Certification Council of Early Childhood Educators of NS
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development of a high quality, professional, certified body of early
childhood educators.
Back to: A four step process
Early Childhood Centre Administrator Certification
Step 3: Validation
The third step in the Early Childhood Centre Administrator (ECCA)
Certification Process, Validation, is an assessment of the
candidate’s competency based on parent and staff perceptions and
an evaluation of the program using a program evaluation tool suited
to the age group in the classroom being evaluated.
The staff perception tool is the short form of
the Work Environment Survey (WES)
(
Adapted from, Bloom, Sheerer and Britz (1991), ,
"Work Environment Survey- short form", in
Blueprint for Action, Mt Rainier, MD: New Horizons.)
.
The program evaluation tools used are the Early Childhood
Environment Rating Scale (ECERS(
Harms, T., Cryer, D. and Clifford, R. Early Childhood Environment
Rating Scale – Revised, (1998), New York, NY: Teacher’s College Press
)
and/or Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS) and/or the
School Aged Environment Rating Scale (SAERS). The validator visits
the candidate’s centre to do the program evaluation.
Notice of Validation:
Early Childhood Centre Administrator (ECCA)
Certification Validation
Instructions to Candidates
Notice to Parents and Staff:
Notify parents and staff that validation will be conducted in the next month. Post the enclosed notice in a spot where it can be seen by staff and parents. Attach a copy of the "Questions and Answers about …" brochure to the bottom of the posted notice. (Three copies of the brochure are enclosed in the package.)
Surveys:
The two survey’s will be conducted prior to the Validator’s site visit to assess the centre classrooms.
Parent’s Views Survey:
Parent Satisfaction Survey, (Jorde-Bloom,
Blueprint for Action p.210) is distributed to parents.
This validates the customer service aspect of the administrator's work.
(Clean copy for copying enclosed in the validation package).
Procedure:
Set the return date for survey returns and write it in along with the centre name on the master copy of the survey.
Make a copy of the Parent’s View’s survey for each parent/family
Attach an envelope to each copy
Distribute the copies to each parent /family
Collect the sealed response envelopes in an envelope
When the survey returns date arrives, send the envelope with the parents responses to the Validator
The Validator will code the responses, make recommendations ,write a report and send a copy to the CCECENS
Evaluation:
At least 60% of parents respond with an average rating between 3.5 and 5.
- Early Childhood Work Environment Survey
Short form of the Work Environment Survey (Jorde-Bloom, Blueprint for Action, p.179):
The form is handed out to the staff, who would complete it, put it in an envelope, seal it, and hand it into the validator via the administrator or a designated staff. This gives a sense of how the staff as a whole perceive their work environment. (Clean copy for copying enclosed in the validation package).
Process:
- Set the return date for survey returns and write it in along with the centre name on the master copy of the survey.
- Make a copy of the Early Childhood Work Environment Survey for each staff member
- Attach an envelope to each copy
- Distribute the copies to each staff member
- Collect the sealed response envelopes in an envelope
- When the survey returns date arrives, send the envelope with the staff responses to the validator
- The Validator will code the responses, make recommendations ,write a report and send a copy to the CCECENS
Evaluation: 80-100 % of staff respond with an average rating between of 3.5 and 5
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Validator Site Visit:
An ECERS/ITERS/SACERS will be taken on the classrooms within a Centre. Where there are more than one classroom with the same age group, one ECERS/ITERS/SACERS may be taken using sections of the ECERS/ITERS/SACERS for each of the classrooms giving a composite of that age grouping rather than one classroom rating. This gives an assessment of the quality of the program, and provides the administrator with an external assessment of her classrooms. One half hour of time must be available for the validator to talk with staff regarding those observations that need questions answered in order to arrive at a rating. The validator will prepare a summary report and submit it to the CCECENS. (A copy of each of the scales is included in the package on loan for your information during the validation process. Copies can be purchased from Child Care Connection Nova Scotia.)
Process:
A date for the site visit is made between the Validator and the ECCA Candidate.
The Candidate provides a description of the classrooms in her centre giving numbers of classrooms, numbers of children, ages, program types (full time part time), number of staff, program models, etc. The Validator will choose the classrooms and inform the candidate upon arrival at the site.
The Validator will use the appropriate environment rating scale for each classroom assessed.
The assessment may involve a meeting with a classroom teacher for clarification of items. Please expect this and arrange for a staff person in each of the classrooms to be available for a one half hour period during the validator visit. If possible, please arrange a place where the validator and the teacher can meet to discuss the items for clarification.
A report of each classroom will be prepared, recommendations formulated and forwarded to CCECENS.
Evaluation: 50% of the classrooms will be rated,
reflecting a diversity in ages and locations (if applicable )
with an average rating between 5 and 7 in each of the seven sub
scale areas for each classroom rated.
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