Model and Strategy
Our focus is to expand and perfect an early childhood workforce development program with the inclusion of a high school and lower division service-based practicum. Building a comprehensive, high quality, and replicable program is the ultimate objective. The practicum experience is designed to foster an understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and rewards associated with teaching young children and to spark a passion for working in the field. Students will be paired with mentor teachers in Title V early childhood centers and guaranteed enrollment in coursework required for the CA Teaching Permit. They will also receive supports known to boost academic success and career readiness, including academic and career counseling, coaching, peer support, financial incentives, and job placement support, and be exposed to best practices in instructional design. The program empowers students with the knowledge, skills, self-confidence, and resilience needed to thrive as professionals.
Impact
The development of any system, whether that system is a person, an organization, or a process within an organization, is determined by an interacting network of constraints that are internal and external to the system. Change is induced by manipulating the constraints that have the greatest influence on the system’s behavior. At the level of the individual, students are provided with an infrastructure of supports (their local academic context) to bolster performance. Theories of behavior modification are used to build the necessary self-efficacy, self-confidence, intrinsic motivation, and resilience teachers need to succeed in the classroom. Students use the same supports and theories to help their own students succeed. At the macro level, the same approach is used to educate the public, policy makers, and philanthropists about the importance of quality early child care and education for every child’s development and for the economic development of the communities in which those children live and will serve. Given the high stakes for the development of young people across the US and the communities in which they live, there is a moral imperative to share this message and our program as broadly as possible. Documentation of processes, evaluation of the program, identification of areas that require improvement, staying attuned to workforce and family needs, and dissemination of information at local, national, and international conferences, and on the web and via social media is imperative to encourage others to adopt the program and contribute to the process of change.
Leadership
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Lydia Stebbing
Director