Curriculum: Brain Research, Math, Science
Beginnings Workshops Book #5 - Curriculum: Art, Music, Movement, Drama
Hearing Everyone’s Voice: Educating Young Children for Peace and a Democratic Community
Connecting: Friendship in the Lives of Young Children
More Than Numbers: Mathematical Thinking in the Early Years
Exchange Articles Collection #3 - Children with Differing Abilities
Out of the Box Training Kit (printed version): Recognizing the Essentials of Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum

Understanding the Parent's Perspective

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EDT

In the latest revision of her popular Exchange book, How Does it Feel?, Anne Stonehouse encourages early childhood professionals in centers and homes to try to see things from the parents\' point of view exploring a wide range of scenarios. For example, Stonehouse asks "How would you feel if you were told that your child was being very withdrawn and unusually quiet and then asked if there is anything happening at home that may have caused this?" Her response...

"Most people have a natural tendency to blame the other. Often families get blamed or at least suspected if their child\'s behavior changes negatively. What is the first thing that most professionals would say when two-year-old Susan starts biting any exposed flesh she has access to, or to ten-month-old Juan won\'t settle down to sleep, or one-year-old Carla screams when his mom leaves in the morning? \'I wonder if something is going on at home.\'

"Can you honestly say that you have ever heard a professional say in such a circumstance, \'I wonder if there is something that I\'m doing or about our program that is causing this behavior?\' And many families are no different — they are likely to blame the program when Elim begins to show a precocious talent for swearing. Of course he picked it up at child care!

"Unfortunately, some families are very vulnerable and do the opposite of blaming the other. They feel overly responsible for any problem or difficulty their child has. The healthiest way to approach problems or concerns with a child is with a sense of shared responsibility and a commitment to work together to solve the problem."

Great Resources on Parenting

Exchange has packaged six of its parenting resources into a single Parenting Tool Kit and is offering the entire set at a 35% discount. Separately these resources would cost $191, but we are offering the entire Parenting Tool Kit for only $124. The kit includes these great Exchange resources:

The following Books/CDs:

The Top Ten Preschool Parenting Problems
How Does it Feel?
Dragon Mom
Parent Relations: Building an Active Partnership
The Complete Parenting Exchange Library

The following Beginnings Workshops:

Parent Conferences
Parent Involvement
Meeting the Needs of Today\'s Families

The following Out of the Box Kits:

Family Conferencing: Asking and Listening
Making Families Welcome

Connecting Children with Nature

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EDT

The World Forum Foundation has made a commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative to connect 2 million children around the world with nature. As a first step in implementing this commitment, we are inviting 60 Nature Action Teams from around the world to come to the Arbor Day Farm on October 17 - 20, 2010 for the Connecting Children with Nature Action Forum. The goal of this Forum is to nurture future generations of environmental stewards by preparing these 70 Nature Action Teams to lead campaigns to connect children with nature in their communities. Teams are multi-disciplinary, including such talents as educators, environmentalists, architects, and health experts.

Teams are in the process of being organized in every region of the world. Some teams are able to raise funds to support their participation while others are not. To help teams from all regions of the world to be able to attend, the World Forum Foundation is looking for sponsors to support teams from places such as Afghanistan, Bolivia, South Africa, Vietnam, Nigeria, Tajikistan, Peru, Puerto Rico, India, Lebanon, Ethiopia, and China. Sponsorships, anywhere from $200 to $30,000, will make a difference. Complete sponsorship details, including the benefits of sponsorship, are spelled out in the Sponsorship Opportunities Kit.

Go Green Rating Scale for Early Childhood Settings

Understand what is safe, environmentally friendly, and healthy when it comes to products and practices used in your program. Help make the world a safer, healthier place for young children. The Go Green Rating Scale for Early Childhood Settings is a comprehensive, research-based tool to help you measure the greenness of your setting, evaluate your practices, and take steps toward environmental improvement that will contribute to children\'s potential for long, healthy lives. Categories evaluated in the rating scale include:

Air quality

Cleaning products

Chemicals found in soaps, lotions, and sunscreen

Pests and pesticides

Chemicals found in plastics

Lead and other contaminants, such as mercury, formaldehyde, and fire retardants

Stewardship and green living, including recycling and waste reduction

6 Rules for Program Improvement

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Reaching into my dusty note card box I found these "six rules for finding areas for improvement" from organizational consultant George Ordiorne in his book, Training by Objectives (New York: MacMillan Company, 1970)...

