The Education, Child and Family Studies programs, including Education/Child Development/ Early Childhood Education and Family Studies courses, focuses on in-depth foundational knowledge, skills, and dispositions that prepare students with workforce competencies for various careers within the profession. The programs offer students the opportunity to complete general education requirements, coursework for Certificates, AS, as well as educational requirements for students who are pursuing transfer to a four-year university in a related major thru AA/AS-T degrees.
The Butte College Child Development and Family Relations (CDF) discipline, which includes Child Development (CD) Early Childhood Education (ECE), and Elementary Teacher Education is housed in the Education, Child and Family Studies (ECFS) Department. ECFS is a thriving program with many and varied options for students to acquire educational achievements for competency in promoting child development and learning; building family and community relationships; implementing program and child assessment systems; teaching and learning in a diverse society, elementary education, and professional development. The program is complemented by the Child Development Center (CDC) that serves as a model laboratory for students in Early Childhood Education, Child Development, and other disciplines (Social & Behavioral Sciences, Nursing, Paramedics, Food & Nutrition, Drama, Elementary Teacher Education, other). ECFS offers students the opportunity to complete coursework for: general education, AS degree in Early Childhood Education (ECE), Child Development Transfer degree, AS-T in Early Childhood Education, AA-T Elementary Education, Certificate in Para-Professional, Certificate in ECE, Certificate of Achievement in ECE, Certificate Child and Family Studies, or a Social & Behavioral Sciences degree. The department offers several ECE courses in a Spanish cohort model that supports California's needs for Spanish speaking early educators.
The Child Development Center received funds from the district to install a key pad. This key pad is used to track student and faculty hours while on lab.
Having a electronic system to track hours is a cost saving for the department. Furthermore, it address the issue of safety for the Child Development Center. Only authorized user of the key pad can enter the Child Development Center.
Educaiton, Child and Family Stuides department is currently in the self-study of program review.
The ECFC program continues to not just maintain core program elements but to keep course outlines up-to-date, offer students ongoing academic advising, recruitment and marketing of students through career days and campus visits; while maintaining a consistent and predictable offering of courses in a variety of modalities, locations, languages and times. Faculty continue to hold leadership positions in the local community, regionally and state professional organizations. We continue to find ways to balance the work commitments with personal wellness. The department is still committed to making our Child Development Center accredited with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
The department places approximately 115 student into a TBA lab. Approximately, 70 such students are placed at the Child Development Center while other students are placed off-campus. The time and collaboration needed to successfully match students with off-campus sites is enormous. The department could be more efficient in doing these placements by having a lab technican at the Child Devleopment Center. The department was faced with dilemma in the fall 2017 when Chico USD pulled 55 plus EDUC 2 students from their school campus. This dilemma created a need to get field placement agreements in place with several local charter schools to for spring 2018. During this dilemma secretarial support was denied to the chair yet the work needed to be done to support students enrolled in EDUC 2. Having a lab placement technican for ECE and EDUC 2 & 4 placement would support student success and ensure the health and safety of children.
The goals of Education, Child and Family Studies are as follows:
- Increase the chair's release time to 40%
- Request full-time faculty to teach our Education 2, 4 and 5
- Sustain funding for the ECE Spanish Program
- Provide funding to hire a lab placement technician
- Provide funding for dashboard student completion and career readiness
- Provide funding for the teacher recruitment project for outreach & engagement and cross system alignment
Strategy 1 - Increase the chair's release time to 40%
The department added AA/T Elementary Teacher Education, AS in Liberal Studies and the Liberal Studies Bi-lingual degree in 2015-16 without recalculating the release time of the chair. These degrees has added several duties to the chair workload. For example, creation of new advisory committee, attending other advisory committee meeting at Chico State and school districts, collaboration with ROP high schools and school districts for student placements, additional faculty to evaluate, added department meetings, grant writing and course development and scheduling.
