Press Releases

Illinois Study Finds Substantial Increase in Qualifications of Preschool Teachers: Marks Progress Toward Preschool for All Priorities and Achievement of Statewide, Coordinated Professional Development System

December 2008 – A new study of the early childhood workforce in Illinois finds that education levels for lead preschool teachers has dramatically increased over the past seven years. The number of community-based lead teachers holding a bachelor’s degree rose to 48 percent in 2008, up from 37 percent in 2001. In addition, almost 20 percent of these lead teachers hold early childhood certification, which qualifies them to teach 3- and 4-year old children in Illinois’ Preschool for All program.

The study, Who’s Caring for the Kids? The Status of the Early Childhood Workforce in Illinois–2008, was conducted by researchers at National-Louis University’s McCormick Tribune Center for Early Childhood Leadership and the Early Childhood and Parenting Collaborative at the University of Illinois. The research, funded by the McCormick Foundation, examined progress made since the 2001 publication of the first Who’s Caring for the Kids?

The new study highlights several achievements. Since 2001, Illinois has established an Early Learning Council, implemented Preschool for All, and rolled out a quality rating system, Quality Counts–QRS. State policymakers have also addressed the professional needs of the early childhood workforce through creation of the Professional Development Advisory Council (PDAC), establishment of Gateways to Opportunity, and a credentialing system for the early childhood workforce.

Dr. Teri Talan, study co-author and the Center’s director of research and public policy, says Illinois has emerged as a national leader in the design and implementation of its professional development system. “While our state policymakers have accomplished much over the past seven years, we cannot rest on our laurels,” says Talan. “We must continue to invest in the early childhood workforce—teachers, directors, providers, and support staff—if we are to achieve the goals of Preschool for All.”

The latest report found an emerging and integrated system with a coherent career framework for early childhood practitioners, a significant improvement since the 2001 report found that Illinois lacked a coherent career development system. The 2008 updatetracked workforce changes and the impact of Preschool for All.

“We must have highly qualified staff, especially among center directors and lead teachers, to successfully implement Preschool for All,” says Paula Jorde Bloom, Michael W. Louis Endowed Chair of the Center and professor of early childhood education at NLU. “It’s an important success to find lead teacher qualifications steadily increasing.”

Additional findings include:

Compensation Matters. The wide variation in wages and benefits across sectors is drawing teachers away from community-based programs to public schools. Lead teachers with early childhood certification employed by community-based programs earn 44 percent less than comparably certified teachers in public school programs.

Leadership Matters. Director qualifications, including level of education, specialized management training, and experience, are directly related to program quality. Directors with higher levels of education were better able to support the professional development of their teachers and secure funding for Preschool for All.

Diversity Matters. Early childhood teachers are not representative of or prepared to teach the changing population of children in Illinois. Most early childhood teachers speak only English, yet more than one-third of children in Illinois speak a home language other than English. The workforce also lacks gender diversity. Only 1 percent of lead teachers and directors are male.

The Professional Development System Matters. Illinois has an emerging and sophisticated system of professional development and a career lattice tied to credentials and college degrees. Currently, however, there is little connection between the credentials identified and levels of compensation.

For more information about Who's Caring for the Kids? The Status of the Early Childhood Workforce in Illinois–2008, download the executive summary, full report, or order form.

McCormick Tribune Center for Early Childhood Leadership Receives $50,000 Grant from Grand Victoria Foundation

December 2008 – The McCormick Tribune Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National-Louis University was awarded a $50,000 grant from the Grand Victoria Foundation to implement Supporting Directors as the Gatekeepers to Quality. In July 2007 Illinois launched Quality Counts-QRS, a tiered reimbursement and quality rating system for both family child care homes and center-based early care and education programs. The Center is the lead organization designated to conduct these assessments. This grant provides funding for additional technical assistance specialists to support center-based directors in Illinois in preparing for their Quality Counts assessments and developing a program improvement plan.

Illinois Quality Counts-QRS is using the Program Administration Scale (PAS), developed by faculty at the McCormick Tribune Center for Early Childhood Leadership, as the quality-rating tool to assess and improve the quality of leadership and management practices of center-based early care and education programs in Illinois. The PAS assesses quality in ten areas: human resources development, personnel cost and allocation, center operations, child assessment, fiscal management, program planning and evaluation, family partnerships, marketing and public relations, technology, and staff qualifications.

The goal of this initiative is to promote best practices in the leadership and management of early childhood programs through the use of the PAS, increase the number of certified PAS assessors in Illinois, and to increase directors’ access to concrete resources that will help them prepare for their Quality Counts on-site assessment and implement recommendations resulting from their assessment report.

The Grand Victoria Foundation supports nonprofit organizations in Illinois whose efforts expand educational opportunities for children, boost the economic vitality of cities and regions and the economic prospects for families, and improve the health of our environment.

Founded in 1985, the McCormick Tribune Center for Early Childhood Leadership is dedicated to enhancing the management skills, professional orientation, and leadership capacity of early childhood educators. Funded by grants and contracts from philanthropic foundations, state agencies, and corporations, the Center’s activities encompass four areas: training and technical assistance to improve the knowledge base, skills, and competencies of early childhood administrators; program evaluation to improve the overall quality of early childhood services; research on key professional development issues; and public awareness of the critical role that early childhood directors play in the provision of quality services for children and families.

For more information about this initiative, please contact the Center at (800) 443-5522, ext. 5056 or debra.trudesuter@nl.edu. To find out more about the Grand Victoria Foundation go to www.grandvictoriafdn.org.

Eight National Institutions Call for Reinvention of Higher Education Programs for Professionals Working with Children from Birth to Age Five

September 2008 – Research has continually shown that in order for children to have exceptional, high quality early care and education, they must have teachers and staff with specialized knowledge, skill, and experience. In a newly released paper, eight national organizations including National-Louis University, request that every college president address this by asking two questions: What is the current state of our early care and education programs? How can we make them better? Drs. Paula Jorde Bloom and Teri Talan represented NLU and contributed to this study.

In their paper Role, Relevance, Reinvention: Higher Education in the Field of Early Care and Education, the national partners recognize that this is a defining moment to establish public expectations for the care and education of young children, and the qualifications of those who provide early care and education services. The paradox is clear: On the one hand, public awareness about the importance of the early years of life is growing as is the knowledge base about the education, skills, and expertise necessary to be an effective teacher of young children. Yet, as more early educators enroll in college courses, important questions emerge about what they should know and what they should be able to do in order to meet the needs of children, their families, and society.

There is a growing movement to mandate a bachelor's degree for early care and education teachers and administrators of young children from birth to age five. However, colleges and universities, understaffed and under-resourced at all levels, do not have the capacity to meet the needs of this increasingly diverse and non-traditional student population. The relevance and quality of a baccalaureate education for staff is questioned.

"We agree that the attainment of a bachelor's degree for early care and education teachers and staff is a necessary but insufficient element of change," stated Valora Washington, President of the CAYL Institute and author of the paper, on behalf of the eight organizations. "Leadership is needed to improve teacher education for early care and education staff."

The Three Major Issues

Following an exhaustive literature review, the national partners specifically raise three major issues:

Role – The role of college credential as a qualifying element of workforce participation is evoking passionate debate. There are three primary reasons for the debate: 1) A foreboding sense of potential loss among early educators who have traditionally relied on informal apprenticeships; 2) Widespread suspicion and doubt about the "value-added" of teacher education programs in actual practice, particularly with diverse populations; and 3) The historically weak connection, outside of public schools, between credentials and compensation or career growth.

Relevance – The relevance of teacher education programs to the effective, developmentally-appropriate preparation of staff serving diverse young learners in a variety of settings is questioned. Faculty preparing early care and education staff are frequently part-time and inexperienced in working with age groups about which they teach. Preparing staff to deal with diverse learners in a variety of contexts continues to be a weakness of higher education curricula.

Reinvention – The capacity of colleges and universities to reinvent their content, infrastructure, and delivery system is uncertain. Institutions of higher education find it difficult to change without additional funding and support. Working to reinvent higher education is important, as absent change in higher education, the education options for the early care and education workforce are severely constricted.

The document also offers providers several illustrations of what might be achieved when policymakers, constituents, and educational leaders work together. The illustrations include: State efforts (New Mexico and New Jersey) and the private, nonprofit sector (National Head Start Association, National Association for the Education of Young Children NAEYC, and unionization)

Strategies for Change

The following strategies to facilitate change to facilitate change are recommended by the national partners:

1. The attainment of a bachelor's degree in early care and education by all key staff, including program administrators and lead teachers of children aged birth to five years old, is recommended as a necessary but insufficient element of change.
2. A stronger federal role in financing and supporting the work of staff in the field of early care and education is vital.
3. Members of the field of early care and education are urged to better organize themselves to articulate the field's values, knowledge base, and needs.
4. A stronger strategic voice from accrediting bodies and national organizations is needed, as well as from states and state boards of education.
5. Individual colleges are encouraged to undertake specific efforts to improve both access to and quality of teacher education for early care and education staff.
6. Strong targeted efforts are needed to both increase the diversity of faculty and ensure that all faculty members can provide appropriate content for our diverse population of children and families.
7. Stronger links between staff compensation and their credentials is demanded.