Fix your eye on costs. Try to spend dollars in such a way that they are producing more service.
Is there a bottleneck? Is there one thing that causes delays, holding up other things?
Is it taking too much time? Things that are taking too much of anyone\'s time are probably costing more than they should and provide fertile areas for improvement.
Has it drifted imperceptibly in the wrong direction? An organization, which starts out with a unique focus, may lose sight of this original feature once it is successful.
Have outside conditions changed? Keeping abreast of social, political, economic, and habitual patterns of consumers is essential in identifying areas for improvement.
Is it being done in the same old way? Are the approaches that made the program successful originally still being followed even though these approaches are now outmoded?

A Tool Kit for Managers

Exchange has packaged six of its practical management resources into a single “Manager’s Tool Kit” and is offering the entire set at a 33% discount — separately these resources would cost $175, but we are offering the entire Manager’s Tool Kit for only $112. Resources in the kit include:

The Art of Leadership: Managing Early Childhood Organizations

Managing Money: A Center Director’s Guidebook

Beginnings Workshops Book #8 - Professionalism

250 Management Success Stories from Child Care Directors

Developing Capable, Creative Teachers CD Book

Leading People in Early Childhood Settings CD Book

Cultivating Our Strengths

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Lilian Katz, in her book, Intellectual Emergencies: Some Reflections on Mothering and Teaching, offers these insights on professional development...

"Cultivate your own intellect and nourish the life of your own mind. For teachers, the cultivation of our minds is as important as the cultivation of our capacities for understanding, compassion, and caring — not less, not more — but equally important. In other words, see yourself as a developing professional; become a student of your own teaching — a career-long student of your own teaching.

"Always assume that the people you work with have the capacities for greatness, creativity, courage and insight. Occasionally this assumption will be wrong, perhaps. But if you always make it, you will be much more likely to uncover, encourage, strengthen, and support these qualities."

Buy Intellectual Emergencies Today

Lilian Katz\'s Intellectual Emergencies is one of the hottest sellers at Exchange. In this stimulating, playful book, Lilian and her son share through music and written words principles of teaching,

Employer Child Care Update

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EDT

For over a dozen years Exchange has been tracking the progress of organizations providing child care for employers. For much of this time employer child care was the fastest growing segment of the early childhood world. While employer child care is still one of the strongest sectors of early childhood, during the recent economic downturn employers have been slower to invest in new child care projects. Nonetheless, there are still pockets of progress. For example, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Children\'s Home has recently opened child care centers for teachers in five local elementary schools to promote staff recruitment and retention. In Dallas, Texas, Children\'s Choice Learning Centers, one of the largest for profit child care organizations in North America will more than double its capacity since 2007 by adding significant numbers of new employer centers. Children\'s Choice CEO, Donna McClintock reports that they have been able to succeed in securing new contracts from employers even during an economic downturn for three reasons: a hands-on executive team, an ability to move quickly with creative solutions, and a top-notch proprietary curriculum.

If your organization has recently gotten involved in providing child care for employers and have so far not been listed in Exchange\'s annual list of the largest employer child care providers, please contact us at info@childcareexchange.com.

Trends in Early Childhood Education

For 31 years Exchange has been chronicling the history of and trends in the early childhood profession. Now we have compiled 150 Exchange reports on early childhood trends and history into a single CD Book. Your purchase of the Early Childhood Trend Report CD Book includes periodic FREE electronic updates for the next 12 months to help ensure you\'re always on top of the latest developments in this ever-changing environment.

Teachers' Perceptions

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EDT

While Bonnie is in India I have been cleaning up my desk area. Along the way I have encountered several boxes of note cards I had prepared while working on my master\'s degree under Gwen Morgan at Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Gwen had made sure I ranged far and wide in my research. So my dusty note cards feature quotes from well-known (at the time) organizational and business consultants such as Peter Drucker, Edgar Schein, and Harry Levinson, as well as early childhood experts such as Bettye Caldwell, David Weikart, Dorothy Hewes, and Millie Almy. Many of these citations do not stand the test of time, but some are just as meaningful now as they were three decades ago.

