Monday, March 12, 2012


     We have finally arrived at the end of this chapter of our educational journey.  Although it wasn’t a picnic in the park this quarter, it has been one of the most eventful, challenging, informative and rewarding experience thus far. We have learned how to truly advocate for children and families as well as how to effectively research, write, edit and revise a research paper.  Although I had some errors in my paper, the feedback received will make me a more effective writer.   My hopes for all of you (my classmates and colleagues) are that you can successfully complete your professional goals and objectives as early childhood educators.  I say that as we continue to set the bar high and advocate for those who need us the most, the children and their families.  Best wishes to all and with any luck you will be in one of my 2 final classes here at Kendall.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Observing and Interacting With Families of the Children in Your Setting


     As mentioned in my previous Blog posts, my internship is at Matrix Human Services in Detroit Michigan which services children from birth to adults and seniors 100 plus years of age.  I have met with the Director/Vice President of Education, one of her Assistant Directors, the Disability Specialist and the Nutrition Specialist.  In this module, I have learned about the Outcomes Data that they compiled for Time 2 for the 2011 – 2012 program year.  It appears that the data that was compiled from the teachers collecting data using the High Scope Child Observation Record (COR) and anecdotal notes.  The data showed a high gain of .87% in most domains areas and include physical health and development language, literacy, approaches to learning, science, social studies, math, creative arts, social studies, and social and emotional development.   The Disability Specialist went over the results from the Brigance Screening results and the Response to Intervention plan.  She continues to struggle with get about 144 children she has about half of them.  She said that she has been in this position for many years and finally got a waiver.  Because my research is on Childhood Obesity and that is where my advocacy action plan will be next quarter, I went back to the Nutrition Specialist to see if there were any new concerns in the Nutrition Content area and she said that she has been so busy seeking new grant opportunities that she was not focused or had not done any additional work on her Childhood Obesity project.  Further, when I asked about the Wigglers Win project, she said that the grant was over and it was sponsored by Weight Watchers, Chef Isabella from Weight Watchers and Blue Cross and Blue Shield.  She because the director wanted to keep the program that she does it once a month as the Family Night activity.  In the Wigglers Win project the children were initially selected based on the Height and Weight Growth Charts and includes the BMI and her assessment of the child’s Nutrition History form from the enrollment.  Other people that I interacted with in the past two weeks was the Vice President of Marketing who is trying to Brand the Matrix name in an effort to get the community to know them by their logo which is a triple heart symbol.  There are about 20 programs under the Matrix umbrella which includes a run-a-way shelter, senior program, mental health services and the Head Start program.  I also interacted with a few parents who are involved in the policy making body and their concerns as to the direction of the program and fears that the program will lose its quality services because of the re-competition of programs who have areas of the non-compliance based on a number of factors. 
     From this experience, I learned that the Nutrition Content area has a lot of aspects that I was not aware of all of the components that make up the Nutrition Content area.  I understand that changing the dairy products to low fat and going from homogenized milk to 2% to skim milk was the nutritionist way of slowly cutting down on fluid milk.  She further provides the parents with what the children will be eating for breakfast and lunch and snack in an effort to allow them to allow her to make changes based on need.  Some of the things that she has done is changed the menu for a child who has food allergies when accompanied by doctor’s  note on recommendation;  she also makes food substitutions based on religion, one of the things that she does is maybe provide a peanut butter, tuna or cheese sandwich for children who does not eat beef.  Another insight that I gained is that when a company is trying to get their company name in the community, they put the companies’ main name in the individual program name in an effort for the community to know them by their name, logo and quality services.


Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Interacting with the Program Director(s) and Other Administrative Staff


    For the past 2 weeks, I have been interacting with the Program Director/Vice President of Education Ms. D. Spring of Matrix Human Services.  This agency has been in operation for over 100 years per Ms. Spring.  She stated that when the program is at full capacity, the youngest person served is in the womb and the oldest person is ninety plus.  She said that she is not at full capacity because she lost one of her programs due to the loss of funding.  It was a program that targeted Hispanic pregnant females and children under one year old but was open to anyone.  The reason that Hispanic females was its targeted group was because many on=f them only spoke Spanish and that was they found the need to be the greatest.  She thought that it would be fitting to first give me the things that were accomplished in 2011 and they are as follows:
1)      They launched a CDA program in 2009 which was to assist Assistant Teachers in meeting the new Head Start mandates that will take effect in 2013.  She stated that it will be coming to a close sometime in June with 90% of the attendees nearing successful completion.  For the benefit of those who may not know what a (CDA) Child Development Associate is  a credential that certifies that associates meet professional standards in early childhood care and education (http://www.ehow.com/facts_5554229_cda-credentials.html#ixzz1mP8MXTb8).

2)      She was also particularly proud of the fact that since her program has begun a child tracking system that there is 100% of the data into the system making it easier to do reports and access statistical information.  Some of the statistical information that they now have access to is a child’s average daily attendance which is significant because the Head Start program is required to maintain 85% of its daily attendance on a daily basis.

3)      A monitoring system has been put into place to measure the accuracy and efficiency of the delivery of services to families.  Ms. Spring stated that this system keeps her program centers in compliance with federal, state and local regulations.

4)      Finally, she thought that their community outreach efforts provide sharing of space and resources to collaborate on community events.  One such event was their 2nd Annual Trunk or Treat (instead of Trick or Treat) which is family friendly activity that is a recruiting event for her program on or around Halloween.
We also talked about the fact that all of her administrative team is required to a senator, city of Detroit, council person to allow them to keep such persons abreast of the issues and concerns of the Head Start Program to assist them with how to proceed with advocacy issues in the future.  She is greatly concerned with the Head Start Programs in the City of Detroit, Michigan.  Therefore, she is considering being in the running of the re-competition by writing her own grant to ensure that the Head Start programs stay in the City of Detroit. I like the way she seeks the input of her administrative team in an effort to look at their area of expertise and consider how it should look, thus allowing individuality take the forefront because all centers have their own culture.

     I also spoke briefly to the Nutrition Specialist of this program and asked if she had any insights or considerations that I should explore on my topic Childhood Obesity.  She has family nights once a month to deliver new information and meal and snack suggestions and/or food demonstration.  She has several demonstrations from Chef Isabella from Weight Watchers.  She started this program to break the cycle of Childhood Obesity.

     In conclusion, I have gained a wealth of resources as she gave me some information on some websites that would assist me in writing my paper.  She started the Wigglers Win from a grant she wrote after she assessed the obesity of the nearly 1400 children in the Head Start program.  It started in 2010 or 2012 and has gotten some positive feedback from families.  I have learned that being a Program Director is often a job with a lot of responsibility and complications and decisions that affect the lives of many.




Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Blog 2


For the Past 2 weeks I have spent approximately 3 hours with the Assistant Director between her meetings, conferences and  trainings.  The time was well spent as she gave me information on the important changes as to the direction that the Head Start Program is going.   Some of the things that she informed me  of were that instead of Kindergarten Transition for children who previously children were going to Kindergarten the fall of the next year.  For example if a child was 4 years of age when they entered the Head Start program, by the time they leave the program they will be 5 or they will turn 5 before December 1st.   Further,  as previously stated that Kindergarten Transition will now be referred to as School Readiness for all children and not just 4 and 5 year olds.  She stated that domains for preschool children will align with kindergarten readiness goals as opposed to those stated in the Performance Standards.  She further stated that Administrative staff or Center Directors need to be revisited in effort to use them as mentors/coaches and ensure that they are in the classrooms 50% of the  time doping classroom observation.  She went on to show me the grant applications that would be required if they decided to apply for the Detroit Head Start and Early Head  Start Grants. 



