Children’s Movement of Florida 2011 Legislative Agenda: VPK Background Information

Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten Program (VPK)

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In November 2002, Florida’s voters passed a constitutional amendment to offer free, voluntary pre-kindergarten (VPK) programs to every 4 year old in the state. More than 160,000 4 year olds, or about 69 percent of the eligible population, now participate in this program, costing the state $366 million annually. Florida started the statewide program with a tight timetable and limited budget, resulting in the state meeting only three of 10 nationally recommended standards and ranking 34th among 38 states in per pupil funding. While Florida has a solid foundation, enhancements to the current model would help Florida more fully deliver on the promise of a high-quality preschool education. The current standards and per pupil reimbursement are inadequate to deliver high-quality programs, as originally promised. Florida can significantly improvement its VPK program in 2010 by taking the steps outlined below:

Provide higher per pupil funding for VPK programs so that more qualified teachers can be hired: $13.5 million.

Florida needs to increase the requirements for lead teachers in VPK programs and should move toward all VPK teachers having degrees or achieving core competencies. However, there are not a sufficient number of teachers with early childhood credentials, or enough degree programs to produce the needed number of degreed teachers, to mandate degreed teachers this session; only 20% of VPK teachers currently have a bachelor’s degree and 5% have an associate’s degree. Further, we know many early childhood teachers follow a more non-traditional career pathway and benefit from many different ways to achieve higher credentials. Florida can move toward increasing the number of VPK programs with degreed or highly trained teachers by paying programs with more qualified teachers a higher per pupil reimbursement, providing the highest incentives for those programs that have the best qualified teachers. Using the Florida Early Childhood Career Pathways, programs with bachelor’s degreed and above teachers or equivalent (steps 8-10) will receive a BSA of $2,972; programs with associate’s degreed teachers or equivalent (step 7) will receive a per child reimbursement of $2,860 = $13,486,687.

Georgia, one of the other two states with a universally available pre-K program, has been highly successful improving the credentials of its pre-K teachers using strategies that incentivize, rather than require, better qualified teachers.

Fund process that will produce more highly qualified lead teachers in all VPK classrooms through scholarships and the expansion of degree programs statewide: $22 million.

Florida needs to build the number of teachers with degrees in early childhood education. For teachers with existing degrees in elementary education or a related field, specialized education on the needs of young children would be available to help develop the expertise needed to meet the educational and developmental needs of 4-year-olds. Merely placing teachers with elementary education degrees in VPK classrooms is insufficient. This would require two things:

• Providing scholarships to improve qualifications of VPK teachers:

There are 14,600 lead VPK teachers; 20% have bachelor’s degrees and 5% have associate’s degrees. By providing an average of $4,000/teacher scholarship, approximately 4,250 teachers can start working on bachelor’s degrees with $17 million in annual scholarship funding; pathways to meet core competencies will also be developed. Assuming an annual increase in degreed teachers of 15-16%, Florida could expect to have all VPK teachers with bachelor’s degrees or meeting core competencies within seven years.

The scholarships would be competitively awarded with targeted recruitment in areas of the state where teacher qualifications are particularly lacking. These scholarships would include a commitment from the VPK teachers to stay in a state-funded VPK program throughout their scholarship and for as many years as they received scholarship support (e.g., if they are on scholarship for three years they will commit to stay for these three years plus three more years in a state-funded VPK program working directly with 4-year-olds). It is critical that programs with more qualified teachers receive a progressively higher per pupil reimbursement to ensure these teachers can be retained over time.

• Expand local professional development options:

There are many areas in the state where there are not degree programs available, or the degree programs are so outdated that they do not reflect the most recent, cutting-edge content needed to educate young children. Creating new degree programs and improving existing programs is needed to ensure statewide access to high quality degree programs. Additionally, pathways for teachers with degrees in elementary education or a related field should be created so they can efficiently develop the skills and knowledge needed to appropriately educate 4-year-olds without having to complete a new degree. This higher education capacity-building would build on successful strategies from within Florida and from other states. Pathways to meet the core competencies will also be developed.

Two major items in place would support this. Through the State Advisory Council (a committee of the Children and Youth Cabinet that just received $4.8 million over three years to help build the state’s early childhood system), a comprehensive analysis of the state’s degree programs will be commissioned in early 2011. Additionally, the University of Florida’s Lastinger Center for Learning is already planning work with higher education institutions around the state to create more consistent degree opportunities statewide. The results of the higher education analysis, UF leadership, and this requested funding would allow for grants for higher education institutions and targeted capacity-building.

Implement research-based curriculum in all VPK classrooms and provide materials and support for implementation: $47.3 million.

All VPK programs should be required to implement a research-based curriculum to ensure the experiences children have in VPK are based on rigorous research on how best to support young children’s growth and development. Funding will be provided for the purchase of approved curriculum that has been proven by research to meet the developmental and educational needs of preschoolers. The Department will provide training on the selection of curriculum that will best meet the needs of children and families served and how to implement this curriculum in the VPK program. This is included in the DOE LBR for VPK. Total: $47,291,539.

Improve the accountability system: Mandate pre- and post-assessment of children; observe teachers to inform personal professional development plans: $6.4 million.

The only assessment of children in VPK happens when children enter kindergarten. This is too late to inform instruction in VPK or provide feedback to families on how to best support their child’s learning. By training teachers to complete an assessment at the beginning of the VPK year teachers would have valuable information on the skills and needs of each individual child and, thus, inform instruction and support each child’s development. An assessment at the end of the VPK year would provide data on children’s growth over the VPK year, information that can be provided to kindergarten teachers and to families.

Further, teachers in programs in which children have lower FLKRS scores (those that score in the bottom 40%) should be assessed, using the pre-K CLASS, to give them feedback on their interactions with children and instruction techniques and strategies to better meet the needs of the children in their classrooms. (The CLASS assesses teacher interactions with children and instructional strategies; higher scores on the CLASS are highly associated with better child outcomes). VPK teachers would be observed in their VPK classrooms, provided with a complete report, information on how to enhance teaching practice, and access to the CLASS video library and similar tools to support improvements to classroom practice. AWI is providing comprehensive training on the CLASS to all Early Learning Coalitions in early 2011, meaning significant CLASS assessment capacity statewide. AWI is also investing in a data system that will provide assessment results and individual reports on each assessment. ($5,867,000 will include a pre-K CLASS assessment, report, improvement plan, and access to CLASS video library for teachers in 5,867 classrooms).