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When I started in our Head Start program more than a decade ago, I had a Child Development Associate credential. Only two of us spoke Spanish, so we were family home visitors. None of the teachers spoke Spanish.
Now we have language and literacy plans in our dual language preschool program, and a third of the teachers are bilingual and have college degrees. I have my associate degree and am working on a bachelor's in early childhood education. All of this has changed the way I view my teaching. I now think about my language and literacy plan and the best way to teach each child. Our enrolled families feel more valued too.
- Barbara Guillen, La Paloma Head Start Center, Mount Vernon, Washington
Education qualification requirements for early childhood teachers are increasing in>tnany types of federal, state, and community-based early childhood programs. The 2007 reauthorization of Head Start requires all teachers to have associate degrees and 50 percent to have earned a baccalaureate degree in early childhood education by the year 2013 (Improving Head Start 2007). Many statesponsored preschool programs have similar goals, as do programs seeking NAEYC Accreditation (NAEYC 2008, 18).
At the same time that teacher standards are rising, Head Start and other early childhood programs report difficulty in finding and retaining bilingual staff qualified in early childhood education (ECLKC 2010, 3). In Washington State, because the agricultural valley of Skagit County has a significant Latino population, we set out to support early childhood teachers in meeting higher educational requirements, including preparation to teach dual language learners.
This goal led to a vision of community collaboration to increase teachers' college graduation and develop course work in which teachers experience an infusion of language and literacy strategies for working with dual language learners, children who are learning in both Spanish and English. In this article we discuss the key strategies in this effort and share a collective reflection by teachers and collaborators.
Build relationships through collaboration and community
Eight years ago in Skagit County, a community college advisory team of early childhood program representatives and college faculty was formed to identify the supports and barriers for teachers to earn their early childhood associate degrees. We had noticed a worrisome trend of working early...