Overview
The Department of Education recently awarded ACC’s Child Care and Development Department, Student Affairs, and Austin PBS a three-year, $700,000 grant focused on reducing educational inequality in Central Texas. The purpose is to foster habits of lifelong learning and scholarship among ACC student parents and their children as well as expand access to high-quality early child care education training for child care providers.
Through Austin PBS “Ready, Set, Learn!” and Student Affairs-sponsored events, ACC student parents are provided opportunities to explore child-safe activities including digital guidelines and educational resources for children. This emphasis on the use of developmentally appropriate educational media will engage children of ACC’s student parents who seek to balance work, school, and child-rearing.
The Child Care and Development Department is redesigning the Child Development Associate credential (CDA). The CDA occupational skills award is the entry point for prospective early childhood educators that prepares students for the CDA credential from the Council for Professional Recognition. Currently, only face-to-face 16 weeks courses are offered. The grant supports the program to be redesigned as a compressed 8-week virtual offering and will integrate open educational resources with a focus on developmentally appropriate educational media. This accelerated program will produce additional early childhood education professionals who will better prepare young children, many of whom are low-income, for success in today’s technology-driven classrooms.
Accomplishments
- Collaborated with national CDA Early Childhood professionals to learn strategies that increase recruitment and retention, and improve course design to support potential early childhood education students.
- Visited Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland to learn how their innovative approach to the CDA program increased enrollment from 20 to a robust 2,000 students per year.
Impact
Austin PBS and Student Affairs hosted three Ready Set Learn! events. Approximately 300 ACC student parents and their children attended, where they learned about the various resources available through PBS to help parents and children stay ahead in education.
Next Steps
- Facilitate course redesign by hiring three Austin PBS Fellows as adjunct instructors. The Austin PBS Fellows will be responsible for curriculum redesign as well as collecting and creating digital resources for the courses.
- Search, select, and hire an early childhood educator consultant with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the early education field.
- Expand site-based recruitment of child care centers staff to participate in the new CDA courses.
- Host pop-up Ready Set Learn! events to support ACC student parents in the summer. Pop-up events will also focus on fall student recruitment.