Executive Summary of Phase One Focus Areas
Priority Area One: Develop and Enhance programs in higher education for care and education professionals so that Minnesota has a unified, statewide early childhood education system.
Strategy A: Expand the existing partnership of stakeholders from Institutes of Higher Education and educate policy-makers, regulatory bodies and administrators about the importance of early childhood education.
- Activity 1.A.1 Meet with key deans of Education Departments in public, private and nonprofit Institutes of Higher Education.
- Activity 1.A.2 Partner with Minnesota Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (MnAECTE) and ACCESS.
- Activity 1.A.3. Create and support mechanisms for collaboration among Institutes of Higher Education, regulatory bodies, policy makers, NAEYC and other stakeholders.
Strategy B. Partner with the Professional Educator and Licensing Standards Board to align standards with the developmental needs of young children and reduce barriers that have disparate racial impacts.
- Activity 1.B.1 Create subcommittee to focus specifically on PELSB barriers and
opportunities including those that have disparate racial impacts. - Activity 1.B.2 Work directly with the PELSB Executive Director on recommendations
outlining the needs of the field aligned with best practice standards. - Activity 1.B.3 Identify the license that best meets the developmental needs and best interests of young children and the early childhood field.
Priority Area Two: Strengthen practice-based requirements, including a supervised induction period, for all lead educators working with children from birth through age 8.
Strategy A. Increase access to high quality field placements so that field placements sites are easily identifiable, interconnected and serve as model so students have opportunities to observe, practice and receive feedback from a qualified early childhood educator in a high-quality environment.
- Activity 2.A.1 Develop state-level instruction and guidance regarding field placement sites.
Strategy B. Increase tool, guidance and access to supervised induction period for new educators so that employees have intentionally structured, job-embedded learning opportunities as they work toward autonomous practice.
- Activity 2.B.1. Provide state-level instruction and guidance to child care centers and
others working with newly hired educators about how to create and support an effective induction period for new hires to increase retention and learning.
Priority Area Three: Develop and implement comprehensive pathways with multiple entry points that allow individuals to join the early childhood workforce and continue improving their knowledge and skills through an establish educational continuum.
Strategy A: Develop a professional learning system for people in the early childhood field and begin to address Minnesota’s child care shortage by increasing access and support for the national Child Development Associate (CDA) credential and moving students along a pathway.
- Activity 3.A.1 Expand offerings for the national Child Development Associate (CDA)
credential, increase the number of CDA courses eligible for college credit and ensure that there is a clear articulation to a two-year degree. - Activity 3.A.2 Increase the amount of money available for TEACH, REETAIN and CDA
Scholarships. - Activity 3.A.3 Support the continuation of the Transfer Pathways work so that students can articulate from 2-year colleges to 4-year colleges without loss of time, credits or money.
Priority Area Four: Build a better knowledge base to inform workforce development and professional learning services and systems and collect and used early childhood workforce data.
Strategy A: Support current early childhood educators as they move along the child care education pathway so they can use existing data tools and utilize technology to support their careers.
- Activity 4.A.1. Augment communication and supports to the early childhood workforce about DEVELOP (Minnesota’s Quality Improvement and Registry Tool) and make it easier to understand and easier to use.
Priority Area Five: Support workforce development with coherent funding, oversight and policies.
Strategy A: Bring together the recommendations from the National Academies Report on Transforming the Financing of Early Childhood, the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment and Minnesota’s National Governor’s Taskforce on Compensation into Phases One and Two of the Minnesota’s Workplan.
- Activity 5.A.1 Create subcommittee with finance experts including the two experts from Minnesota who served on the national report, if possible, as well as representatives from those who served on Minnesota’s National Governor’s Association Taskforce on Early Childhood Compensation.
- Activity 5.A.2 Finish work on Professional Development System Cost Analysis Tool
underway with the National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching and
Learning (NCECDTL).