By
Marsha Basloe, president of Child Care Services Association
As I drove to work this morning, the
conversation on my news radio station was around essential positions in our
communities. They mentioned hospitals, schools, grocery stores and more.
We must not forget our child care programs and
the early childhood educators who teach and care for our children every day!
As the coronavirus affects all aspects of our
lives, I urge federal, state and local policymakers to consider early childhood
educators as essential workers in today’s economy. Any measures taken by
government to support Americans who do not have paid sick leave, early
childhood educators must be included. These dedicated teachers are the
workforce that supports all other workforces. With K-12 schools closing, child
care centers must consider whether to remain open and risk exposure or to close
and put their teachers and staff at risk of not being paid. The centers that
choose to remain open might also be needed to serve additional children.
Early childhood educators are one of the
lowest-paid workforces in the U.S., and often do not have paid sick leave or
health insurance. And yet, this does not reflect their value to our children
and families. Science tells us the first five years of a child’s life are the most crucial for brain
development, setting the architecture for all future learning. “Early
experiences affect the development of the brain and lay the foundation for
intelligence, emotional health, and moral development,” according to Jack
Shonkoff, director of the Harvard Center on the Developing Child. [1]
“The lack of paid sick days could make
coronavirus harder to contain in the United States compared with other
countries that have universal sick leave policies in place,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro,
who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing federal health
agencies, said in a statement. “Low-income workers and their families could be hit
even harder by the virus, as low wage jobs are at the forefront of not
providing sick leave benefits.” [2].
“Workers should
never be forced to choose between staying home or working while sick to earn a
living,” said Congressman David Price. [3] While it didn’t pass in
Congress, Congressman Price co-sponsored Rep. DeLauro’s
Healthy Families Act “because we need a national paid sick leave policy to help
families take care of illnesses and the financial burden it may cause. And, it
will help contain the spread of viruses like coronavirus by allowing sick
workers to remain home.” [3]
Early childhood educators ARE essential personnel. If federal, state and local governments
are going to support essential jobs, we must also support our child care workforce
and our early childhood programs.
We hope that North Carolina will consider
multiple areas to support programs and families, including:
Adjusting payment policies so they are based on
enrollment of children rather than actual attendance;
Waiving any state policies that terminate child
eligibility based on a specific number of absent days;
Temporarily suspending redetermination of family
eligibility for child care services;
Allowing providers to waive co-pays and adjusting
reimbursement rates accordingly.
There are many more ways we can support our
communities, and we would be happy to work with the state on this. We need to ensure
that we support our early childhood community!
“Every
child deserves the best chance to succeed,” said Gov. Roy Cooper. “That means
we have to support families, early childhood teachers, and all those who have
an impact on early childhood development.” [4]
By Kay Ducharme, Regional CCR&R Senior Manager at Child Care Services Association
Part III: Why is data important?
For Child Care Services Association (CCSA), collecting data about the impact and effects of high quality child care is one of the most important things we can do for early childhood educators, young children and families. To that end, we talk to educators and families daily, collecting an enormous amount of data to analyze the needs of families and early childhood educators. In fact, we are the only organization in North Carolina that collects data on child care supply and demand. This information helps us strengthen and innovate the child care system for families, child care providers, programs and communities.
Yet, I am often asked why we have to
collect all of this data. In short, data is absolutely vital to ensuring that
all children have access to high quality child care led by educated and
motivated teachers.
For example, recent data indicates decreases in the number of classrooms, family child care homes and the total number in the child care workforce. Since child care resource and referral (CCR&R) is the only system that collects data on both supply and demand, we continue to help families locate child care as the supply decreases and the need increases. We also work to help start-up new programs to fill gaps where the supply of child care is limited. Our data can be used to help us advocate for change in public policy. And we need data to accurately tell the story of what families and providers across North Carolina need to strengthen services for families and the early childhood education field.
Federal funds to support CCR&R are a part of the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG). The state’s Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE) defines goals each year for the Council to help North Carolina meet federal block grant requirements. Regional CCR&R Lead Agencies receive funding from the Council to provide services in the 14 CCR&R regions based on population, community and child care demographics, workforce numbers and number of classrooms in the region, etc. The Council reports outcomes, outputs and demographics to DCDEE each year. These reports enable us to analyze customer needs and identify gaps in services and trends in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties.