I spent approximately 30 minutes with Disability Specialist who is busy trying to reach her 10% of the program’s enrollment to be qualified for Special Education.  This is requirement of the Disability Content area in The Michigan area.  Therefore, she will need 147 children, she is currently at 47 children.  She stated that children who have medical conditions as asthma or breathing conditions cannot be counted as children who are in need of special needs services.  She stated that her department is in the process of conducting  Individual Education Plans (IEPs), tracking Brigances that fell below 50 percentile and preparing a workshop on Kindergarten Readiness for Special Needs parents in an effort to make the transition from the Head Start Program to the Public School System .  One of the reasons that the time that I have had the opportunity of spending with the Disability Specialist has been limited is because her content area is being audited by a Federal Review Team.  This entails specialists in the field ensuring that the federal guidelines are followed, that fiscal procedures are followed for delivering services and making purchases are followed as well as if the procedures for recordkeeping are in line with federal regulations and guidelines, better known as the Performance Standards.



From the time that I spent with the two professionals that I worked with, the rewards were priceless.  The insights that I gained were as follows:  I got a different perspective of the work that has to be done by the top tier of management in an agency.  The assistant director has to take the Child Outcomes data that she has implemented and make sure that it aligns with the system that will be implemented that will measure a child’s progress from the time that they entered the program .  Another area that will be affected is how the data will be placing more emphasis on getting the Michigan Head Start guideline to align with the federal guidelines to make the program more effective and meaningful for children and families.  Three  quote that I heard from one of the professionals that I worked with and found useful are as follows:  “In everything that you do, surround yourselves with the  FACE OF A CHILD”;  another one is “ need to be competitive to be the best version of ourselves”;  and finally  when you make big decisions, they must be based on information: data systems, reports…”,  the authors are unknown.  The time that I spent with the Disability Specialist, I have learned that the Special Needs Content Area is widely scrutinized because of poor or slow service delivery from the Local Education Authority (LLEA and their inability to reach their 10% goals.   She said that they will be meeting to try to rectify the situation.


Blog 2



For the Past 2 weeks I have spent approximately 3 hours with the Assistant Director between her meetings, conferences and  trainings.  The time was well spent as she gave me information on the important changes as to the direction that the Head Start Program is going.   Some of the things that she informed me  of were that instead of Kindergarten Transition for children who previously children were going to Kindergarten the fall of the next year.  For example if a child was 4 years of age when they entered the Head Start program, by the time they leave the program they will be 5 or they will turn 5 before December 1st.   Further,  as previously stated that Kindergarten Transition will now be referred to as School Readiness for all children and not just 4 and 5 year olds.  She stated that domains for preschool children will align with kindergarten readiness goals as opposed to those stated in the Performance Standards.  She further stated that Administrative staff or Center Directors need to be revisited in effort to use them as mentors/coaches and ensure that they are in the classrooms 50% of the  time doping classroom observation.  She went on to show me the grant applications that would be required if they decided to apply for the Detroit Head Start and Early Head  Start Grants. 

I  also spent approximately 30 minutes with Disability Specialist who is busy trying to reach her 10% of the program’s enrollment to be qualified for Special Education.  This is requirement of the Disability Content area in The Michigan area.  Therefore, she will need 147 children, she is currently at 47 children.  She stated that children who have medical conditions as asthma or breathing conditions cannot be counted as children who are in need of special needs services.  She stated that her department is in the process of conducting  Individual Education Plans (IEPs), tracking Brigances that fell below 50 percentile and preparing a workshop on Kindergarten Readiness for Special Needs parents in an effort to make the transition from the Head Start Program to the Public School System .  One of the reasons that the time that I have had the opportunity of spending with the Disability Specialist has been limited is because her content area is being audited by a Federal Review Team.  This entails specialists in the field ensuring that the federal guidelines are followed, that fiscal procedures are followed for delivering services and making purchases are followed as well as if the procedures for recordkeeping are in line with federal regulations and guidelines, better known as the Performance Standards.