It is key the department chair’s is available to support students and faculty. The addition of a new degree and two new certificates the chair’s release time needs to be recalculated. Currently, 63% of courses in the department are taught by associate faculty and with no full-time faculty dedicated to teaching courses in the AA/T Elementary Teacher Education degree. If the college is truly committed to having the Education, Child and Family Studies department achieve the performance standards goals from 65% to 78% the need to recalculate the release time of the chair should be high consideration.
Strategy 2 - Full-time Educational Faculty
The department currently teaches four sections of Education 2, one section of Education 4 and one section of Education 5. Of the six sections 4 sections are lab/lecture courses. It is key to recognize that all courses are taught by associate faculty.
With about a third of the teaching force nearing retirement, the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning estimates that California will need an additional 100,000 teachers over the next decade. Top reasons cited by districts for shortage include; access and/or cost of teacher preparation program, teachers retiring, crowded classes, low perceived teacher salary, and need for specialized teachers in STEM, math, science and special education. Butte College can be a part of this solution by hiring a single full-time faculty to address this shortage of teachers.
Strategy 3 - ECE Spanish Program
Butte College always strives for serving our diverse population of students. Butte College’s Demographic Report (BCDR) 2015-2015 states that “With the ongoing increase in the percentage of Hispanic students (from 15% to 23% over the past five years) the college is a Hispanic Serving Institution – HSI,” (BCDR p. 11).” Hispanic/Latino students at Butte College are at this point at or above 19.9% of the total student Population (www.hacu.net).
The Spanish Early Childhood Education (ECE) Program has been serving Hispanic students since January 2008. This program provides the necessary education in Early Childhood Education for students to be hired as teacher assistants, associate teachers, and teachers in public and private child care programs. Students attending this program have a high rate of course completion, high percentage of class attendance, and tend to be hired in Butte, Glenn and adjacent counties.
The Education, Child and Family Studies Department (ECFS), has supported these students providing ECE advising, connecting students with campus resources such as counseling, financial aid, Assessment, and other internal services; The ECFS department has also provided student support for students to apply for Child Development Training Consortium (CDTC) funding, and to apply for ECE Teacher Permits through the California Department of Education, which are needed to apply and retain jobs.
The continuation of funding for this program, which was previously funded thriugh student equity funding will support college and students to:
During past years’ advisory meetings, child care programs have advised our ECFS Department of the need to hire Spanish speaking/bilingual staff to work in child care programs. Specific program performance standards mandate that some agencies hire staff who speak the child's home language. While the Hispanic population in Butte County is 15.7%, in Glenn County this population is 41.1% (US Census Bureau, updated 2015).
Butte College has been identified as an Emerging Hispanic Serving Institution with 19.9% of FTEs (HIS www.hacu.net. This status is given to colleges serving a large population of students who identify as Hispanic, Latina/o, Mexican, Mexican-American, or Chicano/o. The ECE program meets 100% this category of students.
Students attending this program are likely to be employed in Private and Public Childcare/Pre-K Agencies in Butte, Glenn and adjacent counties. Ed Join job search shows the need for bilingual staff under this category.
Upon availability of Student Equity Funding, the Butte College's ECE Program offered in Spanish, has been awarded for two consecutive years funding to mitigate the disproportionate impact of this group of students. Through funding received from Student Equity, this program has addressed the needs for ESL students through:
In order to maintain this quality program it is fundamental to continue its funding to create handout resources for students when no books are available, purchase books as materials become available in Spanish, purchase closed captioned videos in Spanish, allocate funding for marketing materials (including radio advertisements, which play a huge role in recruiting students and fund activity time for the instructor coordinating the recruitment and retention of students enrolled in the ECE Program in Spanish, and for the Instructor coordinating this effort to keep current in community college trends in serving Hispanic students through conference attendance at state or national level.
Strategy 4 - Lab Placement Technician
Support the hiring of a lab placement technician to support the coordination and placement of 180 or more students into a lab site each academic year. Each semester the Child Development Center has 80 plus students to get “lab ready” while another 115 students seek placement off-campus in locally approved preschools and TK-12th grades.
