Overview
Shoreline Community College
Business, Intra-American Studies and Social
Sciences Division
The Education Program
INTRODUCTION
The Education Program consists of 3 core options
of study for the Applied Associate in Arts and
Science. Those options are:
We also have two Certificates of Proficiency
programs;
Our Professional-Technical program is designed
for students who are interested in becoming
Early Childhood Educators or Child Care
Providers. We also provide education courses
for the, students who are transferring into
4-year institutions with the goal of becoming
K-12th teachers.
Currently our program consists of 2 full-time,
tenured faculty members: Betty Peace-Gladstone
and Tasleem T. Qaasim, who are responsible for
teaching 12 of our education courses on a
rotating schedule, the 3 bilingual/bicultural
courses are taught by adjunct faculty. We have
a total of 15 courses currently in the program.
BACKGROUND
Previous Grant Programs
From 2000 through 2005 our program was awarded
over $2 million dollars through competitive City
and Federal Grants. In 2000, we wrote our first
grant of approximately $1 million over five
years for the City of Seattle Child Care
Comprehensive Grant (CCC). In 2002, as the
Architect of the Seattle Early Reading First
Grant (SERF) for the City of Seattle that was
awarded over $3 million from the U. S.
Department of Education. Both of these programs
made major contributions to the advancement to
early learning in our region.
Seattle Early Reading First (SERF)
The SERF project was a partnership among the
City of Seattle, Shoreline Community College,
Seattle Public Schools, the Seattle Public
Library, Public Health, the University of
Washington, and five local early childhood
centers. The Seattle Early Reading First (SERF)
partnership has made significant and measurable
progress helping low-income, African American
and Latino preschoolers and their families by
improving their reading readiness and
preparation for kindergarten.
The SERF program was one of 29 grants awarded
out of over 200 applications nationwide. The
SCC Education department was responsible for the
program coordination and service delivery for
the following components:
-
Developing “Best Practices” for literacy
programs based on current scientific
research and school readiness guidelines;
-
Providing college-level classes for the
advancement of knowledge of the participant
child-care providers;
-
Improving the professional qualifications of
early education teachers at the selected
sites;
-
Identifying and procuring classroom
materials and support for teachers and
children, including books, supplies,
improved classroom environments and better
literacy curricula;
-
Providing training and professional
development for child care teachers,
including one-on-one coaching in the
classroom;
-
Assisting with increased family involvement
in literacy through “Family Literacy Nights”
at Seattle public libraries.
Winning the award of these grants provided an
exceptional opportunity to contribute to our
community while enhancing the expertise and
reputation of the college. During the
implementation of these grant programs, the
Education Program:
-
Provided staff for the administration of
these grants including a Project Manager,
2-program coordinators, 6 coaches, 9
trainers, 1 literacy specialist, and 2
administrative assistants;
-
Developed Instruction for Off-Campus,
Neighborhood Classes;
-
Provided Off-Campus Evening Student
Advisement & Registration;
-
Provided Dual-Language models for ESL
students through translation equipment and
interpreters;
-
Increased enrollment of underrepresented
students;
-
Designed and developed curricula for
infusion of current scientific research into
12 education courses;
-
Designed a 4 tier - career pathway for ECE
teachers in SERF Program.
Results from the SERF program indicated that in
2003, 66 percent of SERF children had met a
standard score of 85 or higher on the
Peabody-Picture Vocabulary Test and by 2005, 93
percent of SERF children met that benchmark,
documenting a 27 percent increase. In 2003, 37
percent of SERF children met the standard score
of 85 or higher on the Metropolitan Readiness
Beginning Reading Skill test and in 2004 (the
very next year), more than 54 percent met that
benchmark documenting a 17.5 percent increase in
one year!
While most SERF teachers had been working in
early childhood education for several years,
very few have degrees in early childhood
education. WE changed that paradigm by providing
college-level courses in the evening at the
worksites, in the communities where those
teachers worked and lived. By 2006, over 40
early childhood educators had received a Child
Development Associate Certificate for completing
a one year program, completed at least 12
credits towards their AA degree or received
their Associate degree in one of our 3 core
options as the result of these grants in our
program.
CURRENT PROGRAMS
SERF II Program
Principally due to our work with SERF I; in
2007, the U.S. Department of Education refunded
the SERF program for an additional $4 million.
Currently we have 20 new SERF teachers slotted
to participate in our program in the near
future. Although the current SERF program
focuses on training and not teacher education;
we are involved in the development of their
training modules, once the training needs of the
teachers have been more fully identified.
Math and Science Education Course Development
To enhance our role in responding to the
Washington State Department of Early Learning
Initiatives, we are developing math and science
course integration for our program. Shoreline
Community College proposes to enhance the
capability of educators of young children to
support math and science learning throughout the
early childhood years. Towards this end, new
college coursework in early learning will be
developed and offered (EDU 106 Math in Early
Education) and existing coursework will be
enhanced with science content (EDU 140 K-3
Instructional Methods and EDU 150 Early
Childhood Curriculum). Opportunities for
students to observe and participate in math and
science education in early childhood classrooms
will be enhanced as we provide training in math
and science to the classroom staff of the
on-campus child care facility, allowing them to
better demonstrate math and science education at
work in an early childhood setting through this
innovative curriculum. Diverse sources of
support will be provided to students to ensure
achievement and success as they complete the
requirements for certificates and degrees in
Education at Shoreline Community College.
Students will also be given consistent
encouragement to utilize existing resources on
our campus. We have already begun
implementation of these activities, which will
reach completion by the end of the 2008 - 2009
academic year.
