Early Childhood PD Contractor | Quality New York | ECP in Newark | Wachovia | Early Childhood Consultant
With a generous grant from the Wachovia Bank, the Center for Early Childhood Professionals has been collaborating with Region 9 in East Harlem, since 2006, on a project to support early childhood literacy development in public school classrooms. Through in-class mentoring, ECP staff developers provide Region 9 educators with increased knowledge and understanding of effective pedagogy as well as the skills necessary to enhance the early language, literacy, and reading development of their Pre-K students. Center for ECP staff developers model best practices in early literacy learning, coach teachers to become more responsive to children's individual needs, provide feedback on children's language, literacy and school readiness development, and assist classroom teachers in incorporating new instructional strategies into their classroom routine.
Needs assessments and the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale (ECERS-R) are used to determine a baseline for teacher's knowledge and experience and assess factors such as room arrangement, interactions with children, and learning activities. The results of the needs assessment determine content for mentoring support.
Throughout the project, ECP staff developers monitor progress, collect feedback to ensure that participants' needs are being met and hold progress meetings with the Principal.