Statewide in FY19, the NC CCR&R
system data indicated that the 14 regions trained 24,180 early educators; 3,077
of those training participants received CEUs. In addition to training,
CCR&R agencies provided technical assistance to 6,171 classrooms/homes and
consumer education and/or consultation to 21,738 households across the state. Ninety-eight
percent (98%) of families surveyed said they used quality indicators when
choosing child care and 97% of the families surveyed indicated that they chose
a 3-5 star rated child care program after using CCR&R services. By
collecting data in a consistent manner using defined data sets, data is
monitored to ensure reliability.
To access a membership to the website for
CCR&R staff, please contact Mary Erwin, NC CCR&R Council Coordinator at
Child Care Services Association, here.
For more in-depth knowledge of the
CCR&R system, training sessions are available each year throughout the
state for new staff. The final one for this fiscal year will be held in
Greenville, N.C., at the Martin-Pitt Partnership for Children, April 23 at 9:30
a.m. You can register for the training session here.
To read the first part of this series on what the statewide CCR&R is, click here.
To read the second part of this series on what the NC CCR&R Council is, click here.
By Kay Ducharme, Regional CCR&R Senior Manager at Child Care Services Association
Part II:
What is the NC CCR&R Council?
The NC CCR&R Council was designed by the state’s Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE) to standardize the delivery of child care resource and referral (CCR&R) services and provide equitable funding across the state. Before the Council was created, North Carolina had a fragmented, under-resourced CCR&R system that delivered services to children from birth to 5 or birth through 12, depending on where they lived. Some CCR&Rs provided non-English services while others did not. Databases and reporting mechanisms were different and data on programs, children and families served was not collected in a consistent manner. This made it impossible to provide accurate statewide data when advocating for changes in public policy or reporting to federal or state governments on the successes and/or gaps in services across North Carolina.
The
Council allowed DCDEE to ensure that CCR&R services were equitably funded
and available in communities across the state for providers and families of
children from birth through age 12 in the two most commonly used languages, no
matter where they lived or worked. In addition, they wanted to ensure that the
system was data driven and that data was collected consistently. This allows
DCDEE to paint an accurate picture of what is happening in North Carolina for
policymakers using consistent statistical data. It was also created with a
flexible structure to accommodate emerging needs as priorities and funding
sources change.
Today, the Council manages and delivers CCR&R
core services and special initiatives which include providing technical
assistance and training to early care and education professionals, helping
families locate child care services, collecting and analyzing data to help
shape public policy and provide community awareness, helping young children
build strong social-emotional behaviors, helping support babies, helping
improve school-age services and others as requested by DCDEE. The Council
collaborates with other early childhood entities in North Carolina to
strengthen early childhood and also leads many projects that increase the
quality and availability of child care, provides research and advocates for
child care policies that positively impact the lives of children and families.
The three agencies chosen to partner as
the Council—Child Care Services Association, Child Care Resources Inc. and
Southwestern Child Development Commission—are referred to as Council Management
Agencies (CMAs) and each one is responsible for the management of 4 to 5 regions
(inclusive of their own region). Below is a map showing how regions are
structured today.
A wealth of information is provided by the Council to support CCR&Rs, children, families, providers and communities. In addition to training and technical assistance, other resources provided to CCR&Rs include:
train the trainer classes;
an annual conference;
email and advocacy alerts;
regulatory changes and notices;
collaborative meetings;
definitions/instructions and data
collection forms;
regional directories;
a monthly news blast with early
childhood news and links to regional training calendars;
a website;
Art and Science of TA and Emergency
Preparedness training calendars;
manuals;
workgroups; and
contract management.
Read more about why the data collected is important in the final part of this series here.
To read the first part of this series on what the statewide CCR&R is, click here.
By Kay Ducharme, Regional CCR&R Senior Manager at Child Care Services Association
Part I:
What is the Statewide CCR&R?
CCR&R stands for child care resource
and referral. It is carried out by organizations that focus on building the
supply of child care and supporting child care programs through training and
technical assistance for early childhood educators. CCR&R agencies emerged
in the early 1970s to help families locate child care as more women began
entering the workforce. As young families became more mobile and moved away
from home to take jobs in other places, leaving their support systems behind,
the demand for child care increased dramatically. North Carolina’s first
CCR&R agency was the Durham Day Care Council, established in 1974. Day Care
Services Association in Orange County and Durham Day Care Council merged in
1999 to become Child Care Services Association (CCSA).