The placement of students is currently completed by each course instructor,the department chair and the director of the child development department. All students are asked to provide evidence of immunizations and clearance of a criminal background check for which needs reviewing and approved prior to being placed at their assigned lab site. Furthermore, each student will request a day, time and place for which they’ll complete their lab hours for which needs coordination. This process is completed by each individual course instructor. Each individual course instructor will spend 3 or more hours per student to complete the entire placement process.
The hiring of a p/t lab placement technician is needed to coordinated lab placements and remove the bulk of this responsibility away from the individual course instructors.
To ensure the health and safety of the children at the Child Development Center and children in local schools districts the department is requesting the hire of lab placement technician. The person in this position will oversee all the requirements to for a student to be ready for lab e.g., finger printing, immunization, TB test, pre-requisites, scheduling of students days & times, and coordination with individual course instructors.
Strategy 5 - Student Completion & Career Readiness
Through program review and current Perkins data we’ve identified the following barriers to student completion and career readiness.
Beginning in fall 2019, all students enrolled in any lab course (CDF 40, 63, 78 or 99) will be required to have a cleared criminal background check (Live Scan). In fall 2015, all CDF 78 students were required to have a cleared criminal background. When this became a requirement we heard from students that this was a financial barrier to completion of certificates and/or degrees. Over the past eight semester the department has held an advising event to inform students of the cost of getting a cleared criminal background check. Students have reported having the information is helpful but they still can’t afford such cost. EOPS students are provided funds for such cost but not all low income students therefore becomes an equity issue.
The department coordinates an annual Future Educator Advising event. At this event, students are provided with 1:1 advising on certificates, degrees, transfer, and the process to apply for a credential with Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
Our ECE major serves higher than normal students with identified learning disabilities (25% in 2015-16). One identified strategy for such student is to provide them with additional practicum experience and a career coach.
Strategy 6 - Teacher Recruitment Project (TRP)
Teacher Recruitment Project (TRP) has a focus to increase the number of students seeking a career in Teacher Education. The funds from this project will create an educational faculty task force, which will includes faculty from other disciplines at Butte College. The faculty task force will design strategies to strengthening advising, outreach, marketing and identifying students who are seeking a career in teacher education. The selection of faculty will be those faculty members interested in supporting students pursuing teaching careers in the STEM field, special education, bi-lingual and para-education. In the second phase of this project, the department will enhance our partnerships with surrounding, high schools (2 +2 agreements), TK-12 school district, state preschools and Head Start agencies. Their partnerships are key to the placement of students to meet the requirement of field experience hours (aka lab). In the final phase of this project, it is all about transferring to a CSU. The faculty task force will coordinate field trip events for students to attend events at the CSU, Chico, and/or CSU, Sacramento.
Phases of the Teacher Recruitment Project (TRP)
Butte College is committed to addressing the labor market demand for preschool, primary (includes middle school teachers) secondary, and other teaching occupation. The labor market data informs us of the need for 21 instruction related occupation including a career as a para-professional being the highest need (8,356) in the next five years. With about a third of the teaching force nearing retirement, the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning estimates that California will need an additional 100,000 teachers over the next decade which has reached crisis proportions in some areas, is most acute in urban and rural schools. Over the next ten years, California would need to replace more than 106,000 teachers (over one-third of the current workforce) just to maintain current staffing levels.
Currently, Butte has established partnerships with surrounding Transitional Kindergarten-12 districts. Such partnerships include either a 2+2 articulations, field placement agreement, or as a member of the school site advisory committee. In addition, the ECFS department is currently partnering with College of Liberal Studies at Chico State University under the Integrated Teacher Preparation Program (ITPP) grant. This grant ended in December 2018. My request for funds will expand and enhance the faculty knowledge the need to recruit and support the recruitment of diverse teachers and ameliorate critical teacher shorages in STEM, special education, bi-linguial, early educaiton, and CTE.
Consistent secretarial support for department budgets, grants, meeting rooms, program review, travel request, certificates, lab forms, ect.
The use of facilities to offer the Future Educator Advising event.
The support from the Strong Workforce team in the implementation of the grant.
