Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge
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Transcript of Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge
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 EightResult 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
Department of Education
Division of EC Education (P-3)
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
Department of Human Services
Subsidized child care
Wraparound care
First Steps
Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies
Family Worker Outreach
TANF
SNAP (food stamps)
NJ Medicaid
NJ Family Care
PINJ (Workforce Registry)
Department of Children & Families
Child Welfare
Child Care Licensing
Home Visiting Program
Strengthening Families through Early
Care & Education
Family Success Centers
Family Day CareProvider Registration
(voluntary)
NJ Children’s Trust Fund
Federal Community Based Child Abuse Prevention Funds
Department of Health
IDEA Part C (Early Intervention)
Special Child Health Services
Home Visiting Program
Maternal and Child Health Services
Immunizations
Childhood Lead Poisoning
Indoor Environments Program
Shaping NJ
Current Structure of State Early Childhood Services
The Early Learning Challenge will help Build Our System
Who’s Involved
Department of EducationDepartment of Human ServicesDepartment of Children and FamiliesDepartment of HealthThe Inter Department Planning GroupThe Early Learning CommissionThe NJ Council for Young ChildrenHead Start Collaboration OfficeStakeholder Groups
04/21/23
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
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 Children
Total Sites Included by end of Grant
Center-based sites serving children receiving subsidy 25,584 492
Family Child Care sites serving children receiving subsidy 720 180Head Start and Early Head Start (outside State Preschool sites) 6,000 125
State Preschool sites (incl. 619) 25,428 489
ECPA/ELLI (incl. 619) 9,728 152Public and approved private schools for children with special needs 672 21Programs funded by 619 (non Abbott/non ECPA/ELLI) 4,480 140
Non-High Needs Programs 10,584 189
83,196 1,788
Our mission is to go from this
To this
04/21/2314
Or this
To this
04/21/23
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
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
Begin 3-year campaign to promote Grow NJ Kids and make public aware of program standards
Publicize Grow NJ Kids for Target Families
04/21/23
Create infrastructure to link data across state systems
Expand current Workforce Registry
Support Licensing Data System
Support the development and connection of early childhood data systems
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
Coordinate programs and funding across state
agencies
Data systems to track and support programs, children,
families and workforce
High Quality
Early Experiences
Healthy, Happy, Ready Kids
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What will happen if we are successful