Today, CCR&R core services include
helping parents locate child care, advocating for the needs of families and
young children, building the supply of quality child care through training and
other resources for programs, bridging child care and education and gathering
important data on child care needs/trends. In North Carolina, CCR&R is done
by organizations in 14 regions and overseen by three agencies: Child Care
Services Association (CCSA) in the Triangle area, Child Care Resources Inc.
(CCRI) in the Charlotte area and Southwestern Child Development Commission
(SWCDC) in western North Carolina. These agencies are referred to as the
Council Management Agencies (CMAs) and each one is responsible for the
management of four or five regions, including their own.
Learn more about the NC CCR&R Council that is comprised of the three CMAs including a map breaking down the 14 regions in the next part here.
To read the final part of this series about why the data collected is important, click here.
By Allison Miller,
CCSA Compensation Initiatives Team
When Davina Woods was asked how she became interested in early childhood, she said, “I entered the profession as an undercover helicopter mom! I had just placed my son in child care and I couldn’t stand not being there and seeing what and how he was doing.”
Her child’s center hired her as a part-time school-age group leader before she eventually found her calling with young children and their teachers.
She started with no education and now she is in the master’s program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with the assistance of a T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® scholarship. After 25 years in the field, she loves her position as director of Excel Christian Academy, a five-star child care center in Alamance County, where she has been for 13 years.
“It has been a privilege to work in every single aspect of
child care,” Davina said. “In every classroom, with every age group, in every position.
I have fulfilled every duty from cook to van driver and it gives me perspective
and appreciation. I love this viewpoint. I get the luxury of working with
children, families and teachers.”
Davina’s center prioritizes its teachers by providing a
livable wage as well as other key benefits, which she knows most teachers are
unable to access in this field. “And then they get WAGE$ and T.E.A.C.H. on top
of that,” she said.
The Child Care WAGE$® (WAGE$) Program provides education-based salary supplements to low-paid teachers, directors and family child care providers working with children between the ages of birth to five. The program is designed to provide preschool children more stable relationships with better-educated teachers by rewarding teacher education and continuity of care.
The T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Scholarship (T.E.A.C.H.) Program addresses under-education, poor compensation and high turnover within the early childhood workforce by providing educational scholarships to early care professionals and those who perform specialized functions in the early care system.
“WAGE$ and T.E.A.C.H. are just part of who we are, part of
the center’s make-up,” Davina said. “It is essential, imperative, to have an
educated staff, especially here in the 21st century where children
are not changing but the modes and methods of educating children are constantly
evolving. Teachers must know best practices and know how to utilize the latest
research and incorporate that into classrooms for the best outcomes for
children.”
According to Davina, “WAGE$ is essential because it helps to boost teacher morale within the program. WAGE$ both encourages and motivates staff to increase their education. Additionally, WAGE$ provides a sense of healthy competition among team members as they see who can achieve the next level first.”
She said, “My teachers talk about the courses they take and they drive each other.” Three of her staff will graduate in December with their associate degree in early childhood education and they remind Davina of why she does what she does. “If I take great care of my team, they will take great care of the children.”
Thank you, Davina, for your support of the workforce and the Child Care WAGE$® Program.
Learn more about the Child Care WAGE$® Program here.
Learn more about the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Scholarship (T.E.A.C.H.) Program here.
For nearly 20 years, Child Care Services Association has been
conducting workforce studies to better understand the composition of the child
care workforce in North Carolina and differences among regions and to recommend
policy improvements related to retaining and growing a high-quality early
childhood workforce.
While gathering information
related to our 2019 child care workforce study, we had a unique opportunity to
not only send a survey to those currently in the child care workforce but also
to survey those who had left. More than 2,800 individuals who previously worked
in child care settings responded to the “leaver” survey and were asked
questions related to why they left, where they went and whether they would return
to the classroom if some of the challenges they faced could be addressed.
While there have been
several national child care workforce studies, the responses from individuals
who have worked in the child care field in North Carolina could provide
valuable insight for future state policy discussions.
Who are the workers who leave child care jobs and where do they go?
