Education Week - September 26, 2018 - 21

By Michele Miller-Cox
arents know that a child's
early experiences greatly
influence their success
later in school and in life.
While parents are young
children's first and best
teachers, they rely on early
educators as partners in
preparing their children for success. And
when that partnership is strong, we have
the building blocks for prosperous communities, states, and nations. As a result,
states and communities across our country
have started to raise the qualifications and
credentials for early educators. That is a
great thing-as long as the resources are
in place to assist early educators with the
real costs of preparation and professional
development while the bar is being raised.
It takes more than love of teaching for
a person to be an effective early educator.
I started my career in child care after entering a secretarial-degree program and
landing a summer internship at a nonprofit that supported early-childhood and
Head Start programs. I became interested
in going into early education but I didn't
know the extent of knowledge, skills, and
expertise it took to be a top-notch teacher
until I accepted a job at one of the highest-quality child-care facilities in North
Carolina. There, teachers were expected
to maintain high levels of skills and continuous professional development.
Working at such a high-quality facility required that I spend evenings and weekends
attending trainings and sometimes taking
college courses necessary to complete my
company's required 66 in-service training
hours per year. It wasn't easy. However,
it became very rewarding when I became
more intentional in the teaching strategies

Getty

Improving
Early
Education,
One Educator
At a Time
I used and saw the difference it made in
the development of my pupils. Those experiences also made me realize that I needed
to learn more, and that meant going back to
school to earn degrees.
Developing foundational skills in young
children is a complex job that requires competency and skill. That's why it is critically
important to have standards for the lead
early educators who are primarily responsible for fostering children's social-emotional
and academic growth while overseeing the
work of assistant teachers and paraprofessionals. Those who work with the youngest
children must know how to build trust with
children and families.
Teachers-whether they run a familychild-care home or work in a child-care
center-need to understand and abide by
local rules and state regulations, be able
to develop and implement lesson plans,
have the skills to assess children's development, design curricula that's appropriate, and have a true understanding of the
National Association for the Education
of Young Children's Code of Ethical Conduct, which provides a common basis for
resolving the primary ethical dilemmas
that early educators face. These skills
and knowledge are not innate, any more
than the skills and knowledge to design
and build buildings are innate. Strong instructional programs must exist to help
student-teachers develop the knowledge,
skills, and expertise to become effective.
Many fear that raising qualifications for
early educators will make the profession
less diverse and no longer reflective of the
children it serves. That is simply not true.
In North Carolina, 44 percent of center directors and 47 percent of center early educators are people of color, according to a
2015 survey from the Child Care Services
Association. Nationally, a significant per-

Timeless Values in School
To the Editor:
After taking a late summer vacation this year, I returned to
find my August 22 edition of Education Week; and I'd like to
respond to the lead Commentary by LaShawn Routé Chatmon
and Kathleen Osta ("How to Liberate the Schoolhouse From
Racial Bias," August 22, 2018). Chatmon and Osta make
excellent points that we must be prepared to talk about race
in order for social-emotional learning to advance educational
equity, and that rigorous teaching and learning can only thrive
in a caring and welcoming school culture. I also heartily agree
with their five recommendations for educators.
However, I am disappointed and perplexed regarding

centage of our profession consists of lowincome women of color who are hungry for
professional advancement and will seek
out opportunities if we provide the pipeline
and assistance to make higher education
possible. If the resources are there, we can
then have diversity, a well-qualified workforce, and better outcomes for children and
communities.
My experience running a child-care
business in North Carolina shows that
this is not impossible, as some suggest. I
worked 12 hours a day and went to school
at night. My family sacrificed, and my advancement was made possible by a system
that made higher education possible. For
example, the Child Care Services Association's T.E.A.C.H. early-childhood scholar-

It takes more than love
of teaching for a person
to be an effective
early educator."
ship program-which offers a three-way
partnership between the nonprofit, the
scholarship recipient, and a sponsoring
child-care center-paid for 80 percent
of what it cost to earn my associate and
bachelor's degrees while still running my
business. It also reimbursed me for books,
provided a travel stipend, supported release time for me to study and go to class,
and provided a counselor to support my
journey.
I also received support from a statewide
initiative (WAGE$), which provides educa-

their contention that, "From the beginning, schools in the
United States were designed to benefit and affirm the values
and culture of the white people in power." Throughout my
K-12 education in public and parochial schools in New York
City, I was taught to be honest, courteous and respectful,
resourceful, persistent and resilient, cooperative, as well
as empathetic. Growing up, there was no question about
how I was "expected to behave, communicate, and interact"
across all social contexts-whether in school, church, civic
organizations, on the playground or at family gatherings.
Are these structural values designed to benefit only white
people in power, or are they the values we should expect all
people, regardless of race, color, or creed, to live by and hold
dear? I would like to see Chatmon and Osta share the research

tion-based salary supplements to low-paid
teachers, directors, and family-child-care educators working with children from birth to
age 5. The program is designed to increase
retention, education, and compensation.
We need to expand these kinds of supports
to provide the same resources and opportunities to all early-childhood professionals.
But it is not just funding support that
early-childhood educators need to complete
their education. Many also need people who
can help them navigate the path to obtaining higher education, especially those for
whom college and technology can be intimidating. Early educators will meet the call as
long as there's a path and a system in place
that helps them achieve their aspirations to
be the best possible teacher for the children
placed in their trust.
By raising the qualifications and increasing professional development and compensation opportunities for early educators, our
communities, states, and nation have much
to gain. Children who come to school with
foundational skills that foster reading at
grade level are on the pathway to be high
school and college graduates and productive citizens.
Investing in early educators has a real return. And parents need early educators who
know their children, see their potential, and
know how to employ all the ways to bring
it out. Children and families deserve nothing less-and we need to work together to
make that happen. n
MICHELE MILLER-COX is an infant-toddler teacher
at a child-care center in Cary, N.C., and serves as
an adjunct instructor at area community colleges
and universities. Previously, she owned and
operated a nationally accredited, family child-care
facility for 20 years, which received a 5-star rating
in 2004, 2007, and 2010 from the North Carolina
Rated License Assessment Project.

they refer to when they write about values in schools that have
solely affirmed the dominance of white people in power.
Paul Arilotta
Former Central Office and School Administrator
Ridgewood, N.J.

COMMENTARY POLICY
Education Week takes no editorial positions, but publishes
opinion essays and letters from outside contributors in its
Commentary section. For information about submitting an essay
or letter for review, visit
www.edweek.org/go/guidelines.

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Education Week - September 26, 2018

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