For more information, download the final paper and brochure.

Center Receives Grant from Joyce Foundation

August 2008 – The McCormick Tribune Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National-Louis University was awarded a $75,000 grant from the Joyce Foundation to support its Early Childhood Initiative Part III. This grant will allow the Center to impact public policy targeting the critical need for qualified early childhood administrators as key for successful implementation of pre-kindergarten in Illinois and support policymakers endeavoring to implement similar programs in other states. This initiative supports the Joyce Foundation’s grant-making goal of identifying effective strategies for implementing high-quality pre-kindergarten in schools and community-based settings and building public and policymaker support for implementing such programs.

While there are many other voices in the public policy arena advocating for expanded access to high-quality services, the McCormick Tribune Center for Early Childhood Leadership is the only voice that targets the need to improve the leadership and management skills of early childhood administrators as a critical component in delivering high-quality learning opportunities. The support of the Joyce Foundation will enhance the Center’s ability to effectively promote to policymakers in Illinois and other states the importance of building strong program leadership capable of implementing a system of universal access to early learning.

With the financial support from the Joyce Foundation over the past few years, the McCormick Tribune Center for Early Childhood Leadership has played a significant role in shaping policy for Preschool for All, an ambitious and progressive model of universal access to early childhood services for three- and four-year-old children and Quality Counts, a quality rating system designed to promote the provision of high-quality services for children birth to five in home- and center-based programs.

Founded in 1985, the McCormick Tribune Center for Early Childhood Leadership is dedicated to enhancing the management skills, professional orientation, and leadership capacity of early childhood educators. Funded by grants and contracts from philanthropic foundations, state agencies, and corporations, the Center’s activities encompass four areas: training to improve the knowledge base, skills, and competencies of directors who administer early childhood programs; program evaluation to improve the overall quality of early childhood services; research on key professional development issues; and public awareness of the critical role that early childhood directors play in the provision of quality services for children and families.

For more information about this initiative, please contact the Center at (800) 443-5522, ext. 5056 or debra.trudesuter@nl.edu. To find out more about the Joyce Foundation go to www.joycefdn.org.

Center Receives Grant from McCormick Foundation

July 2008 – The McCormick Tribune Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National-Louis University was awarded a grant of $500,000 in support of two key projects:  “The Next Generation of Chicago Leaders” and an “Early Childhood Leadership and Policy Initiative.”  Both projects serve early childhood stakeholders in Illinois, with a focus on Chicago.

The Next Generation of Chicago Leaders initiative builds on the successful work the Center has previously done with funding from the Foundation to support professional development and leadership succession in Chicago’s early childhood programs. Over the past three years, with generous support from the McCormick Tribune Foundation, the Center has implemented this model of professional development which has increased the level of professionalism and program stability in 38 early childhood programs in Chicago, impacting over 3,000 children and their families. The Next Generation of Chicago Leaders participants grew in their roles as effective leaders through their involvement in the monthly professional development seminars, site visits with their Professional Development Advisors, and networking with the other members of their cohorts. As a result, they instituted systems for individualized staff development and leadership succession. Their enhanced coaching skills enabled them to realize the untapped potential in their staff. This led to identifying emerging leaders within their centers.

The second initiative, Early Childhood Leadership and Policy, involves policy and research activities to promote high standards in early childhood program administration. The activities in this initiative will allow the Center to impact public policy targeting the critical need for qualified early childhood administrators as a key ingredient in the successful implementation of Preschool for All in Illinois.

The overarching goal of this Early Childhood Leadership Policy and Research initiative is to increase the professionalism of the early childhood workforce in Illinois. The McCormick Tribune Center for Early Childhood Leadership will work with advocates, policymakers, and legislators to increase awareness that early childhood administrators are the “gatekeepers to quality” and help ensure that leadership development is on the “front burner” of the Illinois’ early childhood policy agenda.  Funding for this grant will allow the Center to continue its work in promoting high standards for early childhood program administrators and advocating that the Illinois Director Credential become the minimum requirement for directors of center-based programs receiving publicly funded early education funds.

Founded in 1985, the McCormick Tribune Center for Early Childhood Leadership is dedicated to enhancing the management skills, professional orientation, and leadership capacity of early childhood educators. Funded by grants and contracts from philanthropic foundations, state agencies, and corporations, the Center’s activities encompass four areas: training to improve the knowledge base, skills, and competencies of directors who administer early childhood programs; evaluation to ensure program quality; research on key professional development issues; and public awareness of the critical role that early childhood directors play in the provision of quality services for children and families.

For more information about this initiative, please contact the Center at (800) 443-5522, ext. 5056 or debra.trudesuter@nl.edu.