IBEST Program (Integrated Basic education and
Skills Training)
In partnership with the ESL/ABE program, the
Education Program will provide specific support
to students who are working towards English
fluency, but are not native speakers of
English. Students who are second language
learners have the option of enrolling in the new
I-BEST program (to be launched in the Spring
Quarter of 2008), which starts them on the
pathway toward obtaining basic Early Childhood
Credentials (State
Training and Registry System (STARS)
is a career development
system designed to improve child care through
basic and on-going training for child care
providers, Food Handler Certification and
First Aid/CPR Certification training) as they
continue to move towards English fluency. We
are attempting to identify what the benefits
would be for childcare providers, who are
currently working in field without the
recommended course work. We would like to see
the State include job incentives in the IBEST
program for these low wage employees. We have
had advocacy meetings around this issue.
Another option for ESL students is for them to
participate in a three-course series of
Education courses that are delivered in either a
Dual-language model (Spanish/English) or with
translation services; so there is no delay in
their acquisition of course content as they work
towards English proficiency. Our
Bilingual/Bicultural core was successfully
piloted through our grant programs and it is our
desire to maintain for future ESL students.
Online Classes and Credit for Prior Experiential
Learning
The Education certificate and AAAS curriculum
includes four-online classes, which assist with
student retention by providing some flexibility
in scheduling of course schedules for students.
Several options for Credit for Prior
Experiential Learning are available to
streamline completion of a certificate or AAAS
degree. Where appropriate, an individualized
transcript review by Education faculty maximizes
the ability of students with prior coursework in
Education to transfer credits from other
institutions with minimal disruption in their
progress toward completion of their degree or
certificate. This is an extremely valuable
option for those students.
Partnership with the ELN in Seattle and
Articulations Agreements with 4 year
institutions
The Education Program at Shoreline is one of the
colleges in partnership with the Early Learning
Network (ELN) of Seattle, and there have been
several meetings with a focus on collaboration
between these colleges regarding articulation of
coursework. Because Shoreline has a Credit
for Prior Experiential Learning policy in
place, and a faculty transcript review process
for course equivalencies supplemented by
waivers, students experience a great deal of
support in maximizing the transferability of
coursework. We are sensitive to their need to
maximize the transfer of credits from other
institutions, particularly for coursework from
other Education programs in the community
college network. Shoreline has also worked on
articulation agreements with the four-year
colleges in Washington for Elementary Education
programs. We are in the process of doing the
same thing with the new Child and Family Studies
major at the University of Washington, so
students experience strong support as they
transfer in to Shoreline and as they transfer
from Shoreline to other institutions. We are
also working on an articulation agreement with
Mayville State College in North Dakota, for an
online degree in Early Childhood Education, and
hope to have this in place within the 2008
calendar year.
Development of a Lab School
We are working with our on-campus childcare
facility to develop a framework for a lab school
on-campus. The SCC Education Department is
preparing the foundation for curriculum
development for the necessary coursework to
support this program. This will require a
combination of curricula review and update, new
course content, and new MCO’s and master syllabi
for the selected courses to incorporate math and
science content into the education coursework.
This program will include lectures, workshops,
and curriculum notebooks. We will infuse the
latest scientific content into two specific
courses (EDU 140 and EDU 150). We will train
six Parent Child Center (PCC) staff in these new
math and science courses to ensure that they
will be able to model infusion of this course
content into the child care center. The PCC is
currently used to provide observation for SCC
Education Department students doing their
practicum and we plan to enhance this role
through these modifications.
FUTURE INVOLVEMENT
We are excited about the Department of Early
Learning Initiatives, Thrive by Five, Washington
Learns and see these as important initiatives
for the future. Although we, at Shoreline, have
not received any funding or other incentives
directly from DEL, we are hopeful that as the
State more fully develops the scope; they will
set aside the funding for the community colleges
to implement the empirical research, development
of ‘best practices’, curricula changes, and
instruction that will be necessary to fully
implement such an ambitious program. We
understand that the Department of Early Learning
has indicated Requests for Proposals for various
grants through their ‘Thrive to Five
Partnership’ to move their initiatives forward.
Based on or successful experience with grants
that were forerunners to this initiative, we
should be in a competitive position. We hope to
be able to have sufficient time to respond to
these grant opportunities when they become
available. We also see this as a pivotal time
to pursue federal and private sector grants in
education, but it is extremely difficult to
invest the intensive time necessary to write a
successful grant proposal while performing the
responsibilities of teaching full time.
CONCLUSION
We hope this provides a deeper understanding of
our Education Program, primarily the
Professional Technical component, and the
increased work demands. We believe that through
our work at Shoreline, we have demonstrated our
ability, as a program to write, be awarded, and
manage significant grants that are useful in
Professional Technical Programs. However,
procuring funding, program management, combined
with full time instruction continues to require
extensive time, effort and flexibility. It is
our hope to find innovative ways to do all three
functions without overly taxing ourselves as
faculty. Any support from the Board of Trustees
will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Tasleem Qaasim and Betty Peace Gladstone
Professor(s) of Education
1/23/08
Transfer
Degree: Associate of Arts Degree
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Designed to provide students with a broad
liberal arts background of study during their
first and second years of college with an
emphasis on education. The state’s two-year and
four-year schools developed transfer
agreements that allow students from a
community college to transfer at least 90
credits (60 semester credits) to a four-year
college or university. The degrees satisfy
some – or all – general requirements for a
bachelor’s degree.
Professional-Technical Degree: Associate of
Applied Arts & Sciences Degree
There are several areas of focus for those
interested in a professional-technical degree
that will take them straight to the workforce.
