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Dombro, A.L. (1995). Child Care Aware: A guide to promoting professional development in family child care. New York, NY: Families and Work Institute.
This report was designed to guide organizations interested in implementing professional development opportunities for family child care professionals.
The Study
- The information in this guide was culled from a five-year evaluation of Child Care Aware, a professional development program for family child care professionals.
- Child Care Aware was implemented in 1992 and focused on professional development and consumer education in the field of family child care.
- Within the first seven years of the program, over 13,000 providers participated in trainings and over 500 providers became accredited. Provider associations were also created.
- Steps to promote professional development in family child care include:
- Outlining priorities,
- Understanding the level of commitment needed for project,
- Gaining insight from existing sites,
- Setting community-level goals and objectives.
- Staffing the project with quality people who share family child care vision,
- Creating an advisory board and outlining their responsibilities, and
- Finding funding for professional development.
- Sites that offer ongoing training to providers saw a collective rise in providers’ feelings of professionalism. Training can have an extensive and positive impact on providers.
- Time and cost of training impacts the number of providers involved.
- The evaluation of Child Care Aware showed that providers wanted trainers who had been providers at some point themselves and needed to provide information on:
- Child development,
- Adult education,
- Techniques to communicate with groups,
- Group management skills, and
- Diversity education.
- Recruitment strategies should include newsletters, association meetings, provider word-of-mouth, and agencies.
Local professional development programs should also discuss the benefits of accreditation.
Evaluation is critical to measure success.
R2P Evaluation
This report was a guide for implementation. Other reports highlighted in this annotated bibliography on the Child Care Aware research have shown the effectiveness of professional development and training.
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