Of the 2,808 individuals
who responded to the leaving the classroom survey,
57% left child care to work in another field
entirely
28% left their former position for another job
in the early childhood field
Of those still in the field, but not in the job
as a child care teacher or assistant, about 12% moved into a different role
such as director or assistant director
About 7% worked in the field, but in a different
capacity, such as staff at a child care resource and referral agency, Smart
Start or other non-classroom based settings
Another 9% were working in early childhood in
another state, as a family child care home provider or in an unlicensed program
Of the 15% remaining, about 9% still work with
children in some capacity (in a K-12 school setting, caring for school-age
children or as a nanny)
The remaining 6% responded that they are
retired, unemployed, disabled, in school or some other miscellaneous response
not easily categorized
Why did they stop being a child care teacher or assistant?
Of the 2,305 individuals who
responded to this question (which also offered them the chance to select
multiple answers),
41% said they left because they wanted to earn
more money
32% wanted more opportunities for professional
growth
25% wanted better benefits
20% wanted better working conditions
16% wanted more respect
Lack of sufficient staff support was
also indicated with 12% of former child care staff selecting “support for
children with challenging behaviors” and 7% selecting “difficulty
supporting children with special needs” among reasons for leaving their
child care jobs. What is most interesting is that only 5% of responders selected
“Teaching is not for me.” Not
surprisingly, less than half (45%) indicated that they might return to a child
care classroom in the future.
Would those who left consider returning as a classroom teacher or assistant teacher if the reasons they left were to be addressed?
Of the 2,226 individuals who
responded to this last question, 64% said they would potentially return to the
classroom if the factors they had listed as reasons for leaving were to change
or improve.
37% said “yes” they would return to a child care
classroom
27% said “maybe” they would return
The Road Forward
Child care pay is low. We know in a good economy like we have today with record low unemployment, individuals in child care can work in fast food or retail sales and earn higher wages. Many in the workforce have their own families to raise, so earnings matter in retaining and growing a high-quality child care workforce.
With nearly 30% of those who
leave staying in the early childhood field, but not necessarily as a child care
teacher, upward mobility and professional growth within the field is good for
the field overall. This means that experienced people can bring an experienced
lens to their work with young children.
Better wages (41%), professional
growth (32%), better benefits (25%), better working conditions (20%), support
for challenging behaviors (12%) and paid time off (12%) are policy areas that
can be addressed. Investments can be made to better support those working in
child care.
When 64% of the responders who
left say they would potentially return to the classroom, addressing these
concerns should be a priority. There are some challenges in life for which
there are no policy solutions. But, the concerns expressed by child care
leavers are solvable.
These survey results are
preliminary. Those who received the
survey aren’t weighted by demographics or any other common variables used in
survey research approaches. Nevertheless, they are instructive. Of those who
left their child care jobs and who chose to respond to the survey, their
answers are not surprising. They are common sense.
This is the workforce that
supports all other workforces. It’s the workforce that helps promote the
healthy development of our youngest children. Twenty years of workforce studies
point to the same challenges that the child care leavers have expressed. There
are solutions to these challenges that would invest and value the important
work those working in child care do every day. It’s time for those discussions
to begin in earnest.
The full policy brief, Leaving the Classroom: Addressing the Crisis of NC’s Early Childhood Educator Turnover can be found here.
Julie Delair has operated her family child care home in Brunswick County since 2008. “I always remember thinking this was going to be my career. I always wanted to work with children,” she said.
She joined the Child Care WAGE$® Program at the entry-level of education, which at the time was six semester hours of early childhood coursework. She moved up the WAGE$ scale, earning higher awards each time, and now has her Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education. Getting her degree, though, was not easy, which is the case for many in the field who have the interest, but are faced with a variety of challenges.
Julie said that she had started college but life got in the way and she was unable to continue until she learned about the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Scholarship Program. “I had the interest, just not the funding. I couldn’t have done it otherwise. WAGE$ also prompted that educational movement because I saw what I could receive if I got my degree. The incentive was there.”
Getting her associate degree made her realize how much there was to learn. She loved learning and bringing that back to her class. It kept her fresh and she wanted to keep going.
She saw how much her education had impacted her teaching. “Going to classes gave me so many more ideas of working with children, what was developmentally appropriate [and] how to work with families. It expanded my knowledge in all areas. It definitely made me more confident, more professional. WAGE$ does that, too. It recognizes that early childhood is important to children, families and the community. We feel appreciated. People know it is important.”
