Posted: May 10, 2017 | Author: Debbie Ellis | Filed under: Administration for Children and Families, Child Care Mississippi, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Early Learning Guidelines (ELG), HHS ACF Office of Child Care, Mississippi State Board of Education, MS Department of Education, Ole Miss, School Readiness Mississippi, Uncategorized |
Dr. Wright, Dept. of Ed Offers Early 
Childhood Education “Summer Camp” for Biggest Kids (Adults) – 12 Hours!
All child care providers and caregivers are invited to participate in MDE staff development opportunities as her guests! FREE!
Early Childhood Education Training Program
The deadline to register is June 6, 2017.
The Mississippi Department of Education, in partnership with the North Mississippi Education Consortium and the University of Mississippi Graduate Center for the Study of Early Learning, will offer a free two-week summer training opportunity for pre-k teachers, assistant teachers, and administrators. This training opportunity will be offered through distance learning at sites across the state. The training will feature hands-on activities that will be supported by an engaging facilitator. The facilitator will assist the trainers in delivery of the content and will answer participant questions.
June 19th – 23rd and June 25th – 29th (10 days total)
Various sites across the state: Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Meridian, Jackson, Oxford, and Greenville
Attendance is not necessary for assistant teachers who have:
- Completed any of the approved specialized trainings
- Child Development Associate,
- Director’s Credential,
- Montessori Credential, or the
- MDE’s intensive specialized early childhood training program.
- An associate’s degree in early childhood
- A bachelor’s degree in early childhood
For more information, please contact Dr. Jill Dent at 601.359.2586 or jdent@mdek12.org.
(Click here.)
Posted: April 5, 2017 | Author: Debbie Ellis | Filed under: Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, Child Care Mississippi, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Head Start, HHS ACF Office of Child Care, Mississippi State Board of Education, MS Department of Education, MS Department of Human Services, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Uncategorized | Tags: Administration for Children and Families, child care Mississippi, DECCD-MDHS, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Early Learning Guidelines (ELG), Mississippi CCDF State Plan, Mississippi School Readiness, Quality Rating System; DECCD-MDHS; CCDF Quality Improvement, SECAC Mississippi |
2017 Mississippi Early Childhood Conference
Registration is now open for the 2017 Mississippi Early Childhood Conference. This conference is brought to you through a partnership between the Mississippi Department of Education, the Mississippi Head Start Association, the Head Start Collaboration Office, and the Mississippi Department of Human Services. The conference is designed to provide pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teachers, assistant teachers, and program administrators with valuable information to support teaching and learning. Attendance at this conference will provide administrators, teachers, and assistants with the required contact hours for the 2017-2018 school year. Please register early to receive discounted registration rates. Please note that early bird registration ends April 24.
The conference includes a pre-conference day for pre-k and kindergarten teachers and assistants on July 24, as well as a full conference on July 25-27, 2017, both of which are described below. The event is being held at the Imperial Palace in Biloxi, MS.
Pre-Conference Day
The pre-conference day offers:
- A full-day session offering 6 contact hours and 0.6 CEUs.
- A model classroom learning environment.
- Six different learning areas set up to provide teachers with experience in teaching and learning in each.
- A make-and-take station at each of the six learning areas so teachers can create materials to support teaching and learning.
- An in-depth study of integrated learning centers and classroom design.
- Guidance from experienced teachers and presenters.
- Support for differentiated instruction.
- Bonus for kindergarten teachers/assistants: This day connects with the Kindergarten track throughout the conference. Kindergarten teachers and assistants attending this session and the breakouts throughout the conference will leave with a complete teacher-designed thematic unit for the start of the next school year that is supported by the teaching materials created at this session.
Space in the pre-conference day is limited, so register early. For more details about the pre-conference day, please visit the Office of Early Childhood webpage.
Full Conference
The full conference offers:
- Up to 17 contact hours, 1.7 CEUs, and SEMIs.
- Updates from MDE on topics including the Comprehensive Early Learning Assessment (CELA) and CLASS for administrators and teachers.
- Tracks for Pre-K and Kindergarten to support the diverse needs of classrooms.
- Both early learning experts and peer-to-peer sessions.
- A variety of sessions providing information designed to support schools in meeting learning standards.
To register for this conference visit the Office of Early Childhood webpage or the conference webpage at the Mississippi Head Start Association.
Please email Laura Dickson at LDickson@mdek12.org with any questions.
