Early Learning Insights
Newsletter of the Illinois Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development
In This Issue
About OECD
Alignment. Quality. Access.

OECD leads the state's initiatives to create an integrated system of quality, early learning and development programs to help give all Illinois children a strong educational foundation before they begin kindergarten. Learn more.
 
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Resources
Supporting Immigrant, Refugee, Undocumented, or Mixed Status Families
CDC Child Obesity Fact Sheet 
Infant Immunizations
OECD Initiatives

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February 28, 2018
Dear Early Childhood Community,
 
I am happy to report that Congress reauthorized the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program for five years. We are looking forward to continuing to provide MIECHV-funded services to families across the state.  Congress has also agreed to a significant funding increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) of $2.9 billion for FY 2018 and 2019 which will expand access to high-quality child care for low-income families.  The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has been extended for an additional four years, ensuring that CHIP is funded through FY2027.  Each of these federal programs is vital to the health and development of our youngest children and their families.
 
In this edition you have access to the Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) Validation Study which looks at Illinois' ExceleRate system, and the report on "College Enrollment and Completion Patterns of Gateways Credential Holders" conducted by the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the Illinois Community College Board, the Illinois Network of Resource and Referral  Agencies, and the Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development.  There is also a link to my blog published by the BUILD Initiative, about the impact of the Race-to-the-Top Early Learning Challenge.  We hope that you find this issue of our newsletter most informative. 

Best Regards,

Cynthia L. Tate, Ph.D.
Executive Director, OECD
Top Stories
ExceleRate Validation Study

The Illinois Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) Validation Study has been completed. The report examines validity of the QRIS System, ExceleRate Illinois, in multiple ways. The fundamental question is whether the system distinguishes levels of quality overall and across the four domains (Teaching and Learning, Family and Community Engagement, Leadership and Management, and Qualifications & Continuing Education). In short, the answer is yes.  Now that we have validation that the system measures quality effectively, we can move forward to develop a continuous improvement framework for the system and to make program improvement a top priority. 

Over the coming year, the Governor's  Office of Early Childhood Development will work with its partner state agencies - DHS, ISBE and DCFS - and the Early Learning Council to achieve these goals and make further refinements. We especially thank the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and the American Institutes for Research for their outstanding work evaluating a complex system in its early stage of implementation, and we thank the programs and individuals who participated in the study. 

The full report can be found  HERE.
Kids Win Big Thanks to the RTT-ELC

We have a vision for every child in Illinois to begin kindergarten healthy, safe, eager to learn and ready to succeed. That  starts with making sure children and families, especially those with the most complex needs, have access to high-quality early learning programs.   With the  help of time-limited funding from the Race to the Top- Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC).

Dr. Cynthia Tate writes, "i n Illinois, we focused our collective impact at the state level by supporting program-level  quality improvement, workforce  credentialing and professional development, and overall  data system capacity building.  We understood that we could not elevate the quality of early care and education without a strong infrastructure." State leadership teams focused and used this opportunity to:
  • Establish QRIS, ExceleRate.
  • Strengthen approaches to supporting the teachers who matter so much to our children through Gateways to Opportunity credentialing system.
  • Develop new community collaborations and systems.
  • Get started with an approach to kindergarten readiness assessment
Illinois was able to build its legacy as a leader in early learning and lay a foundation that will allow our vision for children to flourish. Dr. Tate's full blog post about the RTT-ELC can be found on the Build Initiative's website.
Illinois Board of Higher Education Report on Gateways Credential Holders Published

A new report, The College Enrollment and Completion Patterns of Gateways Credential Holders , provides a description of the early childhood workforce who have been trained through the Illinois Gateways to Opportunity credentials program. Specifically, data on Gateways Credential holders' demographics of age, race, and gender, as well as attributes of their enrollment, persistence, and degree completions at Illinois community colleges and bachelor's degree granting institutions, both public and private, are provided.
 
