Strengthening Child Care Training Curriculum and Credentialing

Download or read book Strengthening Child Care Training Curriculum and Credentialing written by Suzanne West and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Child Care Apprenticeship Program of Pinellas (CCAP) was created by an advisory committee made up of local childcare facility directors, in 1989, in response to the need for better training in the community. CCAP is a two-year program that emphasizes 4000 hours of on-the-job-training and 288 hours of classroom instruction credentialing working preschool teachers. The program is designed for apprentices to complete only 2000 on-the-job training hours and 144 hours of classroom instruction when they pass an assessment during the orientation of the program. Upon completion of the program, apprentices receive the Florida Staff Credential for children ages birth to five years old and are eligible to teach voluntary prekindergarten (VPK) classes as part of the kindergarten readiness initiative through the Office of Early Learning (2019). This program is held online and face-to-face at two campuses in Pinellas County located in Clearwater and St. Petersburg, Florida. Overall, there are about 100 apprentices enrolled in the program between the two campuses. Currently, CCAP is in the implementation stage of providing a higher level and highly sought out credential, the National Child Development Associate (CDA). The program is also in review of the curriculum to update the framework standards by the Summer of 2022, as required by the Florida Department of Education Registered Apprenticeship office. The purpose of this case study is to strengthen child care training and credentialing needs in Pinellas County through a case study of the Child Care Apprenticeship Program (CCAP) at Pinellas Technical College. CCAP has not updated its framework standards since 2007. In the fall of 2020, after an audit of the program by a representative from the Florida Department of Education Registered Apprenticeship Office, the coordinators were asked to formally update the program framework. Enhancing the CCAP curriculum will strengthen the early childhood education workforce in Pinellas County when the program is able to provide high-quality training for the enrolled apprentices by updating the program standards. This evaluative case study explores the following two research questions: 1. What are the perceptions of the current CCAP curriculum? 2. What are the perceptions regarding the National CDA versus the Florida Staff Credential? Semi-structured interviews were conducted on eleven participants to include all six of the CCAP staff members, as well as five of the six advisory committee members. These interviews gathered their perceptions of the program curriculum and credentials. Transcripts and program documents were analyzed through two cycles using NVivo software and an inductive approach to create themes to identify recommendations for program improvement based on the perceptions of the participants in the study. There were two dominant themes interpreted from the analysis of initial codes and phrases that were determined through a word frequency count. However, these themes translated into differing meanings within the perceptions of the participants. As such, four sub-themes were developed to further clarify the data. The analysis from the data found that there is a perception that the child care industry is constantly evolving, and therefore an opportunity exists to review the current curriculum and make appropriate changes. Specifically, the data showed that the participants felt there were opportunities to fill the gaps in the curriculum related to three of the five current course components to include classroom management, leadership, and guidance. Additionally, an analysis of the data also revealed that there are opportunities outside of changes to the curriculum standards that can better support the apprentices, such as delivery method and preparation into the program. In conclusion, there are very few studies on apprenticeship models in the early childhood education field. The opportunity for free high quality professional development and credentialing for the field is a positive attribute for Pinellas County. Thus, the need for ensuring that CCAP has a strong and robust curriculum, that meets the needs of the local community child care workforce in Pinellas County, is crucial for maintaining the integrity of the program and attracting more apprentices in the field. This case study provides an opportunity for CCAP to potentially strengthen the current early education workforce in Pinellas County and in-turn provide additional high-quality preschool options for the local community by updating its curriculum framework to best serve the industry needs. As such, further research, to include the perceptions of the past and current apprentices, would be beneficial to better determine which types of supports would be best suited the program needs, as well as specific content updates to the curriculum.