The support to allow associate faculty to participate in SLO deep dive dialogue.
The support from the distance learning team in support faculty online course design.
The support from the curriculum committee staff in creating/modifying course outlines.
The support from the staff in student life in the creation of the Future Educator Club.
The support from grants office to write grants
The support from the CA ECE Mentor Program to fund stipends for off-campus lab teacher to mentor Butte College Students.
The support from Child Development Training Consoritum to provide stipends to students seeking academic units to apply for a Child Development Permit.
The support from OER to create resources.
The ECFC department was awarded a Regional Strong Workforce ECE Technology grants for three years. This grant will sunset in 2019.
In 2017-18, the department became a subcontractor with Chico State Liberal Studies College. These funds help fund curriculum allignment activties, collaboration, and event planning to recurit future educators. This grant ended on December 2018.
In 2018-19 the department was awarded a small Perkins award to create, market and provide professional development for the Para-Education Certificate.
In 2018-19 the department was awarded funds to purchase additional markeing materails for the ECE Spanish program and to support the Men in Child Care Conference.
Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
1 | Education, Child and Family Studies | Personnel | 110005201130500 | $0.00 | $2,500.00 | |
Increase Chair release time to 40% | It is key the department chair�s is available to support students and faculty. The addition of a new degree and two new certificates the chair�s release time needs to be recalculated. Currently, 63% of courses in the department are taught by associate faculty and with no full-time faculty dedicated to teaching courses in the AA/T Elementary Teacher Education degree. If the college is truly committed to having the Education, Child and Family Studies department achieve the performance standards goals from 65% to 78% the need to recalculate the release time of the chair should be high consideration. |
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2 | Education, Child and Family Studies | Personnel | $0.00 | $109,000.00 | ||
Full-Time Education Faculty | With about a third of the teaching force nearing retirement, the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning estimates that California will need an additional 100,000 teachers over the next decade. Top reasons cited by districts for shortage include; access and/or cost of teacher preparation program, teachers retiring, crowded classes, low perceived teacher salary, and need for specialized teachers in STEM, math, science and special education. Butte College can be a part of this solution by hiring a single full-time faculty to meet the demand. |
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3 | Education, Child and Family Studies | Operating Expenses | 110005201130500 | 54200 | $0.00 | $17,000.00 |
ECE Spanish Program | For the past three semesters student equity funding has supported with funding for marketing this program. Since 2008 the Student ECE program, in Spanish has proven to be a solid program preparing ESL students to obtain certificates for courses offered in Spanish while students learn ESL in order to join the workforce. Private and Public child care agencies are in need of Spanish speaking or bilingual staff who may speak children�s home language. While these classes have been successful, there is a great need for quality instructional materials (recently published) in Spanish such as books, close captioned videos, creation of handouts. This program has a continuous need for funding as we currently offer eight courses in Spanish in a two year cycle (two of these are lab courses). To sustain the ECE/CDF Spanish program and to align this program with the college mission to be Hispanic Severing Institution it is vital that the department is awarded these funds. Augmentation � Marking/Advertising $2,000 � Instructional Equipment/Supplies $1,000 � Instructional staff time $7,000 |
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4 | Education, Child and Family Studies | Personnel | $0.00 | $7,000.00 | ||
Lab Placement Technician | To ensure the health and safety of the children at the Child Development Center and children in local schools districts the department is requesting the hire of lab technician. The person in this position will oversee all the requirements to be ready for lab e.g., finger printing, immunization, TB test, per-requisites, scheduling of students days & times, and coordination with individual course instructors. |
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5 | Educaiton, Child and Family Study | Operating Expenses | $0.00 | $7,000.00 | ||
Student Completion & Career Readiness | Beginning in fall 2018, all students enrolled in any lab course (CDF 40, 63,78) will be required to have a cleared criminal background check (Live Scan). EOPS students are provided funds for such cost but not all low income students therefore this becomes an equity issue. |
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6 | Education, Child and Family Studies | Personnel | $15,000.00 | $0.00 | ||
Teacher Recruitment Project | