Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: National/Federal Level

My career really began working in Head Start therefore it will always be my first love.  I learned so much working with that organization and I hope that I will get to work with them again in a larger capacity.  Head Start has so much impact on the families and children that they serve.  I always appreciate the policies and procedures and the rational that they have for them.

“We are a trusted partner in delivering culturally relevant resources that respond to the unique strengths and needs of Black children around issues including early childhood education, health, child welfare, literacy, and family engagement” (National Black Child Development Institute, para. 1, 2016).  This organization appealed to me because more than often black children are considered to be at risk and are categorized into negative stereotypes.  The NBCDI builds from strength model to ensure success for black children.  They provide policy, training, resources and advocacy. 

National Black Child Development Institute.  (2016). Who are We?  Retrieved January 30, 2016, from http://www.nbcdi.org/who-we-are/who-we-are

National Indian Education Association strives to build communities of partnerships with alliances that share common goals and alliances (National Indian Education Association, 2016).  I currently work on a Native American Reservation therefore it is ideal to have COA with an organization that provides evidence-based research for Native American children. 

National Indian Education Association. (2016).  Welcome from the National Indian Education Association,  Retrieved January 30, 2016, from http://www.niea.org/About/Welcome-from-NIEA-Leadership.aspx

Senior Program Director Child Care-YMCA

Primary Responsibilities:

Provides oversight to all early childhood staff to ensure early childhood programs are fully compliant with Head Start Performance Standards, State and City licensing, and Article 47 regulations, policies and procedures.

Ensure implementation of Head Start service plans and are reviewed/revised annually with Board of Director’s and DAPC for approval.

Supervise Education Directors and ensures curriculum is age-appropriate and provides comprehensive child development services to children.

Works with the Education Director, Custodians, Landlords, building management and NYCHA to consistently monitor Health and Safety, facility and operations.

Interface regularly with evaluators from ACS, DOE, NYCDHMH and other city agencies.

Understand Day Care Council union regulations, attend arbitrations/grievances and DOH hearings, as necessary.

Creates job descriptions, interviews candidates, hire/terminates; supports all staff onboarding process with HR and program departments.

Review and analyze monthly financial reports, responds to audits as required.

Develop and track budgets and monitor expenditures ensuring compliance with regulatory practices.

Oversees and support Family Service Team in facilitation of elections, establishment and continuation of a Delegate Advisory Parent Committee (DAPC).

Supervises Administrative Systems Manager and analyzes enrollment, attendance, food reports and licensing/permit compliance.

Regularly conduct site visits and program observation including instruction, facilities and maintenance logs.

Periodically conduct random samplings of record-keeping process to ensure fidelity in child enrollment, medical and education files.

Address site specific issues including follow-up on all child related incidents, accident reports and/or any complaints and concerns expressed by staff, parents and the community.

Maintains regular communication with Chief Program Officer and provide direction to improve/resolve issues.

Develops and implements an annual professional development and training plan.

Coordinates and participates in early childhood program-wide and site based professional development activities.

Leads annual Self-Assessment and participates in annual review.

Create and implement Program Improvement plan.

Coordinates accreditation process and maintains compliance according to NAEYC standards.

Regularly facilities program meetings with Ed. Directors, Mental Health Director, Family Service Team/ERSEA and Administrative Systems Manager.

Directs planning, recommend policy changes and refines procedures to ensure compliance and good standing.

Collaborates with community partners and knowledgeable of community resources

Communicates with Development department to showcase center events and student projects with pictures/videos, etc.

Attends senior program and program director meetings and related conferences including annual Head Start Conference.

Understand the RFP process and collaborates on RFPs with grant writer.

Requirement for the position:

New York State Permanent Teacher Certification (B – 2) (required)

Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education or Special Ed. (required)

Must possess deep knowledge of Head Start Performance Standards.

5 or more years of experience with multi-site management in an early childhood setting.

