Page 83 - Gateways for Early Educators

Gateways for Early Educators
quality improvement coaching should occur at the site of the program. This still leaves room for flexibility. The program currently provides site-based coaching 80% of the time or more for those who engage in quality improvement coaching. Definitions of when flexibility comes into play would also improve the definition of the program. For example, if a provider lives more than a specified number of miles from the agency, alternative methods of coaching could be employed (e.g., bi-monthly site visits with bi-monthly Skype visits). These and other program definitions would help funders understand the exact program model that is being implemented.
Research conducted by LAUP has shown an effective caseload to be 18 participants per Coach.liii Additionally, research on Home Visitation programs describes caseloads of 10-12 families in Head Start, liv 24 families in Parents as Teachers, and 25 families in the Nurse Family Partnership program.lv These high quality programs ensure low caseloads for home visitors in order to obtain the expected outcomes. A recent report by Child Trends states that “the intensive work to improve overall quality ratings requires limited caseloads.” (pg. 31).lvi Collaborations with LAUP resulted in a reduced caseload, resulting in the ability to increase program intensity and meet the Scope of Work target of an average of over one hour and one session per month, a positive change from when the program’s first year of implementation within the Consortium. It is recommended that future programming consider caseload and ensure it is low to allow for greater coaching intensity.
Many of these recommendations fall in line with an extensive review of early educator professional development projects that found successful programs had the following aspects in commonlvii:
1) An explicit approach or model. These programs clearly specified the exact aspects of quality and the child outcomes the coaching model was seeking to improve.
2) Clearly specified methods for selection and preparation of staff. Most coaches have at least a college degree, a great deal of experience working with early childhood educators, and receive training on the specified coaching model and outcomes that are expected.
3) Regular and ongoing supervision and mentoring of coaches through: 1) meetings where they can reflect on experiences and 2) review of activities logs or site visits/observations from supervisors.
4) A tight and clearly defined linkage between knowledge-focused professional development (coursework or training) and practice-focused professional development (coaching). A coordinated focus between these two components is often facilitated by having the same person providing both quality improvement activities.
5) Dosage of the program is appropriate for the goals in that those with greater number of areas of quality to be impacted would have longer duration and greater frequency of contacts.
A main limitation to this work is the reliance on self-reported and administrative data. Any statements that appear to assume causality should not be viewed as such. All of the analyses are correlational in nature. Multiple attempts have been made to access Environmental Rating
2016
73