Workforce and Professional Development & Quality Incentives Subcommittee
Work Plan: Charge and Meeting Schedule with Key Questions
Charge: The Workforce Subcommittee is charged with developing professional standards and a delivery system that supports high quality initial preparation and ongoing professional development linked to quality learning standards and financial incentives for enhanced training.
Goal: The Workforce and Professional Development System will be coherent, customer-friendly, relevant, and seamless.
Timeframe: September 2009 – September 2010
Workplan Implementation Process:
The workplan with initial topics and key questions is a plan that will change over time as the work of the various Subcommittees progresses and informs the work of other Subcommittees and the Advisory Committee as a whole.
The topics and key questions will be analyzed and developed into issues with possible alternatives that will be discussed by the Subcommittee members. For each alternative, the following areas will be discussed: 1) pros and cons with data, research, and evidence-based projects to support the pros/cons of each alternative, 2) timeline for implementation, 3) current funding, redesign ideas, and new funding needed, and 4) likely results over time. The results will be reported by each Subcommittee to the Advisory Committee.
The Key Questions are based on input received from Workforce Subcommittee members. All input was considered during the process of developing the Workforce Subcommittee Workplan.
Meeting Schedule:
Meeting 1 (September 8, 2009):
Topic: Professional Standards to Guide Education and Training
What Early Care and Education positions should be included in our definition of the “workforce” for the purpose of establishing professional standards for quality? For example, should we include license-exempt providers? How will we connect professional standards for 0-8 so we include those working with infants-toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary?
- How do we define the workforce in a clear way?
- Licensed-exempt – Professional Standards?
For programs that receive state funding, should we recommend eliminating the “two-tiered” professional qualification standards for Title 22 and Title 5? If yes, should Title 5 set the minimum professional standards for all ECE programs (or at least all programs that receive government funding)?
- How are we including both Title 22 and Title 5 staff?
- Should the two-tiered Title 22 and Title 5 system be eliminated?
- Should Title 5 be the floor of professional standards for all ECE programs?
What are the measures we will use to define a “qualified” teacher? How can we assess whether staff meet these measures?
How will we use the upcoming Early Child Educator competencies in defining and measuring teacher qualifications? How does California’s professional development system need to be redesigned and realigned to reflect California’s professional competencies in pre-serve and continuing professional development?
- How do we define a qualified teacher?
- How do we assess being a qualified teacher?
- How do we include the Early Childhood Educator (ECE) competencies into this system?
- Do we want ECE professionals to have pre-service before working with children?
- How can we ensure the QRIS is a competency/standards-based system?
How can we design a well-integrated system that utilizes two integrated approaches to include program-based standards (QRIS), and individual standards through certification or licensure?
Meeting 2 (November 12, 2009):
Topic: Designing a Coherent, Customer-Friendly Professional Development System
What changes are needed in California’s current requirements and certification to reflect California’s professional competencies?
Can we design a system of ECE career pathways that will permit and support multiple points of entry into the field? Will the current permit matrix be incorporated into this system? Will there be a centralized registry and ECE workforce database for the state?
- How will this system support multiple points of entry into the field?
- How will California establish an ECE workforce career pathway system, including a registry that is housed in one central entity, Web-based, with a secure ECE workforce database?
- Will there be a redesign or elimination of the permit matrix?
- How do we align the Title 22 and Title 5 Permit Matrix?
How will license-exempt providers be integrated into career pathways and professional development programs associated with the QRIS?
- What pathways will be created for license-exempt providers to join the QRIS?
Probable Future Topics:
Topic: Designing a Coherent, Customer-Friendly Professional Development System
How can we coordinate and align professional development projects?
How will we design a system of professional development to accommodate workforce members who begin with different levels of prior education, speak different languages, etc.? For example, what types of supports will be provided (e.g. advising, cohorts, etc.)? Will mentoring be a part of the system?
- What alternative forms of education can we provide our workforce?
- What supports will be available to ensure a high quality ECE workforce (e.g. advising, cohorts)?
- What is the role of mentoring in the QRIS?
How can we ensure that the community college and CSU course alignment and articulation continues, with state-level support?
How can the California ECE system for articulation be ‘client-friendly,’ clear, and accessible to students?
How will all training be infused with strategies for supporting children from diverse cultures, English-language learners, and children with special needs?
Professional Development System Design issues:
- How will the QRIS bridge with the K-12 system when it does not extend from birth to eight?
- How will we ensure this system is a California professional development system?
- How can we learn more about projects that are working to be used as models?
- How is the Quality Rating System different from K-12?
- How will ECE adjunct faculty be supported and involved in the QRIS?
How will the articulation between the Design and Workforce Development Subcommittees take place?
Topic: Professional Standards to Guide Education and Training
What are the checks and balances in the QRIS?
How will we connect the 0-5 and K-3 professional standards?
Should there be a statewide advisory structure charged with integrating and coordinating ECE-related workforce development?
How can we ensure that a statewide advisory structure is neutral, representative of the ECE field, housed within an existing infrastructure, accessible, and has the authority and funding to effectively implement change?
How can we ensure that teachers receive the compensation due to them through the CAEL QIS?
Topic: Data
What are measurable outcomes for quality?
What other ECE workforce data is important to collect in addition to the number of individuals in the workforce, ECE programs, institutions of higher education, and other workforce education and training initiatives?
Questions related to data system design:
- Should ECE workforce data be one component of a broader ECE data system?
- How can we develop a data system that is standardized, accessible, and easy to use?
- How can we build a data system based on data we have currently?
- How can we integrate the QRIS data system with K-12 data collection?
Questions related to process for developing a data system:
- How can institutions across the ECE field come to agreement about data collection and sharing practices to ensure effective workforce development?
- How can the ECE workforce data planning process be created to answer questions such as, ‘why workforce data’ and ‘what data do we need?’
Topic: Financing
Goal: We will seek to provide incentives to support initial and ongoing professional training and improve compensation commensurate with professional qualifications.
Questions related to Workforce compensation:
- How can we assure accountability for teacher compensation?
- How can we ensure that improved compensation is a core component of the QRIS, inclusive of the entire ECE workforce?
Questions related to providing funding for professional development:
- How can we ensure that financing is used to assist with serving nontraditional students, expanding/revamping ECE-related programs and offerings, creating/adding full-time tenure-track positions, providing accessibility in terms of scheduling and location, and building on innovations for ongoing support, not just pilot programs?
- What is the funding source for incentives?
- How can financial support to individuals be coordinated across systems so that resources are shared equitably and not duplicated?
What is the mechanism for financing incentives and support to individuals pursuing education and increased compensation to ensure stability in the field and a long-term return on investments?
Topic: Professional Standards and Systems Synthesis
