Transcript Document 7594274

Guiding and Preparing
Staff in the Mississippi
Delta: Empowering One
Child At a Time
Kimberly Triplett, Ph.D.
Field Supervisor/Training Coordinator of
Mississippi Delta Initiatives
Early Childhood Institute
Mississippi State University
Mississippi Delta
Mississippi Delta
 Famous for
 Blues legend B. B. King
 Football great Archie Manning
 Civil rights leader and advocate Fannie Lou Hamer
 Extraordinary actor Morgan Freeman
 The Muppets creator Jim Henson
 Soul singer Sam Cooke
 Famous for
 One of the highest crime rates in the state
 Extensive drug and alcohol abuse issues
 Alarming, increasing rates of teenage pregnancy
 Poor economic development
 Devastation number of young children living in poverty and their families’
struggle to overcome everyday hardships
The Early Childhood Institute at
Mississippi State University promotes
high-quality care through a plethora of
programs. For over ten years, we have
been the forerunners of a relentless
fight for improving care and education
of children in rural and low-resource
areas in the state of Mississippi.
Mississippi Delta Initiatives
 Sisterhood program
 Maternal Infant Health
Outreach Worker
project (MIHOW)
 Delta Promise School
 Mississippi Delta Early
Learning Corps
The primary focus of the
Mississippi Delta Early Learning
Corps (MDELC) is to provide a
successful professional
development model based on
individual teacher’s needs,
straying from lectures and
workshops.
MDELC’s Purpose
 Provide guidance to teachers
of infants and toddlers
 Offer on-site education to
teachers
 Improve the quality of
educational services
 Raise the caliber of the
overall education of
participating teachers
MDELC’s Goals
 Improve the quality of early care and
education for infants and toddlers so
participating children will be more
likely to be successful when entering
public school
 To build capacity of non-traditional
infant and toddler providers that serve
low-income children
MDELC’s Objectives
 Recruiting participants
 Providing support and education
information
 Promoting employment in the
state’s technical assistance unit
Discoveries in brain development
has resulted in early childhood
professionals realizing the need
for children to be provided with
rich literacy, numeracy, and
social/emotional opportunities in
high-quality early care and
education sites in the early years.
Training Topics
 Professionalism
 Brain development
 Best practices and developmental milestones for infants and toddlers
 Diversity and culture of child care in the Mississippi Delta
 Right from Birth
 Infant Toddler Environmental Rating Scale-Revised
 Infant/toddler early learning guidelines
MDELC’s Implications
 Local level: More jobs for an underutilized
segment of the workforce in an economically
depression region of the state
 Local level: Quality of care and care in
education to support attempts of measurable
improvements in terms of teachers’
perceptions and implementation of quality
care and improved environmental and
children’s outcomes
MDELC’s Implications
 State level: Another career path for non-traditional
workers
 State level: Another technical assistant model being
utilized as a vital element in the professional
development of infant/toddler providers
 Federal level: Program worth replication to improve
education and training of infant/toddler providers
and to provide employment opportunities
Program Evaluation
 Distributing routine feedback forms
 Providing multiple, on-site evaluations of the trainees
during field experiences
 Completing the 12-month, 32 hours-a-week training
course
 Reviewing attendance records
 Being awarded the Child Development Associate (CDA)
credential
Project Growth and Assessment
 Another training program is currently being
funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
 Technicians’ (graduates of the training
program) project of working on-site and
modeling best practices to infant/toddler
providers is funded by the Mississippi
Department of Health.
Observation Checklist for Technical Assistant Trainees
The following criteria will be used to assess all TA observations:
(-) needs improvements (+) satisfactory (++) excellence
Observer: Kimberly Triplett
TA Trainee: TB
Date of Observation: February 16, 2010
Center/Classroom: LALL/Toddler
Score
Performance Measure
Comments
++
Trainee and teacher have established a
relationship that encourages various
opportunities for learning to occur.
It was quite evident that the
teacher wanted the Trainee to do
well; she was very supportive of
all of his efforts. The worked
extremely well together.
+
Trainee makes an effort to implement
correct sanitation practices (e.g. hand
washing, toileting, diapering, etc.).
Children’s runny noses were
consistently not cleaned; Trainee
used sanitizer instead of
washing his hands.
+
Trainee is actively engaged in daily
activities that take place within the
classroom (e.g. interacting with children,
sitting at children’s eye level, interacting
during learning centers, etc.).
The Trainee did an excellent job
of interacting and talking with
the children. Trainee did not sit
on the floor while the children
were playing.
+
Trainee assists teacher with daily
classroom duties (e.g. preparing for meals,
organization of classroom materials, daily
chores, etc.)
The Trainee does not have any
problems with assuming duties
in the classroom. He just needs
to be reminded that he is a
“living model” of best practices
for infant and toddler teachers.
ITERS-R Summary Report
Facility: TVCL
Address: Greenville, MS
County: Washington
Pre Test Date: 3.17.09
Post Test Date: 2.5.10
Pre Scores
Post Scores
Space and Furnishings
Score of 2.20
Space and Furnishings
Score of 3.00
Personal Care Routines
Score of 1.67
Personal Care Routines
Score of 2.67
Listening and Talking
Score of 1.67
Listening and Talking
Score of 3.00
Activities
Score of 1.70
Activities
Score of 2.70
Interaction
Score of 2.50
Interaction
Score of 3.50
Program Structure
Score of 1.00
Program Structure
Score of 3.67
Parents and Staff
Score NA
Parents and Staff
Score NA
Overall
Score of 1.81
Overall
Score of 2.97
There can be no keener
revelation of a society’s
soul than the way it
treats its children.
-Nelson Mandela
Former President of South Africa
Kimberly Triplett
Post Office Box 6013
46 Blackjack Road
Mississippi State, MS 39762
662.325.5116 (office)
662.325.5436 (fax)
[email protected]