Together We ARE Better:Higher Education-State Agency Partnerships ThatSupport Quality

Camille CatlettFPG Child Development InstituteUniversity of North CarolinaChapel Hill, NC

October 28, 2013

Collaboration

An unnatural act among consenting adults

Lily Tomlin

Collaboration

A commitment to work together across clearly recognizable sectors or subsystems to address a problem and achieve a goal that could not be accomplished by the organizations working individually

Mattesich, P. W., Murray-Close, M., & Monsey, B.R. (2004).Collaboration: What makes it work: A review of research on factors influencing successful collaboration. (2nd ed.). St Paul, MN: Amherst Wilder Foundation.

Together, We Really Are Better

Research underscores that “cooperative learning promotes higher individual achievement than do competitive approaches or individualistic ones.”

Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Smith, K. A. (1998). Cooperative learning returns to college: What evidence is there that it works?Change, 20(4), p26-35.

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Anecdotal Evidence

• Higher education faculty express frustration at not “knowing what is going on” and feeling out of the loop at the state level

• Early childhood program directors report that graduates are not familiar with key tools and structures that form the basic building blocks of quality

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Can you answer these questions about preservice preparation in your state? How do course offerings build knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to key QRIS structures,

frameworks, and tools? How do preservice experiences build the capacity of early childhood professionals to support

each young child and his or her family?

How do preservice field experiences expose students to programs participating in your QRIS?

Do you have a current list of all early childhood instructors, including adjunct instructors?

Do you regularly provide updates to higher education colleagues related to your QRIS?

Do you regularly invite higher education colleagues to participate in professional development offerings?

What Can It Look Like When It WorksSCRIPT (1996-2000)In February 1999, the Nebraska Department of Education (Office of Special Populations, Office of Children and Families) solicited applications to “create, restructure, and improve interdisciplinary course work and practica experiences in community colleges and universities and to support collaboration among all major stakeholders - - faculty, families, practitioners, and administrators - - in early intervention/early childhood preservice training”. Awards for seven SCRIPT grants were made on June 1, 1999. Projects are designed to stimulate interdisciplinary coursework and practica that are family-centered, community-based, and culturally and developmentally appropriate.

What Can It Look Like When It WorksNatural Allies (2001-2006)

• The Iowa Department of Education formed and supported a higher education consortium of early childhood and early childhood special education/early intervention faculty that met regularly to address issues of mutual interest.

• The Iowa Department of Education supported a series of professional development offerings to support faculty in incorporating an emphasis on inclusion and diversity in coursework and field experiences.

• The Iowa Department of Education provided grants to IHEs in support of projects that would increase the emphasis on inclusion, family-centered practice, and diversity.

What Can It Look Like When It WorksDelaware: Building Higher Education Professional Development Linkages for Early Childhood (2013-2014)

What’s happening now in South Carolina? What would you like to see happening? How could that happen?