So in coming months I may sprinkle in some of this "ancient" wisdom. For example, here is a review from an influential early childhood publication edited by Dennis McFadden, Early Childhood Development Programs and Services: Planning for Action (Columbus, Ohio: Battelle Memorial Institute, 1972) of a University of Michigan study which compared how teachers perceived their teaching style and how their style was in real life. The university studied 20 experienced and inexperienced teachers:

"In spontaneous interviews before and after training, both experienced teachers and beginning students expressed a preference for teaching based on the discovery model. And they expressed attitudes favoring a non-authoritarian or non-directive approach by the teacher. Yet, when these teachers were observed, their teaching behavior was very different from the behavior they said they favored. Using the OSCAR #4 observation instrument (Observation Schedule and Record, Form Four), researchers characterized the classroom in the study as predominantly teacher controlled or teacher centered.

"In the interviews, the teachers also preferred showing verbal concern and approval nearly three times as often as disapproval. However, when teachers were observed and their statements recorded, the statements characterizing support, approval, or encouragement were fewer than 10 percent of the total statements.

"The researchers concluded: \'We must examine our practice of simultaneously offering psychological information and educational theory and content without helping the student relate the two in practice.\'"

World Forum Resource on Teacher Education

Conversations on Early Childhood Teacher Education: Voices from the Working Forum for Teacher Educators captures, shares, and sparks the continuation of conversations initiated at the inaugural Working Forum for Teacher Educators. Vibrant, challenging, and inspiring conversations were captured in this book with the intent of continuing professional dialogues and of adding voices to the growing global commitment to early childhood teacher education. Chapters focus on...

Policy, programs, and practices
Multiculturalism
Teacher education curriculum
Adults as learners
Learning online
Future directions

What Motivates Employees

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EDT

What bosses think motivates employees, and what employees say they are motivated by typically is totally different. Teresa Amabile, as reported in Harvard Business Review (January 2010; hbr.org), recently asked 600 managers to rank the factors that motivate their employees. Their number one motivator was "recognition for good work."

However, when Amabile conducted a multi-year study tracking day-to-day activities, emotions, and motivation levels of hundreds of knowledge workers in a wide variety of settings, she found that the motivator that bosses ranked last, ended up being the most important motivator for employees — progress! Amabile observed:

"On days when workers have the sense they\'re making headway in their jobs, or when they receive support that helps them overcome obstacles, their emotions are most positive and their drive to succeed is at its peak. On days when they feel they are spinning their wheels or encountering roadblocks to meaningful accomplishment, their moods and motivation are lowest."

Leading People in Early Childhood Settings CD Book

The Exchange CD Book, Leading People in Early Childhood Settings, offers an inspiring collection of 50 articles in PDF format offering a plethora of practical ideas and strategies for meeting the challenges of leadership in an early childhood settings, covering these topics:

Leadership Basics
Leadership Challenges
Supervisory Basics
Meeting Staff Needs
Motivating Staff
Managing Difficult People
Managing Difficult Issues

Haiti - How Can We Help?

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EDT

In the past week, many of you have sent in suggestions on how we, as early childhood professionals, can help children, families, and early childhood professionals in Haiti both now and in the long run. As I had indicated previously, the World Forum Foundation is a member of the Early Childhood in Emergencies Working Group (EEWG), working under the umbrella of the Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development, which is working on long-range strategies for children in Haiti. We will share these plans as they evolve.

In the meantime, we are collecting your views on steps that individual early childhood programs can take to help. We invite you to share your ideas and opinions in today\'s Exchange Insta Poll where we are surveying readers on the best ways to provide support in Haiti. After we have arrived at some consensus on the most favored ideas, we will consult with relief experts and early childhood leaders in Haiti to see if and how these ideas can be acted upon. It may well turn out that some of the ideas are impractical or inappropriate. But we will follow your lead and provide implementation ideas on those ideas that may work.

Here are just a few of the ideas that have been suggested so far:

Twinning — partnering with an early childhood program in Haiti to exchange communication and to provide support.
Sending an early childhood professional to do relief work in Haiti.
Collecting early childhood learning materials to send to centers in Haiti.
Making an appeal to your families and your community to support Haiti.