5 or more years of experience fiscal management.

Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with staff and community partners.

Ability to exercise sound judgment.

Strong administrative and supervisory skills.

Knowledge of Creative Curriculum, CLASS, ECER-S, ITER-S and ASQ-SE evaluation tools, Head Start Child Development and Early Learn Framework.

Knowledge of Teaching Strategies GOLD, ASPIRE, SEMS and WES Systems.

Willingness to travel.

YMCA. (2016).  Senior Director of Early Education.  Retrieved January 30, 2016, from      

      https://www.ywcanyc.org/senior-director-of-early-childhood-education/

HEAD START CONSULTANT REVIEWER INFORMATION

What Do Reviewers Do?

Reviewers are responsible for collecting data from programs across the country. Reviewers normally travel from Sunday to Friday, although some reviews require less days.

Onsite activities include conducting classroom observations, reviewing documents, and interviewing staff and gathering other data using the Office of Head Start Monitoring Protocol. The Protocol measures seven areas of grantee performance and contains key indicators that are used to assess each grantee. Reviewers are required to provide their own laptop to conduct the data collection and a cell phone to communicate during reviews. Reviewers should be well versed in the Head Start performance standards.

Requirements

Class certification

Bachelor’s Degree

Knowledge of Head Start Performance Standards

Dayna International. (2016).  HEAD START CONSULTANT REVIEWER INFORMATION,

     

     Retrieved January 30, 2016, from 

     https://headstartrecruiting.silkroad.com/headstartext/About_Us.html

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

Head Start and Early Head Start are within my current communities of practice.  My program collaborates a lot with the two programs because we have shared families.  We offer dual services to children that are enrolled in Head Start and Early Head Start by providing developmental screenings, home-visitation services and early intervention services in their classrooms.  We work with each teacher individually in order for them to be familiar with them with the target child’s IFSP or IEP goals.  Their classroom lesson plans are discussed and integrated into our service plans as well.  Together we bridge the school to home connection.  We share the same goals, passions and beliefs that the parents are their child’s first teacher and we are there to assist along in their journey. 

Head Start is my first love as it is where I began my career.  I have been a Senior Program Manager in the past and would love to work at a different level in my career.  I have been in Arizona for almost three years and have not connected with any of the local Head Start Groups.  I would love to continue my passion with Head Start and possible one day be a reviewer.  Head Start Parent Center in Arizona would be a great place for a connection. 

FACE is another program that we work closely with.  Although they have a home-based program we don’t currently have any duly enrolled children.  We do however share some center-based children.  They are within my community of practice because we share children.  Together we work to provide children with early intervention services.  The duly enrolled children are receiving home-based services from one Parent Educator and the Exceptional Student Services Parent Educator provided itinerant services in the classroom.  Our interactions and staffing’s on the children are highly important because we have the same goals and passions.  We both focus on school-readiness for the children.  Our meetings focus on the children and how we can better improve our services together.

There is a national training program from Bureau of Indian Affairs for FACE programs.  I am only familiar with the dual service model that were are still in the process of building stronger.  It would be a greater opportunity for coordination of services if I was able to be apart of their national planning team.  I only know the little about working with our local team.

Mesa Public School district is the strongest community of practice.  They are our legal educational agency providing education to our children.  The school district is where we refer children too that require further evaluation.  We have a memorandum of understanding with them to provide the evaluation services as well at provide itinerant services in the Head Start classrooms.  The school district provides teaching services, speech and language and physical therapy.  For children that need further services they offer self-contained preschool classrooms and will pick up the children on our reservation.  We have strong partnerships with classroom and evaluation staff which eases all of our interactions.  Our passions to serve children shines and we work strongly together to meet the needs of the children.

Being apart of the local school board would provide me with more insights of how the districts functions and would form a stronger connection to the MOU that we share on the reservation with MPS.