Posted: November 19, 2015 | Author: Debbie Ellis | Filed under: Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, Business Ethics, CCPP-approved Provider, Child Care Advisory Council, Child Care Development Fund, Child Care Mississippi, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, General, Hechinger Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi Board of Health, Mississippi Building Blocks, Mississippi First, Mississippi Health Department, Mississippi Legislature, Mississippi State Board of Education, MS Department of Education, MS Department of Health, MS Department of Human Services, Office of the Attorney General, QRS Mississippi, Quality Rating System, School Readiness, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi, Suel v MDHS, Uncategorized, Xerox | Tags: Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, CCPP-approved Provider, child care licensing Mississippi, child care quality rating systems Mississippi, DECCD, DECCD-MDHS, e-Childcare™, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, equal access, Kellogg Foundation, Market Survey Rates, MDHS, Mississippi CCDF State Plan, Mississippi Child Care Quality Steps, Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral, Mississippi First, Mississippi Health Department, Mississippi State Early Childhood Institute, proposed amendments to the regulations governing child care, Quality Rating System, Quality Rating System; DECCD-MDHS; CCDF Quality Improvement, SECAC Mississippi, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation, Xerox |
US Commission on Civil Rights Meets Today: Is Mississippi’s *QRIS effectively a Tool to Exclude a Disproportionate Number of a Protected Group from Top Tier Quality Bonuses and Pre-School Participation?
Open Meeting Thursday 2 PM Central
Call 888-505-4369 Give ID #4796911
Public Comment Period at the End
Disparate impact is a way to prove racial discrimination based on the effect of a policy or practice rather than the intent behind it.
For example, requiring all applicants for promotion (**or a reasonable increase from a percentage of 2007 market rates only through top tier quality bonus payments) to receive a certain score on a standardized test (or QRIS Evaluation) could adversely affect candidates of color.
Objective criteria, such as tests, evaluations, degree requirements, and physical requirements may be challenged under a disparate impact theory.
These cases rely heavily on statistics, published statements, data, and number crunching, which require assistance from experts and attorneys.
As an example, providers offer these statements to demonstrate potential intent to screen out and exclude a disproportionate number of people and minority owned small businesses through Mississippi’s Quality Stars:
“The QCCSS is an important step in identifying subpar centers, though the rating system does not directly measure child learning.”
Mississippi First- Leaving Last in Line
Rachel Canter, Executive Director
“STAND YOUR GROUND LEGISLATORS, DON’T GIVE IN TO THOSE WHO WILL WHINE AND MOAN ABOUT HOW HARD THIS WILL BE ON SOME CENTERS. THEY NEED TO BE CLOSED AND REPLACED WITH ‘QUALITY’ OPERATIONS, NOT JUST SITES THAT MAKE A PROFIT FOR THE OWNER.”
Gulflive.com
education1st
Over a period of several months, the Mississippi Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has heard testimony and received information upon which it has based the final draft of an Advisory Memorandum of Recommendations to Congress which address potential racial discrimination in the administration of the Child Care Development Fund in Mississippi. (Click here.)
In addition to requested redress of Mississippi’s QRIS, the Committee’s findings state, “a number of African-American child care facility owners continue to view at least some of the state’s administration of CCDF as intentionally discriminatory on the basis of race. In the example of the ***electronic finger scanning initiative, the state maintains the program purpose was to address fraud. Some providers however, saw it is as an unnecessary barrier intended to withdraw support from communities deemed unworthy.”
“Furthermore, shortly after the program’s cancellation, the MDHS announced that all TANF workplace participants, who had previously been working in child care facilities across the state, would be removed and placed at ****alternative work sites because child care providers were not hiring them when they had completed six months of workplace job training. Many child care providers however, saw the move as direct retaliation for their resistance to the finger scanning initiative.”
The Committee will meet today to agree upon its final draft Advisory Memorandum, Thursday, November 19th at 2pm Central time. All Committee meetings are open to the public. If you wish to address the Committee directly you may join the call by dialing 888-505-4369 and providing the conference ID 4796911. A public comment period will be observed at the end of the meeting.
Melissa Wojnaroski, Civil Rights Analyst with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Midwest Regional Office in Chicago, has announced it is possible that the U.S. Office of Civil Rights Enforcement will conduct further, more extensive investigations of potential Civil Rights violations following the submission of the Mississippi Committee’s work.
* ” Child-Care Rating Systems Earn Few Stars in Study” – Ed Week (click here); “QRIS Rating Systems Do Not Improve Learning or Social Development for Children” – Rand study (click here).