Educating Young Children for Peace and Democratic Community

In the powerful Exchange resource, Hearing Everyone\'s Voice: Educating Young Children for Peace and Democratic Community, teachers and parents and children share stories of their struggles to build a democratic community by learning the many ways there are to hear each other given differences in age, ethnicity, gender, culture, and economic background. Filled with practical curriculum ideas, this guidebook integrates peace education, anti-bias perspective, and democratic practice into your curriculum.

Dragon Mom

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EDT

In her book, Dragon Mom: Confessions of a Child Development Expert, Janet Gonzalez-Mena addresses her challenge of being a child development expert and a real parent, about the gap between what society expects from the perfect parent and what can happen in the real world. In the book she talks about the first emergence of Janet, the Dragon Mom:

"I was new to my parenting career. The dragon was unknown to me. So far, parenting had been entirely positive. I felt nothing but love in my heart for this precious new child of mine. I certainly didn\'t feel anger, I remember thinking this was the happiest time in my life.

"You can imagine how surprised I felt to find myself in the living room of our small apartment screaming, "Shut up!" in the direction of the bedroom where my baby was crying. I swear those words just came out of my mouth on their own.

"I had been a \'good mother\' up until then — all three weeks of his life. My baby had responded by behaving like a \'good baby.\' But not this time. I had done everything right. I had changed, fed, burped, rocked, and cuddled him. He just wouldn\'t stop crying.

"That moment of frustration brought ugly, unmotherly words out of my mouth. When I heard them, I was nearly crushed by the overpowering weight of tons of guilt crashing down on me....

"I don\'t remember what happened next, but I\'m willing to bet that I went right in and smothered that poor baby in marshmallow ooze. I don\'t know if my sugary glop stopped the crying or not, but I probably felt better. That was the real beginning of my parenting career."

Great Resources on Parenting

Exchange has packaged six of its parenting resources into a single Parenting Tool Kit and is offering the entire set at a 33% discount. Separately these resources would cost $189, but we are offering the entire Parenting Tool Kit for only $126. The kit includes these great Exchange resources:

The following Books/CDs:

The Top Ten Preschool Parenting Problems
Parent Relations: Building an Active Partnership
Dragon Mom: Confessions of a Child Development Expert
The Complete Parenting Exchange Library

The following Beginnings Workshops:

Parent Conferences
Parent Involvement
Meeting the Needs of Today\'s Families

The following Out of the Box Kits:

Family Conferencing: Asking and Listening
Making Families Welcome

Gender Differences

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EDT

When we had our first child, Amy, we were bound and determined not to promote gender stereotypes. So early on we bought her a big red toy truck... which she proceeded to ignore throughout her childhood. We were crushed and tried to figure out what we did wrong. Now Lise Eliot, author of Pink Brain, Blue Brain (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009), provides some insights in Work & Family Life (January 2010):

"Boys between two and five, raised in the U.S., Europe, Japan or probably anywhere else, overwhelmingly select toy trucks, cars, and balls when they\'re given a choice of one of those over a doll. Three-year-old girls opt strongly for baby dolls, toy kitchen utensils, or a toy beauty set.

"These gender-typical toy preferences emerge somewhere around the first birthday. Though small differences are present at birth, the gap between boys and girls widens tremendously between the ages of two and six, with some differences becoming more stark than they will be at any later time in life....

"Should we resist stereotypes by changing the toys kids play with? Many parents have tried. But given trucks, it\'s not unusual for girls to turn them into families — and for boys to play catch with dolls.

"Even so, we can find toys and activities that will encourage members of each sex to practice skills that they tend to avoid. This means giving girls more balls, puzzles, big cardboard boxes, and sidewalk chalk. And we can use boys\' fascination with dinosaurs, astronomy, heavy machinery, and soldiers to get them reading, coloring, and communicating with others."

