November 27, 2023
by earlyedinstitute
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This piece explores how Massachusetts early care and education providers are faring amid a nationwide child care crisis.
“This is happening across the country, and Massachusetts is struggling to retain early educators in the workforce,” said Anne Douglass, founding executive director for the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation at the UMass Boston. “A significant segment of the industry is unable to find enough educators to operate at full capacity.”
Continue Reading →November 20, 2023
by earlyedinstitute
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The Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation (the Early Ed Leadership Institute) at UMass Boston is pleased to announce the selection of five Early Education Leadership Fellows for the 2023-2025 cohort of its Post-Master’s Certificate Program in Early Education Research, Policy, and Practice (PMC).
The Early Education Leadership Fellows represent a variety of public, private, and community-based programs. The 2023-2025 cohort will spend the next two years immersed in intensive training in relational and entrepreneurial leadership, early childhood policy, and the science of early learning. They will also connect with and join the Early Ed Leadership Institute’s growing network of emerging and established early childhood education leaders.
Continue Reading →October 18, 2023
by earlyedinstitute
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With its Early Childhood Fellowship, the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation at UMass Boston is creating a powerful pipeline of trained educators to grow the early childhood education workforce in the city of Boston.
Continue Reading →October 11, 2023
by earlyedinstitute
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A multidisciplinary team from UMass Boston has developed a simulator to produce estimates of key impacts of proposed legislation in Massachusetts to expand access to affordable, quality child care and early education. Led by the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation and the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, the UMass Boston Early Ed Cost and Usage Simulator Project (CUSP) analyzes changes in the utilization of licensed care and education, out-of-pocket costs for families, parental employment, and family income when eligible families pay considerably less for quality child care and early education, under the provisions of Senate Bill 301 (S. 301), which would expand access to affordable child care and early education.
Top-level findings from the initial research brief released today include:
Continue Reading →October 2, 2023
by earlyedinstitute
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WHAT: Research Brief Release and Presentation: Estimating the Impacts of Legislation to Expand Affordable Quality Child Care and Early Education in Massachusetts: Initial Findings on Utilization, Employment, and Financial Assistance
WHO: UMass Boston Early Education CUSP (Cost and Usage Simulator Project) Team
WHEN: Wednesday, October 11, 2023 – 11am
WHERE: State House, Room 222
BACKGROUND:
A multidisciplinary team from UMass Boston has developed a simulator to produce estimates of the key impacts of proposed legislation in Massachusetts to expand access to affordable, quality child care and early education. The team will launch a series of research briefs to inform consideration of proposed legislation. The first research brief highlights increases expected in the use of licensed child care and early education as well as parental employment. It also covers expected reduction in the cost burden of child care for families and decreased poverty rates. UMass Boston Early Education CUSP (Cost and Usage Simulator Project) is led by the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation in collaboration with the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy.
About the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation at UMass Boston
The Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation at the University of Massachusetts Boston (The Leadership Institute) provides the leadership development opportunities and infrastructure that early educators need to support thriving children and families. Founded in 2016, we drive systems change by cultivating effective leaders who reflect and represent their communities—through workforce and leadership development, research, and partnerships that strengthen the larger early education ecosystem. We are nationally recognized as a model of excellence, and we make high-quality early care and education a reality for more children and families while supporting the professional growth of a diverse workforce of early educators. Get involved or learn more by visiting www.umb.edu/earlyedinstitute.
About the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy
The Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy (CWPPP), based at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston aims to promote diverse women’s leadership to achieve more just, equitable, and responsive public and institutional policies and meaningful inclusion. It does this through its Gender, Leadership, and Public Policy (GLPP) graduate certificate and MPA-GLPP track programs; applied research on electoral representation and intersectional public policy analysis, relating to the economic, health and social well-being of women and families; and public convenings that mobilize community and women’s political participation. In all its work, CWPPP’s approach is antiracist as we seek to tackle critical issues affecting women’s lives through an intersectional lens of gender, race/ethnicity, class, and other identities.
September 28, 2023
by earlyedinstitute
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Congratulations to Bri Vines, the first graduate of the Early Childhood Fellowship program at UMass Boston! The Early Childhood Fellowship was launched in partnership with the city of Boston in 2022 to develop a pipeline of trained early educators to contribute and lead in diverse settings including family childcare, center-based, Head Start, and PreK programs. Fellows, who enter the program with either an associate’s degree or at least 60 undergraduate credits, receive full scholarships to complete their bachelor’s degree. Upon acceptance into the Fellowship, they sign a memorandum of understanding committing to work in the city of Boston as an early educator for at least three years after graduating with their bachelor’s degree.
Here’s what Bri had to say about her experience:
Continue Reading →September 28, 2023
by earlyedinstitute
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Belinda Jones has dedicated her working life to early care and education (ECE).
“I love children. I love to take care of children. I’ve been doing it my whole life basically, for my own kids and for other kids as well, just like my mom,” she said.
As a youth, Jones’s mother ran a family child care, where Jones enjoyed helping her mom, as well as learning from her. That experience led to a 12-year tenure at a local center, after which she decided to go into business for herself. Several years ago, Jones opened Beloved Childcare in her Syracuse home.
For Jones, owning a family child care is a step on a longer professional path to opening a small center of her own.
“I see myself having a center,” said Jones, who is working to secure a new space to expand her family childcare business into a group childcare.
Continue Reading →August 17, 2023
by earlyedinstitute
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Instructional Leadership for Continuous Improvement in ECE is for program directors* and their teaching staff from group child care and out of school time programs. Participants enroll as a team and teams learn about organizational change and strategies that promote continuous quality improvement. Over 10 weeks, participants explore research-based practices for center-based and out of school time program improvement, early childhood curriculum, job-embedded professional learning, and the role of instructional leaders. Teams also learn about new research on methods for accelerating improvement and creating a culture of collaborative learning using a set of concrete strategies that promote continuous improvement. During this course, teams identify a problem related to instructional quality and continuous program improvement at their program, develop a plan to make change, and take steps with to implement the plan.
Continue Reading →August 17, 2023
by earlyedinstitute
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Sonja Crum Knight from the Carole Robertson Center Head Start program in Chicago is one of many early care and education leaders across the country innovating to retain their workforce. She sat down recently with the National Early Care and Education Workforce Center to describe how her Head Start program has been able to reduce turnover and reach 80 percent retention.
Continue Reading →July 21, 2023
by earlyedinstitute
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As early educators, we’re well aware of the chaos COVID-19 caused in our profession. Many of us are still grappling with pandemic-related financial shortfalls, staffing shortages, and an increase in challenging behavior among the children in our classrooms or programs—along with the stress such difficulties bring.
In her work as the Training Specialist for the Central Massachusetts StrongStart Professional Development Center (PDC), and as owner and president of the Institute for Education and Professional Development, Jody Figuerido, Ph.D., has observed these struggles in real-time and was concerned about their effect on young children’s learning and development as well as the impact on the educators.
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