University of Wisconsin - Extension

High-quality child care is good for Wisconsin¿s families and businesses. It¿s good for our state¿s future, as well.

It was that foresight that prompted the creation of the state¿s Early Childhood Excellence Initiative, a groundbreaking project that is increasing the quality of early care and education available to Wisconsin¿s low-income families. Today, more than 30 Early Childhood Centers for Excellence are participating in the $15-million project that was established in 1999.

Reaching out to child-care teachers

Co-directors of the Excellence Initiative, Dave Riley, Ph.D., and Mary Roach, Ph.D., together with a team of eight outreach specialists¿all early-care and education experts¿are transforming the field of child care through the work they do with child-care teachers in the Centers for Excellence.

Using a model developed by Riley, the outreach specialists have nurtured a sense of trust, respect and pride among child-care teachers, who are often underpaid and underappreciated. The outreach specialists regularly observe teacher-child interactions in more than 100 classrooms around the state.

¿The magic occurs when the outreach specialist takes the teacher to a quiet, cozy area to talk about the wonderful interactions that occurred during the observation, and how the teacher is positively influencing the children¿s development,¿ explains Roach. ¿Early- care and education teachers don¿t hear those things often enough.¿

Helping children and gaining respect

The result of the strengths-based theory is that child-care professionals are finally starting to feel respected for the important work they do, and also to understand more about how their specific practices affect child development.

¿The Early Childhood Excellence Initiative has restored dignity to the field of child care,¿ said one child-care provider at a recent gathering of the Centers for Excellence. ¿When caregivers feel valued, their work is affected. That, in turn, affects the children we care for¿and their families.¿

¿Promising Practices¿ enhance child care

Not only is the Early Childhood Excellence Initiative raising the quality of care in the individual Centers for Excellence, but the impact is being felt throughout the state. ¿Promising Practices,¿ vignettes that explain a teacher¿s actions and the corresponding developmental task, are being developed from the outreach specialists¿ observations. The ¿Promising Practices¿ are being documented and shared with the 10,000 other regulated child-care programs in the state through a quarterly professional newsletter distributed by the Wisconsin Child Care Information Center.

For more information: http://www.uwex.edu/ces/flp/ece/index.html">www.uwex.edu/ces/flp/ece/

State Sen. Dave Hansen, Green Bay, recently joined children at the Encompass Child Care ¿ Rosebush Center in playing with rubber stamps. Encompass is one of more than 30 Wisconsin Centers for Excellence that are benefiting from technical support from UW-Extension.