Julie uses the WAGE$ funds in many ways, including to support her business. She provides new materials, toys and even playground equipment for the children she teaches, which she says they really love. “I often have them when they are very young until they go to kindergarten, so having new things really matters. I think the Child Care WAGE$® Program is very important, especially as an incentive to keep educators in the field. I have had my family child care home for over ten years and I credit the WAGE$ Program with my eagerness and even the ability to continue operating. The supplemental income allows me to provide quality care to the children, and I’m so grateful for it.”
Learn more about the Child Care WAGE$® Program here.
Learn more about the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Scholarship Program here.
If any issue warrants
public attention, public discussion and rethinking as to the best way to ensure
families with young children have access to child care and pre-kindergarten, it
is our nation’s current approach to the safety and healthy development of young
children. It’s not a system as much as a patchwork quilt stitched together over
decades. The federal government allocates funds to states through individual
programs or funding streams (i.e., block grants), each with different rules,
administered by different state agencies, and too often resulting in siloed
approaches with little to no coordination or collaboration among state agencies,
departments, divisions or communities.
In December 2019,
Congress enacted the FY2020 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education
Appropriations measure, which included the following funding levels for early
care and education programs:
Source: FY2020 non-defense consolidated appropriations bill (HR 1865, PL116-94) enacted on December 20, 2019.
In addition to the funding above, in FY2019, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture allocated $3.7 billion to states to support healthy meals and snacks for low-income children in child care centers and family child care homes [1] and the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services allocated the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant to states, of which states chose to use $3.8 billion for child care and $2.6 billion for state pre-K. [2] The number of children served by TANF funds for child care or pre-K is unknown because the federal government only requires aggregate spending to be reported, not how many children are served, the setting children are in (homes or centers, licensed or unlicensed) or the average price paid per child. In all, that’s more than $35 billion through various federal funds for early care and education programs.
Child care is the largest early childhood program with $12.5 billion in funding and yet only about 17 percent of eligible children (based on state standards) receive a subsidy. [3] Many states have a waiting list for assistance, including North Carolina with a waiting list of more than 40,000 children. Families have a difficult time finding care, affording care, and then many parents express concern about the quality of care. Numerous national reports have been released about child care deserts, communities where the need for child care for parents of children under age 6 pales in comparison to the licensed supply of child care. [4] The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services released a report in October 2019 that found the supply of home-based care has declined by more than 97,000 providers since 2005. [5]
Why? Child care is a business. Child care centers tend to operate in areas where the population is dense enough with sufficient numbers of private-pay families who can afford weekly parent fees. The operating budget for child care centers largely comprises parent fees and therefore staff is hired at the lowest wages possible to hold costs down. In a good economy with low unemployment, like we have today, turnover is high because staff often can find better-paying jobs in fast food, retail sales or other jobs that require less training or education. Turnover also costs businesses because of the marketing, interviewing, hiring and training required for new staff.
For home-based providers, the hours are long and the pay is low. According to a 2019 economic impact report by the Committee for Economic Development, [6] the average annual income of home-based providers is approximately $15,000 per year, [7] 18% higher than in North Carolina, where the average income of home-based providers is $12,300. [8] The decline in home-based providers (who often serve infants and toddlers) is a hardship for parents, particularly those in rural communities where the economics of operating a center don’t work. Home-based care is often less expensive and providers may be more willing to stay open during nontraditional hours for those parents who work shift work or have long commutes to their job. Yet, again, wages drive interest in opening a home-based program (or closing one) because other jobs in the community may pay more with fewer hours and less stress.
The reality is that mothers are working today. Nationally, approximately 72 percent of mothers with children under age 6 are working outside of the home, [9] 65.4 percent of mothers with children age 2 are working [10] and, 57.8 percent of mothers with children under age 1 are working. [11] Many of these mothers need child care, but federal subsidies reach only one out of every six eligible children. Therefore, most families are forced to afford whatever they can find. However, in too many communities, the supply is not available, let alone affordable.
