Page 4 - Gateways for Early Educators

Gateways for Early Educators
work as a profession and therefore being in the position for a shorter period of time or how they define the “current” position.
During the 2015-16 program year the agencies trained 3,832 unduplicated early childhood educators in 876 training sessions for an average of 7.11 hours per participant. As the R&R agencies continued their partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to train early childhood educators in nutrition and physical activity, the number of early childhood educators remained higher than those before the partnership was in place in 2013. This increase in the number of people trained in recent years also resulted in a lower average number of trainings per participants which indicates the Gateways program has attracted new participants as a result of the partnership. At first glance, it appears the Gateways Program provided the adequate number and types of trainings needed for completing a passport and earning the Karen Kaye Award. However, given the diversity of early childhood educators served through Gateways, it is imperative the program evaluate the trainings offered against the needs of participants of the program, and specifically, the early childhood educators each agency serves as their language needs and levels of professional development may vary. As the Gateways Program prepares to transition the tracking of Gateways Passport achievement through the California Early Care and Education Workforce Registry, it will be imperative that the R&R agencies continue their educational effort in partnership with the Registry Office to encourage utilization of the Registry by Gateways participants.
A subsample of evaluations for Gateways trainings was analyzed to assess knowledge increase in the training topic and intent to implement the new knowledge into the child care environment. Training sessions impacted knowledge and intent to implement knowledge with high ratings (3.83 or higher out of 4.0 on all items) in the following areas: the training presented helpful ideas that I will be able to use, the training was informative, the training increased my knowledge about the topic presented, and because of this training I plan to do new things with the children I serve.
Having recognized the importance of technology use now and in the future, the Gateways Program assessed the computer and technology training needs of participants as they enrolled in the program. As a result of information gleaned from the computer literacy assessments conducted with incoming Gateways participants during the 2014- 2015 program year and during the current program year, CCALA developed a training module regarding technology for early care and education professionals. A total of 350 participants completed a computer literacy assessment and 79 participants took part in 8 computer and technology trainings conducted by CCALA and hosted by R&R agencies. Findings from the computer literacy assessment indicated that participants feel comfortable using computers and access email either on their computer or their cell phone (the largest percentage access email via their computer). Spanish-speaking participants reported lower levels of skill than their English-speaking counterparts.
2016
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