Playing Together Forward Thinking Approaches to Promoting Sustainable and Impactful Early Learning Dr. Chris Swanson Senior Director for Quality Care & Education Johns Hopkins University, Center for Technology in Education chrisswanson@jhu.edu

Power of Play

Politics at Play

Maybe Our Leaders Need to Learn to Play With Others…

Discuss 4 Big Ideas for the Future of Early Learning How We’ll Play Today… Discuss 4 Big Ideas for the Future of Early Learning Examine Our Role as Leaders & Advocates Solve the World’s Problems

Big Idea #1 “One” Early Childhood System

Current Landscape Across the Nation 4 Part C Services Housed in Dept. of Ed. 31 Preschool 619 Services Housed in Office of Special Education QRIS – 7 non-profits; 2 R&Rs; 7 Departments of Education; 1 University; 3 co-managed; 24 HHS/equivalent Age # of Children (millions) % Receiving EI/619/SE Birth - 3 11.9 2.9% Preschool 7.9 9.5% Kindergarten 4.1 4% Data Sources:  2015 Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau. ECTA Center: http://ectacenter.org 2015-16 IDEA Child Find Childhealthdata.org QRIS Compendium – Program Mangaement Report

Resources CCDF $8.4 billion IDEA $3.5 billion

Building a Cross-Agency Team Step 1 Make Friends Step 2 Know Your Data Step 3 Make a Plan Step 4 Roles & Responsibilities Step 5 Is it working?

Leverage Our Initiatives

Big Idea #2 Why EC?

What are the Goals of Early Learning?

Is it to produce ‘school ready’ students?

Do our current ways of measuring ‘readiness’ lead to what we want?

Is he wondering… what really defines being ready for school?

Is school ready getting us ready for life?

Learning is not a single moment in time, but an amassed collection of experiences. Portfolio-based approaches Family-Provider shared goal setting; shared responsibility School-community care connections Trajectory of development of learning Foundations for learning

Big Idea #3 Quality Matters

The Conundrum of Quality “Quality Benefits Don’t Fade” - Duke University, 2016 “Most parents and experts don’t agree on the quality of a program.” -Harvard University, 2016 "Impact of North Carolina’s Early Childhood Programs and Policies on Educational Outcomes In Elementary School,” Kenneth A. Dodge, Yu Bai, Helen F. Ladd, Clara G. Muschkin. Child Development, November 2016. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12645.  “Poll shows gap between parent views and expert assessments of the quality of U.S. child care,” NPR/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Poll, October 2016.  

What Defines High-Quality?

Common Quality Standards

Access Matters… 10% of enrolled students expelled from Public Prek 39% found to be expelled from Private Care Children who are expelled more than two times before Kindergarten are 10 x more likely to: Drop-out Have Significant Health Concerns Be incarcerated 48% of African-American Males are Suspended More Than Once By Kindergarten

Less than 10% of all children have access to “high-quality child care”

Cross-Sector Solutions Sustainability Data Partners Commitment Care

Engage Families To understand Quality Matters

Big Idea #4 Transform the Workforce

Fast Facts $9,410 – average cost of childcare per year -(New America, 2016) Exceeds average in-state college tuition in 33 states -(New America, 2016) 23.9 million US children birth to age 5 – (U.S. Census & Childstats.gov, 2016)

Fast Facts 59% of Centers are funded independentl y – (ACF/OPRE, 2013) $22K – average annual salary of EC workforce – (Child Care Aware, 2016) ~2.4 million in EC workforce– (Bureau of Labor & Statistics, 2015)

What if Degrees are Not the Answer?

Competency-Based Models

Make this Happen Integrate your systems –trainers, college, agencies Identify the carrots – CEUS/Clock Hours Connect practitioner competency to compensation

“Play is the exultation of the possible.” ~ Martin Buber

Shared Services Thank You!