Arkansas Early Childhood Association Summit

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Enhance the lives of children, families
and early childhood professionals.

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AECA Summit

The AECA Summit was held on Saturday, August 25, 2007 at the Cooperative Extension Service building located at 2301 South University Avenue in Little Rock.

The leadership event was lead by Phil Accord, Past-President of the Southern Early Childhood Association (SECA). The purpose of the AECA Summit was to bring together a variety of AECA members who have been actively involved in the association and to examine the following:

current organizational structure of the association

setting long term goals for the future of the association, and

identifying how we can best meet the needs of our membership and the early childhood professionals in the state of Arkansas

Thank you to all who participated in the Summit and the survey.

If you have any questions or concerns about this report, please feel free to contact Traci Johnston at 501-671-2364 or tjohnston@uaex.edu.

Below is a report on what was discussed during the AECA Summit.

Phil began his introduction by talking about the role that collaboration has served in the children’s program he directs. His themes focused on change in meeting the needs of children and families (what worked in the past might not work now) and the role collaboration plays in that adaptation.

Who is involved in early childhood education around Arkansas?

Any willing provider, for example:

Head Start
Schools
Community Child Care Centers
Faith-based Child Care Centers
Family Child Care Homes

The following was noted as well. State accreditation/quality approval funds 28,000 children in Pre-K programs which employ primarily licensed teachers. Early Care and Education funds about 130,000 slots (100,000 not including ABC).

There is also a projection of about 13,000 individuals involved in early care and education in the state. About 10% is a fairly typical number, both nationally and at state levels, for the number of individuals involved in a professional organization (Example: NAEYC has 100,000 members with a total work force of about 1.3 million.) The Arkansas Early Childhood Professional Development System (AECPDS) requires its members to be involved in one professional organization. (All ABC staff must be a member of the AECPDS.)

Professional organizations currently available to early childhood educators

AECA
Head Start Association
HIPPY Association
AEA
CEC
Providers organization
School Age Alliance
NAEYC
Family Child Care Association

Minimum Training Requirements

10 hours
CPR
Can be in house
Other expectations
- Quality approved programs – 15 hours
- ABC – 30 hours
- ABC licensed teachers – 60 hours

An opportunity with the Governor’s Task Force was also discussed. Legislation has been passed to begin funding out-of-school opportunities more heavily.

What are the training opportunities?

School age: Childhood Services provides regional professional development a conference, 21CCLC provides 3 day conference, some local providers do their own in North West Arkansas
School Age Alliance group
CEC/DEC
Parent Education Conference
Arkansas Conference on Teaching and Learning/AEA

The issue of the generation gap and societal changes were also discussed. Between the Baby Boomers and the Generation Y-ers there are about 6 different generations living at this time. What worked for baby boomers doesn’t necessarily work for the younger generations. There are new and different ways to communicate, interact, and learn (eg. MySpace). In order to be effective we have to reach outside our own generation and outside what is comfortable for us.

Who is providing training?

A comment was made that there is a need for a list of available professional development options be provided to program directors. Another comment was made that legislation should require providers to earn a set number of hours of professional development from Association trainings, conferences, meetings, etc.

Entities which provide early childhood education training

Resource and Referral
- Both are on-site for programs to use and providers to get their professional development hours. The services are free.
Educational Co-ops
Arkansas Baptist Convention – Wee Care Workshop
CCDF & ABC (Pre-K) is major source of training
CDA scholarships
12 contracts with groups
ASU, UA-F, UA-FS, Dawson Cooperative, Cooperative Extension

Another set of questions was brought before the group. – Who goes to training and why? How is that considered in terms of what is offered? And, how do we capitalize on it to create meaningful/desired training?

One solution suggested was to make the call for conference session proposals more specific for desired content/approaches for sessions.

What AECA needs to do to remain a viable association

Narrow down target group – more of a focus on who we serve
Track sessions at the conference at the Annual conference to see who is being served
Beginning to do a better job of using newsletter and web site to provide resources and could do better
Continue advocacy efforts
AECA provide leadership/facilitation in local networking
Providing applied learning opportunities
Professional development for higher level
Designated training entity for Dept of Ed
Focus on pulling in directors, exec directors of programs
ECE as economic infrastructure and how to support and leverage change
Advocacy institute yearly to train advocates to influence legislation
Support all child care programs by being a benefit broker for agencies/programs
Public marketing/awareness
Leadership development – emerging leaders services/support
Electronic communication – especially providing for providers - real time information
Working directly with families – providing information or services
Technology focus
Consider affiliation with NAEYC
Have all presidents of affiliates to do some communication and build leadership that way
Revisit purposes/services of local affiliates
Define our goals
Identify who we serve and who we want to serve
Find out why ECE professionals are not participating and what we need to get them involved
Find out why members are not participating and what needs to get them involved
Better support/development for board members and affiliate presidents in identifying and utilizing resources
Reevaluate structure of organization
Build Saturday program at the conference
Reconsider conference structure to Friday and whole day Saturday
Funding development efforts
Solidify the relationship between AECA and state agencies so that we are considered a partner
State wide service project (focused family and child)
Series of regional workshops to family child care – what we can do to make ourselves more visible to the corners of the state not just middle
Arkansas Children’s Week
Provider appreciation day
Professionalizing the association

One suggestion was made to focus on reaching program administrators. Find out what they want, what will pull them in. Because more than likely training or the Association won’t make a huge difference on experiences for children and families until it impacts program administrators.

There was also discussion on how to gain recognition for and enhance the field of early childhood education. One suggestion for achieving this goal was to professionalize the profession.

The question was also raised as to whether the Association should focus on valuing the individuals for who they are, rather than what they can contribute.

Specific Issues Identified from the Summit

The issues below were discussed then voted on. The number in parentheses next to each issue was the number of votes it received.

Identify who we serve and who we want to serve (23)
Communication (13)
Local Affiliates (20)
Conference/Professional Development (9)
Advocacy Efforts (8)
Structure of the Organization (25)
Relationships with others (agencies, organizations, families) (13)

Moving Forward

STEP ONE:

Identify who we serve and who we want to serve.
Use the conference evaluations to get feedback – i.e. create evaluations for tied to door prizes
Find a way to reach others – using licensing to access information to approach
Determine, as an organization, who we need to serve and who we want to serve
Recognize that surveys may not be useful – i.e. “I’ll only fill it out if it does something for me.”
Possibility: Invest some Association funds into asking a communication organization to do the survey
Make sure that members at large are provided the training and resources to make connections with programs and early childhood education professionals
Provide board training and specific expectations of roles (confidentiality statement, clear description of job expectations, etc.)

STEP TWO

Restructure the organization

STEP THREE

Establish new positions, roles, expectations, and Association leadership training opportunities depending on the results of Step Two.

STEP FOUR

Increase communication with other agencies, organizations, and families.
Increase relationships with other agencies, organizations, and families.

It was stated that all of the items discussed will need planning. Change and growth will not happen naturally, but will follow out of being visionary in how we approach these issues.

Responses to the 2007 AECA Summit Survey