This free two-day workshop is to assist community college faculty in preparing future teachers in science education. NASA Earth and space scientists and educators share authentic inquiry activities, data, and resources related to key topics from the national science standards. The NACCTEP pre-conference institute in 2010 will include a focus on NASA Earth science data and the theme of climate change. Participants receive a $300 stipend.

• Explore standards-based concepts using authentic inquiry.

• Discuss current science research with NASA scientists.

• Identify ways to address Earth and space science misconceptions.

• Explore collaboration plans with colleagues.

For additional information please click here.

Key Partners for Solutions

By: Arturo Montiel, South Texas College, Texas

The National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs (NACCTEP) Board held its annual meeting in Washington, D.C. on September 16 - 17, 2009. The Board was approached by the National Migrant & Seasonal Head Start Collaboration Office (NMSHSCO) and asked for a Board member to attend its meeting located a few blocks from the NACCTEP meeting. Two NACCTEP Board members, Dr. Janet Johnson (Rio Salado College, AZ) and Dr. Arturo Montiel (South Texas College, TX) attended this meeting to gain valuable insights and bring back to stakeholders within NACCTEP the issues at hand and solutions proposed in the meeting.

The meeting was entitled “Key Partners for Solutions” and the primary focus was to gather stakeholders to identify issues and ideas for solutions for new legislation that will impact Head Start across the country. The Head Start Act of 2007 states that by 2013, 50 percent of all Head Start teachers nationwide must have a bachelor degree and 100 percent of Head Start teacher assistants nationwide must have a Child Development Associate (CDA) or be enrolled in a program leading to an associate or a bachelor degree.

One barrier stakeholders identified to the new legislation was access and completion of the CDA. Some stakeholders feel that rural or even some urban community colleges do not have the capacity or alternative delivery methods to serve this need. In some cases, prospective students are not aware of available programs offered by community colleges to complete this credential.

A second barrier identified was articulation between the CDA credential, associate, and bachelor degrees. Very often these credentials and degrees are offered by different entities within the community college and do not easily transfer to the next logical step in the sequence leading to a degree. The primary obstacle to transition from CDA to associate degree is the requirement of a General Educational Development (GED) or college readiness depending on college policies for enrollment. In this case, the CDA requires only an admission package while the associate degree requires certain passing scores in one or more entrance exams to deem the student “college ready”.  Also, language is often a barrier that requires English as a Second Language (ESL) coursework which adds time to completion or entrance. Moreover, some associate degrees do not transfer to local or even regional universities of higher education for completion of a bachelor degree. These obstacles pose seemingly insurmountable barriers to the 2007 legislation.

The final barrier is the retention of current or future teachers with bachelor degrees in Head Start. Teachers who possess a bachelor degree can gain a higher salary by becoming a K-12 public school teacher, rather than seeking a career with Head Start, simply passing a state certification exam. Consequently, the legislation may very well push-out teachers who have a long history teaching with Head Start for a more lucrative offer with public schools.

The discussion led to goals for overcoming barriers regarding the 2007 legislation. NAACTEP offered to partner with NMSHSCO to help through networking or providing human resources to help reach the first goal. To reach another stated goal, NACCTEP offered to provide NMSHSCO a breakout and/or poster session during the upcoming annual conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

The discussion on barriers to the 2007 legislation and goals to help overcome these barriers was finalized into a list of take-away actions to launch awareness of this legislation. The initial action will be to publish a White Paper to jump start formal presentations and briefings to the Office of Head Start (OHS) along with a matrix of community colleges willing to help in this action item and recommendations on the best strategy to approach. The next action items were to explore partnerships, approach foundations to help in the areas of evaluations and cost assessments, provide webinars for grantees, and maintain consistent messaging and continued collaboration on future actions.

As stakeholders, NACCTEP was grateful for the opportunity to visit with our neighbors at NMSHSCO and hope that this initial meeting will help to establish a long term partnership to overcome barriers that effect community college teacher education programs across the nation.