**According to the MLICCI, base reimbursement rates for providers through the CCDF program are already low— approximately 60 percent below Mississippi’s market rate. As such, many providers who depend on these funds cannot afford to make the necessary improvements to achieve higher rating.
*** The Xerox e-Childcare finger scan method of payment was proposed by Jill Dent who served at that time as the DECCD Director at MSDH. Regardless of her highly contested proposal/policies/ideology being defeated in State Court, Jill Dent was appointed and now serves as Director of the Department of Education’s Pre-K Collaborative which requires QRIS participation among child care providers and costly maintenance of mid to upper tier quality scores.
**** Newly developed alternative TANF work sites (post State Court) include new placements in Head Start Programs (also licensed for child care) even though it is most likely that participating Head Start Programs CANNOT hire the TANF workplace participants as teacher-aides unless or until the TANF workplace participants complete 12 units of college coursework or CDA classes to meet Head Start employment requirements. Adversely impacted child care providers (including those who formerly hired TANF workplace participants) note Head Start is not funded by the Child Care Development Fund and therefore, Head Start programs are now favored by MSDH because they were not involved in public opposition to the proposed Xerox e-Childcare finger scan method of payment.
Posted: March 25, 2015 | Author: Debbie Ellis | Filed under: Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, Business Ethics, Child Care Development Fund, Child Care Mississippi, DECCD-MDHS, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Head Start, Hechinger Foundation, Mississippi First, Mississippi Legislature, Mississippi State Board of Education, MS Department of Education, School Readiness Mississippi, SECAC Mississippi, Uncategorized | Tags: Administration for Children and Families, Allies for Quality Care, child care Mississippi, DECCD-MDHS, Early Childhood Education Mississippi, Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi child care, Mississippi early childhood education, Mississippi State Board of Education, Mississippi State Early Childhood Institute, SECAC Mississippi, The Mississippi Center for Education Innovation |
Update:
There was no increased funding for the Early Learning Pre-K Collaborative.
This provides opportunity to address flaws in the process of collaboration as well as the economic impact (to child care) of braided Head Start/Child Care Development Fund money used to finance a single child enrolled in Early Head Start Programs which are moving into full day/full year operations.
Remember to thank legislators for this needed period of Program redress.
Pleas Continue for Increased Phase I Funding of “Flawed” Pre-K Collaborative Plan!
Monday, March 23, 2015, Bobby Harrison of the Daily Journal Jackson Bureau reported that in the budget bill for education that legislators sent to Gov. Phil Bryant last week, funding for the collaborative is not increased, remaining at $3 million.
He stated, however, various sources have said recently that additional funds for the pre-K collaborative could be placed in other budgets during the final days of the 2015 session.
“The budget is not done by any means,” said House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton. “The budget decisions are ongoing.” (Read “Plans to raise pre-K funding stalled.”)
On December 17, 2014 10:19 AM, the Hechinger Report (Columbia University) published the following: “Why Did Mississippi Lose out on Preschool Funding — Again?” (To read in full, click on this link.)
“Mississippi’s flawed application and underdeveloped plans to provide preschool for all children is partly to blame for why the state’s youngest learners were bypassed once again for federal funds that could have provided a boost to early education, a review found.
Last week, Mississippi was passed over for a preschool grant that would have tripled the number of children enrolled in early education classes in four years, increased the number of highly qualified preschool teachers and boosted salaries, according to the state’s application.
The state scored seventh out of nine applicants for a specific preschool development grant, and is one of the only states in the South to lose out.
Officials who reviewed Mississippi’s application noted many deficiencies, including vague statements and an overall lack of evidence and details. “If Mississippi wants federal funds for preschool, it must first develop the “necessary infrastructure and capacity for scaling up a sustainable preK program.”
Danny Spreitler, a member of the state’s Board of Education and executive director of a foundation focused on early childhood, said that before the state applies for more grants, it needs to improve collaboration between state agencies and preschool programs.
“I honestly don’t think this is the time for us to be out here trying to figure out money, until we get our ducks in a row,” he said. We need to take this next year, 2015, and rather than look at massive expansion, we’ve got to get more reliable data on the programs that are working and sit down … look at what’s working,” and then “figure out how to take it statewide.”
During the development of Mississippi’s “flawed application”, Mr. Spreitler said he feared the plan was written to squeeze out private child care centers in favor of Head Start and school districts. (Click here.)
The 2012 Harvard Law School Legislative Recommendations for Expanding Early Childhood Education in Mississippi affirmed Mississippi voters support a pre-k program so long as it sets high standards, includes private providers and preserves local control.
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