Education Week - May 10, 2017 - 30

MULTIPLE
Randolph Public Schools
Commitment to recruit and
retain a diverse workforce

Randolph, resting 10 miles south of Boston, has over 32,000
residents. One of the most diverse communities in the state
of Massachusetts, it has award winning students and a
recent Milken Educator Award winner. Our population of
over 3,000 students represents 45 countries, speaking 40
languages and dialects including Haitian-Creole, Spanish
Vietnamese, and Russian.
We have four pre-K-5 elementary schools, one 6-8 middle
school and one 9-12 high school with an enrollment of
approximately 800 students. As a whole, our students'
growth on the MCAS has outpaced the state with
tremendous growth over the past several years. We are on
the move positively.
Student performance on Advanced Placement exams
continues to be a point of pride. The recent graduates were
accepted into more than 100 colleges and universities.
We continue to use MCAS/ PARCC and other normative
benchmark assessments to measure our successful progress.
TeachPoint is used to document educator observations.
Prospective Teachers of Diverse Cultures and Color are
in Critical Need. Anticipated Content Areas are (Math,
ELA, Science, STEM, Special Education, ESL/SEI, World
Languages and Global Studies) and diverse, experienced
Administrators are strongly encouraged to apply for current
openings.
To learn more about RPS, visit the link to watch the
video: https://youtu.be/8a34Er1xr88

TOP SCHOOL JOBS's CAREER CORNER

Rethinking Child Care Teacher Preparation
in Louisiana
Many enter the field of child care because of their love for children...and love for children is certainly very important in this field.
However, providing high quality early learning experiences for our
youngest children requires more than love. Among other things, it
requires an understanding of child development as well as skill in
working with families, humor, and a healthy dose of patience!
Some gain their knowledge and skill while attaining their Child
Development Associate (CDA) credential, a national credential
given by the Council for Professional Recognition. Earning the
CDA requires coursework that can be completed online or through
a series of trainings totaling 120 clock hours. Others, however,
work in child care without any formal training.
In an effort to strengthen the preparation of our state's
teachers, the Louisiana Department of Education launched
Believe and Prepare: Early Childhood in 2016. As one of
the first Early Childhood Ancillary Certificate Programs approved by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), we were charged with the task of
creating a professional training experience for child care
teachers, who within Louisiana have previously had no education requirement.
At Partnerships in Child Care (a division of Volunteers of America
Greater Baton Rouge) we drew from our extensive experience supporting child care providers to develop the Teacher Institute. It has
been our experience that some child care teachers struggle to complete a CDA because an online format lacks practical hands-on
application. Others feel isolated compiling their CDA Professional
Portfolios on their own and lose steam without the guidance of
coaching and mentoring. Hearing those comments repeatedly
from the field informed our development of our Teacher Institute.
We strove to create a program that is engaging, hands-on,
and supportive. Accepted candidates complete the entire
process together as a group. This cohort model is one of the
strengths of the program. Because the required coursework
is completed in-person, the candidates are able to build real
relationships with others who are learning the same material,
developing similar skills, and working to immediately apply
that knowledge in their child care classrooms.
Our Teacher Institute candidates work full time at child care
centers around the region, and they all meet together for a
three-hour class on Tuesday evenings and then in small
group meetings (PLCs) on selected Saturdays. Although
they are different ages, have different levels of experience,
and come from different parts of the Greater Baton Rouge
area, they have built a supportive team with each other,

30 | EDUCATION WEEK

May 10, 2017 | www.topschooljobs.org

sharing a connection because they are going through the
same training experience together.
Unlike traditional CDA programs where participation is more
anonymous, our Teacher Institute trainers, like myself, come to
know the candidates personally, and that influences how we
shape the class format. We know their preferred learning styles
and can teach the material accordingly, creating a successful
learning experience.
As Instructor Coach, I not only teach some of their evening
classes, I also visit the candidates at their centers, providing onthe-job coaching when I model and support them in putting into
practice what they have been learning in their evening classes.
This applied practice is not a part of traditional CDA preparation.
Another aspect of our Teacher Institute that distinguishes it from
traditional CDA programs is that three times during the program
the candidates visit high-quality early childhood classrooms in the
region. They conduct guided observations, looking for specific
elements of best practice that they have been studying in their
evening classes. The candidates later discuss their observations
in a PLC meeting and incorporate into their own classrooms some
of the strategies, activities, and ideas for classroom set-up that
they have observed.
Over the years I have helped many child care providers on their
journeys toward earning a CDA. The most notable impact of Louisiana's Early Childhood Ancillary Certificate Program is that it is
moving child care teachers out of the mindset of simply watching
children and is instilling a sense of professionalism, creating a
sense of pride in what they do. The child care teachers still enter
the field because of their love for children, but going through this
process they are noticeably more intentional about their practice.
They are thinking carefully about the learning experiences they
are providing children and how the experiences support the children's positive growth and development. Child care is so much
more difficult than many realize, but child care teachers trained
through Louisiana Early Childhood Ancillary Certificate Programs
like our Teacher Institute are prepared to give Louisiana's youngest the critical foundation that they need.

--Kendra T. Barnes, Coach & Trainer at the Teacher Institute,
Volunteers of America Greater Baton Rouge.
To read more blog posts, visit http://blogs.edweek.org/topschooljobs/careers/.
The opinions expressed are strictly those of the author and do
not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in
Education.

http://blogs.edweek.org/topschooljobs/careers/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a34Er1xr88 http://edweek.org http://www.edweek.org/claim http://www.topschooljobs.org

Education Week - May 10, 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - May 10, 2017