From the time that I spent with the two professionals that I worked with, the rewards were priceless.  The insights that I gained were as follows:  I got a different perspective of the work that has to be done by the top tier of management in an agency.  The assistant director has to take the Child Outcomes data that she has implemented and make sure that it aligns with the system that will be implemented that will measure a child’s progress from the time that they entered the program .  Another area that will be affected is how the data will be placing more emphasis on getting the Michigan Head Start guideline to align with the federal guidelines to make the program more effective and meaningful for children and families.  Three  quote that I heard from one of the professionals that I worked with and found useful are as follows:  “In everything that you do, surround yourselves with the  FACE OF A CHILD”;  another one is “ need to be competitive to be the best version of ourselves”;  and finally  when you make big decisions, they must be based on information: data systems, reports…”,  the authors are unknown.  The time that I spent with the Disability Specialist, I have learned that the Special Needs Content Area is widely scrutinized because of poor or slow service delivery from the Local Education Authority (LLEA and their inability to reach their 10% goals.   She said that they will be meeting to try to rectify the situation.


Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Blog 2 - Module 1 - Interview


1.        I am thinking of focusing my research paper on one of the following area:  Head Start Outcomes or the Special Education Service Delivery process.  What do you think are the current issues related to these topics? 

I interviewed the Assistant Director for Children’s Services at Vistas Nuevas Head Start.  The current issues that they are being faced with in the Head Start Program are of course, the outcomes and expectations of what experiences children should have in the Head Start Program.  Currently we are facing an era where any compliant program can compete for a non-compliant Head Start centers and/or programs.  In the state of Michigan the Department of Health Human Services of the City of Detroit which is the Grantee for the Detroit area Head Start agencies has lost the contract.  Therefore, the Detroit Head Start contract is up for grabs for anyone who has a viable proposal.  Another issue related to this area is that the Child Outcomes have been revised.  There were originally 8 domains and 27 indicators which were revised to 11 domains with 37 indicators.  One of the new domains is directed towards English Language Learners and does not affect all children the other two domains involve logic and reasoning and social studies knowledge.  This has placed our agency in a dilemma because during a recent federal audit we were mandated to use the new domains as soon as possible.  We complied with the directive and the grantee rejected our data and demanded that we suspend collecting the data until they directed us to do so.  We are anticipating a follow up audit and do not have any guidance or clarification as to whether they will be looking for this data.  I asked her about the disability services process and she referred me to the Disability Specialist for current issues in the disability content area and time did not permit me to complete and interview because she was meeting with Local Education Authority or the (LEA).

2.       What other issues do you commonly encounter in your work or in discussions with colleagues?

We generally encounter salary concerns for teaching staff due to staff credentials or lack of such credentials due to changes in the requirements.  Plans for professional development to assist teaching staff in meeting the 2013 mandates are in the works.  We are currently offering Child Development Associate (CDA) classes to prepare candidates for testing to receive the credential.  We are also assisting staff in paying for their education with Training and Technical Support (T/TA) funds.  One of the areas that we are working on in our professional development trainings is conveying to teaching staff that incorporating data collection is not added or additional work but it is a natural process that assists them in knowing what children know as well as what they need to provide opportunities for children to learn. 

3.       What advocacy efforts are currently under way in your area of interest?

The advocacy efforts that are currently under way in Child Outcomes is the pending legislation in Congress for improving school readiness and positive, sustained Child Outcomes for not only Head Start children but on a larger scale to improve education for all children from birth to 8 years of age.

4.       Some insights that I gained from this experience is that per the Assistant Director, it is very important for advocates or anyone interested in the Head Start program to go on the Head Start websites and view or listen to the webinars which clearly identify everything that she discussed with me in the interview, but goes much more in depth as to the legislation and actions being taken.  In trying to understand the importance of the reauthorization of the Head Start program and its effects on at-risk children.  Further, advocates should frequently email or write legislators about their concerns, feelings or complaints.

5.       The interview was very informative and encouraging as I finalize my topic for my research paper because it gave me insight on the availability of information for my research.  The more I asked questions, the more interested I became and thirsty for more information.  Therefore, I have decided to do further investigation on the subject of Child Outcomes of Head Start children.  Three related topics that I have an interest in are Child Outcomes as it relates to Special Needs Children, Child Outcomes as it relates to English Language Learners and the Special Education Service Delivery process.