In partnership with the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB), Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (INCCRRA), and the Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development, the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) conducted this descriptive study focusing on the Gateways Credential holders (N=10,420) with one or more of the following credentials:  Early Childhood Credential (ECE), the Infant/Toddler Credential (ITC), and the Illinois Director Credential (IDC). This work aligns with and was supported by Illinois' Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge grant.
 
Findings from the study will help to expand the field's understanding of current education and professional development pathways for early childhood educators, which will help target efforts to increase the number of educators who receive Gateways Credentials from postsecondary institutions. The complete study, including extensive data on community college and baccalaureate programs serving Gateways Credential holders can be found here.
February is National Children's Dental Health Month

February is a busy month for dental professionals across the country, as they educate children of all ages on good oral health for National Children's Dental Health Month. Dental professionals play an important role in educating and encouraging prevention of tooth decay. The American Dental Association (ADA) sponsors National Children's Dental Health Month to encourage dental professionals to reach out to children in their local community and promote healthy oral habits in a fun-filled and low-stress environment.
Parents are also encouraged to take an active role in their child's oral hygiene routine. Although most children will brush their teeth on their own, parents still need to check behind them to make sure they are doing an effective job, and brush for them if necessary. Some key tips that all parents should keep in mind are:
  • Gently clean your baby's gums with a damp washcloth or soft gauze pad  
  • When a child's first tooth appears, parents should brush their child's teeth for two minutes twice a day. Use a child-sized, soft-bristled toothbrush with a cushioned head, and a pea-sized dab of non-fluoridated toothpaste.
  • Schedule regular dental checkups, beginning no later than six months after their first baby tooth appears
  • Supervise your child's brushing until good habits are established (ADA suggests until 7 years of age).
  • Spend two minutes brushing teeth, focusing on the teeth that conduct most of the chewing, and back teeth, where cavities often first develop.
  • Brush your teeth with your child to set a good example. This will help your child learn by watching and imitating you.
Click here for more information and resources.
 
The present study aims to investigate several relevant psychological factors, including both mother characteristics (i.e., basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration, depressogenic personality) and child characteristics (i.e., infant temperament) in relation to daily variation in maternal well-being. Mothers (N = 126) participated in a 5-day diary study shortly after childbirth, when the child went to day care for the first time. The latter specific episode was chosen as this period is potentially stressful (due to parent-child separation and challenges in work-family life balance) and within-person variation is expected to be high in such episodes. At the within-person level, day-to-day variation in psychological need satisfaction and frustration related to day-to-day variability in maternal well-being. At the between-person level, maternal self-criticism related negatively to well-being, while perceived infant temperament yielded few direct associations. Instead, the child's temperament played a moderating role in the association between basic psychological needs and maternal well-being. The findings of this study underscore the importance of a dynamic view on maternal well-being, with basic psychological needs, maternal personality and infant temperament contributing to well-being in a complex fashion.

Click here to read the full study. 
Early Learning Council Meeting Calendar

The committees and subcommittees of the Early Learning Council meet several times a year to work towards each of their goals and priorities. You can find a calendar of all Early Learning Council meetings on the OECD website on the ELC Meeting Calendar, which lists the date, time, location, and links to any meeting materials. Some upcoming meetings are:

February 28, 2018 10:00am-12:00pm

March 14, 2018 11:00am-1:00pm

March 15, 2018 10:00am-12:00pm

March 16, 2018 9:30am-11:00am
Policy Corner
MIECHV Reauthorized for Five Years

On February 9, 2018 congress passed a bipartisan budget bill, which includes an agreement to increase domestic spending caps and contains substantial victories for America's young children from birth through age five. Notably, the  Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV)  program, which expired in September of 2017, was reauthorized for five years, alongside other  health extenders. This critical pro gram provides funds to states and l ocal grantees for developing and implementing voluntary, evidence-based home visiting programs to support at-risk families.  This legislation extends CHIP for an additional four years, ensuring that CHIP is funded through FY2027, providing even more certainty for the families and states that depend on CHIP. 