Exchange Resource on Gender Issues

Check out Exchange\'s 16-page Beginnings Workshop on "Gender Issues." Articles in this unit include:

Healthy Sexuality Development in Young Children by Kent Chrisman and Donna Couchenour
How to Create an Environment That Counteracts Stereotyping by Alice Sterling Honig
Out of Site But Not Out of Mind: The Harmful Absence of Men by Bruce Cunningham and Bernie Dorsey
Developing Sexual Identity Through Play, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Tolerance by Lynn Baynum

Shared Values

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EDT

In her book, Learning to Lead: Effective Leadership Skills for Teachers of Young Children, Exchange\'s Director of Community Development, Debra Sullivan, conveys these thoughts about shared values:

"A new perspective on values has emerged in recent years, focusing on the leader\'s relationship with followers. More and more, the literature on leadership is looking at the concept of shared values rather than solely focusing on the leader\'s values. Shared values are the beliefs and ideals that are held in common by the individual and the group. Shared values are the means by which a group of people will achieve their goals and their mission. For leaders, sharing values means that no one person\'s values take priority, not even the leader\'s. The workplace will reflect primarily the top two or three values that all of you agree to.

"Values such as openness, caring, empowerment, listening, understanding, acceptance, and empathy are indicative of leaders who work in harmony with the needs and desires of other group members. Shared values change groups and organizations by...

Fostering strong feelings of personal effectiveness
Promoting high levels of group loyalty
Facilitating consensus about key group goals and stakeholders
Encouraging ethical behavior
Promoting strong agreements about working hard and caring
Reducing levels of job stress and tension

Two Options: Art of Leadership

Exchange\'s all-time bestseller, The Art of Leadership: Managing Early Childhood Organizations, serves as an invaluable guidebook for early childhood managers and textbook for early childhood instructors. The comprehensive guide, now available in both a print version and a CD version, includes contributions from the leading experts in the field on the following management areas...

Leadership

Advocacy

Getting organized

Legal issues

Financial management

Fundraising

Personnel policies

Recruiting and selecting staff

Supervising and developing staff

Evaluating your program

Shaping your curriculum

Working with parents

Marketing your program

Community outreach

Research on Preschool Training

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EDT

"It\'s hard to conduct research on effective ways to train preschool educators because of the lack of standardization in their preparation and in the programs that employ them." This is the conclusion of a December meeting at Georgetown University attended by early childhood education researchers and reported in Education Week (December 16, 2009; www.edweek.org). Other points made at the event:

Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education: "We\'re trying to get out of the catch-up business. If early childhood education is glorified babysitting, we\'re not changing people\'s lives."

Kathleen Sibelius, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, called for an increase in the quality of early childhood programs, stressed the need for greater financial investment in preschool programs, and observed, "We sure don\'t put the resources behind it."

Barbara Thompson, director of the children and youth directorate of the office of family policy at the Defense Department, noted that 98 percent of the DoD centers are nationally accredited, and that to maintain that level of quality "you do need standards and oversight — a constant review of the program." She also observed that without the level of professional development provided to DoD\'s 15,000 child care staff "we wouldn\'t have the quality we have."

Add Creativity to Your Training

Now you can add pizzazz to your staff training by subscribing to Videatives Streaming Service, giving you access to over 160 video clips of real-life scenes in real classrooms. By using Videatives Streaming Service, you can make general principles of child development and early education come to life — turn ordinary moments into rich learning experiences. Students and staff members will learn to "see what children know," not by studying text, but through observing and assessing real incidents in real early childhood settings.

What Teachers Expect

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EDT

In the article, "Building and Rebuilding Your Credibility" in the popular Exchange handbook, The Art of Leadership: Managing Early Childhood Organizations, I outlined what teachers expect of a center director:

Staff expects you to be an expert. Staff respects a director who knows her stuff, who really understands how to deliver quality child care. Staff needs to know that if they have a problem they can turn to the director and know they will get the support and guidance they need.

Staff expects you to know what\'s going on. The most frequently voiced complaint about bosses is that they are out of touch with what is happening on the floor. A director loses credibility when teachers perceive (whether correctly or not) that he doesn\'t understand (or care about) the day-to-day issues they face.

Staff expects you to make good decisions. Most decisions a director makes involve a mix of financial, organizational, and tactical factors, factors that few staff are aware of. For staff to have confidence in their director, they must trust that she is balancing all these factors wisely and making decisions that are in the best interests of the organization.

Staff expects you to listen. Nothing is more demotivating than to believe that others do not respect your judgment. Teachers need to believe that the director values their opinions and takes their input (whether requested or volunteered) seriously.

Staff expects you to be fair. In order for staff to respect you, they need to be convinced that you will treat them fairly when it comes to scheduling, raises, discipline, and attention.