Page 7 - Gateways for Early Educators

Gateways for Early Educators
not matter if a participant was enrolled in a few or many programs in terms of relations with program outcomes. Training hours did relate to knowledge of how to help children and families, use of quality practices in the program, ability to impact children’s early language and literacy development, ability to impact children’s social and behavioral development, and the ability to impact children’s social and behavioral development. While making the connections between coaching and training or developing trainings specifically tailored to participants’ quality improvement plans have not been a systematic part of the Gateways Program, participants have expressed that their coaches made this connection for them, which may explain the relation between training hours and knowledge and practice outcomes. Program intensity, or amount of coaching received related to all areas of knowledge and practice queried such that early childhood educators who received more coaching had greater change in all knowledge and practice area queried.
Coaching made an impact on participant knowledge and practice. A comparison of participants’ knowledge and practice before receiving coaching to their knowledge and practice after receiving coaching showed positive change. The areas of greatest change were in the knowledge of resources to help improve the quality of the program and in knowledge of resources to improve qualifications or professionalism.
Coaching participants’ successes and challenges in the Gateways Program were assessed employing a variety of methods including a year-end program survey and focus groups with coaching participants. The most frequently cited successes in the program included educational achievement with various early childhood educators describing going back to school, earning degrees or enrolling in college. Permit achievement was also frequently described as area of success. Participants were able to apply for a permit for the first time, apply for or receive a higher permit than the one they had already attained, or apply for a credential. Participants also made positive changes in their programs (both in the physical environment and in their practices) due to their participation in Gateways. Most frequently, participants reported that they had better interaction or communication with parents and children after participating in the program than before receiving coaching. Others described changes they made to their child care environments including establishing learning areas or other specific changes based on findings from their rating on the Family Child Care Environmental Rating Scale (FCCERS). The greatest challenge ECE professionals reported in meeting their goals was lack of time, which is a finding that has been corroborated year after year by Gateways coaches and participants. Participants indicated that other obligations such as work or school made it difficult to schedule coaching sessions or attend trainings. In fact, when participants who had already exited the program were asked, the most frequent reason for leaving the program other than having completed the goals they had established in the program was because school or work interfered. This finding is further validated by preliminary research findings from family child care providers in two federally funded
2016
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