Th is budget  bill also included $5.8 billion in funding over two years for the  Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG)  program. This would effectively double the program's discretionary funding and enable important improvements to child care  quality standards, which were initially approved by a bipartisan majority of Congr ess in 2014 . These block grants are administered by the Office of Child Care and the Department of Health and Human Services.



For a summary of the legislation, click 
HERE.

For the full text of the bill, click HERE.
Partner Spotlight
3 Children's Books that Build an Understanding of Equivalency

Long before young children are writing equations with the equal sign, they are exploring how amounts that look different can be equivalent. Ideas about equivalence develop through every day, concrete experiences that require children to find something that is the same as something else.

An article from Erikson Institute's Early Math Collaborative suggests the following books offer engaging visual representations of equivalence:
 
  1. Balancing Act by Ellen Stoll Walsh. Two mice, one on each side, balance just fine on the seesaw they are playing on. But when you begin to add more colorful animals to each side, you get different results.
  2. Twelve Ways to Get to Eleven by Eve Merriam This book introduces a perplexing problem: Where did 11 go? The story leads you to find 11 on each turn of the page, but in many different ways. 
  3. One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab by April Pulley Sayre This silly counting book tallies up the number of feet of various animals. It begins with a snail, which only has one "foot," and then goes on to a human with two feet, a dog with four feet, and so on, up to a crab with ten feet. 
Available Resources
Early Childhood Education Summit
 
Important conversations are happening around the early childhood education workforce in Chicago. From how to attract, educate and energize the teachers of tomorrow to the professionalization of the existing workforce, building community partnerships will be crucial to ensure the innovative practices necessary to achieve these goals.
 
City Colleges of Chicago has scheduled an Early Childhood Education Summit at Harry S Truman College on Friday, March 2, 2018, where we will partner with colleagues from across the city to consider and advance these issues.
 
Drawing upon the expertise of City Colleges' own Early Childhood programs, as well as that of community partners, leadership, and the City of Chicago's Office of Early Learning, our discussions will explore the opportunities to reach new standards of professionalism - growing the pipeline of those entering the field and further developing educators at work.
 
We look forward to seeing you on March 2. In the meantime, we invite you to inform interested potential students about City Colleges of Chicago's Early Childhood Programs. For more information, please contact Meredith Gallo-Murphy at mgallo-murphy@ccc.edu or 773-907-4650.

Friday, March 2, 2018 
12:30 PM to 4:30 PM (CST)
Harry S Truman College
1145 West Wilson Avenue  Chicago, IL 60640
RSVP  HERE
Illinois Action for Children's Annual Public Policy Conference  

Join  Illinois Action for Children's Public Policy and Advocacy team for the annual  Spring Into Action Conference  on   April 9-10, 2018 This year's keynote speaker is Julie Vogtman ,  Director of Job Quality and Senior Counsel with the National Women's Law Center. Attendees will have an opportunity to participate in timely policy-oriented workshops, networking, and visits to the state capitol.

April 9, 2018-April 10, 2018
State House Inn 
101 E Adams St Springfield, IL 62701
Register HERE
National Board Resource Center Professional Development Opportunity 

The National Board Resource Center (NBRC) is seeking administrators interested in a research-based ongoing professional development opportunity. There are currently 40 National Board Professional Development Schools in Illinois led by administrator leaders. The NBRC is expanding this program to include an additional 25 schools/districts to take part in this opportunity during the 2018-19 school year. This program is school based and includes several research-based instructional strategies that focus on implementing effective teaching approaches that nurture critical thinking. Application deadline is March 26, 2018. Call Debra Kasperski at (309) 438-1833 for more information or to set up an appointment.

Illinois Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development | earlychildhood.illinois.gov
160 N. LaSalle St. Suite N-100
Chicago, IL 60601
312-814-6379