Download Early Learning Challenge Grant

Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge
Purpose of the grant
Purpose is to improve program quality and services
coordination for infants, young children and their
families to maximize infants and young children’s
learning and development, starting during pregnancy
Grant Snapshot
 Dec 31, 2013 through Dec 31, 2017
 Pregnancy to Eight
 Result of 2 years of work of four state
agencies and NJ Council for Young
Children
 One of 6 states to receive the grant (NJ,
VT, KY, GA, PA, MI)
 Grant award: $44.3 million
Current Structure of State Early Childhood Services
Department of
Education
Department of
Human Services
Department of
Children & Families
Department of
Health
Division of EC Education
(P-3)
Subsidized child care
Child Welfare
IDEA Part C (Early
Intervention)
Wraparound care
Child Care Licensing
Head Start Collaboration
Teacher Credentials &
Licensing
IDEA Part B
(Preschool Special
Education)
Office of Special Ed
Federal Title I and other
Federal Programs
Regional Achievement
Centers
County Offices
Migrant, Homeless Ed
Office of Bilingual Ed
First Steps
Home Visiting Program
Child Care Resource and
Referral Agencies
Strengthening Families
through Early Care &
Education
Family Worker Outreach
Special Child Health
Services
Home Visiting Program
Maternal and Child
Health Services
Family Success Centers
TANF
SNAP (food stamps)
Immunizations
Family Day Care
Provider Registration
(voluntary)
Childhood Lead
Poisoning
NJ Medicaid
NJ Children’s Trust Fund
NJ Family Care
PINJ (Workforce
Registry)
Federal Community Based
Child Abuse Prevention
Funds
Indoor Environments
Program
Shaping NJ
The Early Learning Challenge will
help Build Our System
Who’s Involved
 Department of Education
 Department of Human Services
 Department of Children and Families
 Department of Health
 The Inter Department Planning Group
 The Early Learning Commission
 The NJ Council for Young Children
 Head Start Collaboration Office
 Stakeholder Groups
 At the heart of the grant is the identification and
implementation of common standards across all of
our agencies through Grow NJ Kids, our Quality
Rating Improvement System
7/7/2017
Grow NJ Kids drives the improvement process
Like a “Consumer Reports” of home, center and
school-based care and education programs for birth
to five.
Grow NJ Kids
 Road map to achieving quality for early learning and care
providers
 Sequenced levels of evidence-based practices in health, family
and community engagement, early learning and assessment,
workforce development and administrative practices
 Assistance and resources to help sites progress through the 5
levels
 Incentives for participation
 Rating processes
 Evaluation of efficacy of the system
 Outreach to ensure provider and family participation
The grant will allow us to:
 Finalize the school/center based tool
 Develop and test the Family Child Care tool, and
begin rollout
 Rollout will be cross sector
Our targets
Programs
Center-based sites serving children receiving
subsidy
Family Child Care sites serving children
receiving subsidy
Head Start and Early Head Start (outside State
Preschool sites)
State Preschool sites (incl. 619)
ECPA/ELLI (incl. 619)
Public and approved private schools for
children with special needs
Programs funded by 619 (non Abbott/non
ECPA/ELLI)
Non-High Needs Programs
Total Sites
Included by end
of Grant
Children
25,584
492
720
180
6,000
125
25,428
489
9,728
152
672
21
4,480
140
10,584
189
83,196
1,788
Our mission is to go from this
To this
Or this
14
7/7/2017
To this
7/7/2017
The Projects
Create A Sustainable Early Childhood Training and
Professional Development System
Establish an Early Learning & Development Training
Academy with 3 regional locations (at IHEs)
What is it? Training hubs with endorsed/certified
trainers in required tools, measures, and curricula in
Grow NJ Kids
Purpose? To provide training and support to the
Quality Improvement Specialists and will be a resource
for all early childhood programs in the state
Align Early Childhood PD Systems
 Finalize the revisions of New Jersey’s Core Knowledge
and Competency Framework & Career Lattice;
 Meet targets for professional development and higher
education institutions and agencies that do not yet use
the Framework by working with the Higher Education
Commission;
 Conduct mid grant and end of grant higher education
inventories to track progress
Set up the Grow NJ Kids Incentive System
 Quality enhancement grants (budgeted at $500/room with a
max of $10,000)
 Scholarships
 scholarships for teachers and directors ($6,000 over 2 years)
 scholarships for teacher assistants ($2,000 over 2 years)
 scholarships for Family Child Care directors ($2,000 over 2 years)
 Professional development, on site coaching and
mentoring
 Hire a consultant to help establish a fund for
incentives through public/private partnerships and
set funding targets
Develop Grow NJ Kids Rating System
 Create an Early Learning Improvement Consortium
(ELIC) to draw in at least 3 colleges/universities to
begin conducting the ratings
Validate Grow NJ Kids
 MOU to validate the system to answer 4 questions:
 Do our indicators differentiate quality?
 Is our technical assistance effective in moving
sites up through the levels?
 Are higher levels associated with better
outcomes?
 Are we using the ratings protocol reliably?
Promote Family Engagement & Health
 Expand central intake hubs to six additional counties
(one stop shop for connection to services)
 Establish county-level parent-led Councils for Young
Children in all 21 counties
 Increase the number of infants and young children
screened for social-emotional and developmental
concerns
Publicize Grow NJ Kids for Target Families
 Begin 3-year campaign to promote Grow NJ Kids
and make public aware of program standards
Support the development and connection of early
childhood data systems
 Create infrastructure to link data across state systems
 Expand current Workforce Registry
 Support Licensing Data System
7/7/2017
Extend support to kindergarten-3rd Grade
 Pilot technology-based curricula designed to boost children’s
mastery of math and literacy skills;
 Create guidelines for 1-3;
 Create modules for implementation;
 Build capacity of teachers and leaders in k-3 settings by
focusing on optimizing instruction, using data from child
assessments and measures of instruction;
 Establish steering committee to create an evaluation
component
Implement a Kindergarten Entry Assessment
 Complete a phased-in voluntary statewide
implementation of the KEA between September 2014
and September 2019 (not grant funded)
Integrate and align the standards from birth to eight
 Articulate and align New Jersey’s birth to three and
preschool standards with the K-3 standards
 Include early learning standards (infant/toddler and
preschool) in regulatory documents- licensing, Child
Care, home visiting, Early Intervention, Family Child
Care
 Create self-paced training modules
Train cross sector
What will happen if we are successful
28
Coordinate programs and
funding across state agencies
Prepare workforce to
meet particularized
needs
Common evidence-based
program and learning
standards (Grow NJ Kids)
High Quality
Early Experiences
Connect families to
comprehensive services
Data systems to track and
support programs, children,
families and workforce
Healthy, Happy, Ready
Kids