There is no doubt that if our nation’s early care and education system were designed today, it would look much different. If we can’t think out of the box about a new bold system to better meet the needs of families with young children, we will be stuck with incremental, minor band-aids that ignore the real problem: the system is under-financed and poorly designed. Parents can’t afford quality child care, but we know from the research that high-quality child care really matters to the healthy development of children, particularly in the earliest years as a child’s brain is developing the fastest, setting the architecture for all future social, emotional, physical and cognitive skills. [12]
Two decades ago, child care was a work support. Today, we know that it is a two-generation strategy. High-quality child care helps parents work and helps support the healthy development of children. In fact, parents who can’t access child care reduce their hours or drop out of the workforce. About 94 percent of those who involuntarily work part-time are mothers who cite child care problems as their reason for working part-time. [13]
In 2018, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released “Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education,” which reviewed the multiple funding streams for early care and education and made a number of recommendations. The NAS Committee, made up of early childhood experts and finance experts, recommended investing in early care and education at a percentage of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) aligned with the average of other member nations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The report recommended increasing funds in four phases, from at least $5 billion in phase one to $53 billion in phase four. [14]
However, it is not just
about the money. It is also about program design and meeting the needs of
families in urban and rural areas and in an array of settings that best meet
the needs of the family and each individual child with an early education workforce
that is trained and paid appropriately for the important work they do.
Rethinking is always a
bit more challenging than staying in the box with patchwork fixes. The current
system isn’t working for low-income children whose families need a subsidy or
the private market where working parents need access to affordable high-quality
child care and early education programs. It is time for a discussion about a
redesign.
Shantel Zimmerman describes her favorite part of teaching as, “truthfully, the kids. It is so much fun. I tell [my husband] I get to go to work and play everyday teaching. Where else can an almost 50-year-old be silly and whimsical and get paid for it?”
Shantel has taught at Primrose School of Heritage Wake Forest in Wake Forest, North Carolina for nearly a decade. She first received her bachelor’s degree and returned to school to receive her master’s in elementary education. “I originally wanted to be a high school teacher. I changed my major in college because I didn’t think I had the patience to be with elementary or younger,” said Shantel. “Having my daughter showed me I did have the patience, so when she started school, I went back to younger kids. I like them, they’re more fun.”
For Shantel, being a parent helps develop her teaching style for young children. She also credits her style to “the classes I took, interesting articles I come across [and] talking to other teachers. It’s really just trying to see what works for you and what works with the age group you’re with.”
Her advice is to be flexible to others teaching in the field. “You can have something planned to do with your class and it may get tossed out the window in the first five minutes. It all depends on the mood of the kids. My key thing is to be flexible and go with the flow because you never know where it’s going to take you,” said Shantel.
The most rewarding part of teaching for Shantel is “having fun with the kids and watching them grow.” It’s all about the kids for her. “Watching what my kids have learned in the nine months I have them amazes me and makes me want to do more every day,” she said.
As a teaching professional, Chatiba Bullock truly values her education and credits her continuous path to being a lifelong learner. “In order for me to motivate my teachers and team members, it’s important for them to see me working,” said Chatiba.
Chatiba works as Education Manager for Durham Head Start/Early Head Start while also furthering her early childhood development degree. She first began as an assistant teacher, quickly moved up to lead teacher and went on further to serve in the leadership position of center director.
Chatiba is also a Child Care WAGE$® recipient. “I really like WAGE$ because it gives you an incentive to keep learning,” she said. “The WAGE$ program really was [integral] in motivating me as an educator to want more and better myself.”
“I received an associates in early childhood education from Durham Tech Community College in 2005 and I went on to North Carolina Central University where I received my bachelor’s in family and consumer sciences with a concentration in child development in 2008,” Chatiba said. She didn’t stop there. “I received my Master’s in education in 2014 from Ashford University and then received some post-graduate certifications from Walden University in teacher leadership and childhood administration.
It wasn’t always Chatiba’s plan to work in early childhood education. Out of high school, she began as a business major. “It wasn’t until in ‘99, I started working at the Early Learning Center through the YMCA, they had their own child care center and I took on a part-time job as a floater, and I loved early childhood education,” Chatiba said.
While there, Chatiba realized something. “Working with kids and going to school for business, it just didn’t mesh. I like working with kids and I need to learn more about children,” she said.
“[My favorite part of being an educator is] the correlation between children and families. I think it’s actually working with children and families to help them understand the importance of education and how they can foster that love at home with their kids,” said Chatiba.
Her teaching style is shaped by “letting [the children] be the teacher and I’m the facilitator. I like to build lessons when I’m in the classroom. I’m not in the classroom as much anymore, but when I’m helping teachers understand their teaching style, my teaching style basically is the child’s interests and helping teachers facilitate that in their classroom,” said Chatiba.
