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Raising the bar for the Commonwealth’s child care Capital Area Early Childhood Training Institute By Celena E. Kusch
Dr. Richard Fiene is director of Penn State’s Capital Area Early Childhood Training Institute. Dave Shelly Penn State Image Resource Center	In his recent study “The State of Infant Child Care Quality in Pennsylvania,” Dr. Richard Fiene, director of Penn State’s Capital Area Early Childhood Training Institute (CAECTI), found not only that ratings of child care for infants and toddlers are lower than desirable, but also that overall quality of programs is dropping. The latest findings for 2000 placed overall quality at a 3.9 (where 3=minimal, 5=good, 7=excellent) on the Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scale.   Fiene and his colleagues in the Early Childhood Training Institute believe Penn State can help reverse this trend by partnering with the Capital area community to improve access to high-quality training.   Fiene explained, “The research literature is very clear about the relationship between quality and training. Training is a cost-effective means for increasing the quality of child care programs.”   CAECTI works with agencies, programs, schools and hospitals in the Capital area to provide information and training to parents, child care workers and other professionals working with infants and toddlers.   The institute was founded as a unit of the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development under the direction of Dr. Mark Greenberg, the Edna P. Bennett Chair in Prevention Research and Professor of Human Development and Family Studies. As director, he has encouraged the development of community-University partnerships to identify problems and develop research-based strategies to address community needs. Penn State’s Harrisburg Center for Healthy Child Development, which houses the CAECTI, serves as a community-based extension of the Prevention Research Center at University Park.   During 1999, the Harrisburg Center for Healthy Child Development worked collaboratively with the Capital Area Funders Group to develop a plan to fill the tremendous need in the Commonwealth and nationwide to raise the quality of child care for infants and toddlers. In January 2000, the Harrisburg Center for Healthy Child Development and the Greater Harrisburg Foundation opened the Capital Area Early Childhood Training Institute.   Janice Black, president and chief operating officer of the Greater Harrisburg Foundation, has called the institute “a major accomplishment that will have a positive impact on many young lives and on their caretakers, as well.”   The institute has received more than $475,000 in grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare and secured a commitment from the state for additional funding for the next four years.   A central goal of CAECTI is to develop, implement and evaluate innovative training models based on sound research principles.   “Penn State’s CAECTI is uniquely qualified to take on this particular study,” Fiene stated. “Although the institute is a relatively new organization, the staff are seasoned professionals and are drawing upon the significant resources of the Penn State University system. CAECTI has the ready resources of other faculty who are well known in the area of evaluation research in early childhood development, including Dr. Lynne Vernon-Feagans, Dr. Betsy Manlove and Dr. James Van Horn.”   Vernon-Feagans is professor of human development and family studies and associate dean for research in the College of Health and Human Development, and Manlove is assistant professor of human development and family studies. Van Horn is professor of rural sociology in the College of Agricultural Sciences.   The institute’s most recent work is focused on the CAECTI Infant Mentoring Project. The mentoring project uses an intensive one-on-one problem-solving approach for training child-care professionals. One goal of the project is to improve the quality of care that infants and toddlers receive by providing their caregivers with on-site training and technical assistance through a mentoring relationship with an early childhood professional. In addition, a formal evaluation of the project will determine program effectiveness and will focus on demonstrating the relationship between innovative, personalized caregiver training, program quality and later achievements in children’s development.   According to Fiene, this is a new and exciting departure for caregiver training.   “The majority of training offered in Pennsylvania and nationally is of the workshop variety,” he explained. “Research demonstrates that this form of training can be effective if provided in a very targeted fashion. Unfortunately, workshop training is one size fits all. As such, most training opportunities are not focused toward the unique needs of caregivers serving infants and toddlers. Because of the individual nature of infant and caregiver interactions, we have proposed that a one-on-one mentoring approach would be a more effective means for providing ongoing training rather than the usual workshop training.”   Unlike conventional workshop models, the mentoring project will involve seven days of training and will take place over a four-month period. The mentoring model will include taped observations, mentoring during the ongoing child care day, as well as reflective sessions with the mentor and caregiver.   Already the evaluation data from this project is informing state policymakers on the effectiveness of the mentoring approach and the possible value of exploring a statewide mentoring program for infant and toddler caregivers.   “The institute’s mentoring program has been so successful that the state child care training system is looking to expand it to other sites in the new fiscal year,” Fiene added.   In addition to its formal mentoring project, the Capital Area Early Childhood Training Institute has also established an on-line Capital Area Early Childhood Training Directory, which helps child-care professionals identify training projects, services and resources from many area agencies.   The institute’s Web site (http://ecti.hbg.psu.edu) provides the latest research and information related to infants and toddlers for both parents and child care providers. This information includes developmental milestone information, what to look for in selecting high-quality child care programs, links to other pertinent infancy/early childhood sites, a resource library, upcoming events, the summer institute for child care providers, the training directory and scholarships/grant opportunities.   The Capital Area Early Childhood Training Institute is a partnership of the Harrisburg Center for Healthy Child Development and the Capital Area Funders Group. The Funders Group includes: boards of commissioners for Dauphin, Cumberland and Perry counties, Dauphin County Office of Human Services, Cumberland County Office of Aging and Community Services, Perry County Office of Children and Youth, the City of Harrisburg, State of Pennsylvania (Department of Public Welfare), United Way of the Capital Region, United Way of the Greater Carlisle Area, Tri-County Alliance for Youth, Capital Region Health Futures, the Institute of Healthy Communities, the Whitaker Foundation, the Wells Foundation and the Greater Harrisburg Foundation.