an early childhood training, coaching and consulting shop
This is Easy
All children have a right to be safe, well-cared for and supported to their greatest potential.
This is Hard
- what that looks like to different people,
- how to inspire, coach, threaten, motivate, nag, implore the right people to make that happen,
- who is going to pay for it
Years of efforts, an array of strategies and varying degrees of success have led me to change my basic approach to “quality improvement”. The resistance to change lies in the “hard” parts above and they are not overcome with just an abundance of good intentions and maybe a little money. However well the standards are articulated.
This has led me to an inside-out approach – an alternative to a top-down one – as a more effective way to engage an entire profession in continuous quality improvement. Of course we need ways to measure outcomes, but the sustained change we seek is, I believe, best ignited in a professional value that respects and empowers the agency of teachers and directors.
When choices about what needs changing and strengthening comes from the program itself, the chances of real change are increased. Many good programs already know how to do this themselves, but most of our children are in programs that do not. So I wrote a do-it-yourself quality improvement guide, Attending to Child Care. My intention is to contribute to the conversation about quality early care and education and to engage thinking before we see no options other than to cede it over to regulators and assessments that only partially understand “quality”. Children’s and families’ experiences should be reflections of their communities and culture, not standardized by vendors or corporate blueprints.
I invite you to join in the dialogue in the Blog here, if I can help you, explore the services I offer and reach out for resources on my Facebook Page.