Positions of Interest

Sr. Subject Matter Expert – Preschool Specialist with Zero to Three

Skills and Experience

· 10 years minimum experience in early childhood professional development systems work · Strong knowledge of early childhood development birth to five, with particular focus and experience with services to preschool aged children ; · Strong knowledge of CLASS Pre-K observation tool and other program, teacher and child-level assessment tools commonly used in early childhood preschool programs · Strong knowledge of Head Start program development, the Head Start Program Performance Standards, Head Start Outcomes Framework, and HS technical assistance resources; · Strong knowledge of CCDF and Public Pre-K programming trends and regulations in states and territories · Excellent conceptual, written and oral skills; · Experience with organizing, developing and providing technical assistance resources to a variety of audiences; · Ability to work with a team as well as independently; · Strong oral, written and computer skills; · Strong interpersonal skills; and · Ability to read, analyze and interpret complex documents. · Reliable CLASS Pre-K observer preferred

Integrated Service/Regional Team Manager with Zero to Three

Skills and Experience · Minimum of ten years of experience in the field of Early Care and Education. · Minimum of two years of experience supervising staff. · Minimum of two years of experience with project management (e.g., identifying tasks, tracking progress, etc.) · Strong knowledge of early childhood development birth to five; · Strong knowledge of CLASS Pre-K observation tool and other program, teacher and child-level assessment tools commonly used in early childhood preschool programs; · Strong knowledge of Head Start program development, the Head Start Program Performance Standards, Head Start Outcomes Framework, and HS technical assistance resources; · Knowledge of CCDF and Public Pre-K programming trends and regulations in states and territories; · Solid understanding of adult learning principles and strategies for coaching/supporting adult learning (e.g., practice consultation), · Excellent conceptual, written and oral skills; · Experience with organizing, developing and providing technical assistance resources to a variety of audiences; · Ability to lead a team; · Ability to work as a team as well as independently; · Strong interpersonal skills; · Ability to read, analyze and interpret complex documents; · Solid knowledge/experience with data collection, analysis, and display;

Zero to Three. (2015). Available Jobs.  Retrieved January 16, 2016, from http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/careers/jobs/senior-subject-matter-expert-pre-k-specialist-nc-ecdtl.pdf

Zero to Three (2015).  Available Jobs.  Retrieved January 16, 2016, from http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/careers/jobs/integrated-services-regional-team-manager-nc-ecdtl.pdf

Child Care Partnerships Program Manager I with Olympic ESD 114

Required Education and Experience: 

·         Bachelor’s degree in child development or related early childhood education; or Master’s degree and/or teacher’s certificate.

·         Two year’s supervisory experience in early childhood education.

·         Experience and knowledge of Washington State child care licensing for both family child care and center based care.

·         One year’s experience working with infants, toddlers and pregnant mothers.

·         Experience with staff development training.

·         Experience working with low income families, diverse cultures and ethnic backgrounds.

·         Required Skills, Knowledge, and/or Abilities:

·         Knowledge of early childhood developmentally appropriate practices.

·         Knowledge of the development of infants and toddlers, and of parent/infant attachments.

·         Must have good human relations, interpersonal and conflict resolution skills.

·         Experience working on a management team preferred.

·         Knowledge of infant, toddler and early childhood assessment and curriculum systems.

·         Demonstrated excellent written communication and computer skills.

·         Ability to work effectively with parents, staff, community, advisory groups and boards.

·         Demonstrated understanding of adult learning principles.

·         Ability to organize and manage multiple projects and timelines.

·         Demonstrated excellent verbal and written communication skills.

·         Ability to travel; reliable transportation.

·         Ability to work occasional evenings and weekends.

·         Required Licenses and/or Certifications:

Early Childhood Knowledge Center. (2016).  Early Childhood Job Center.  Retrieved January 16, 2016, from http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/hs/careers/Region10/Washington/Child-Care-Partnerships-Program-Manager-I.html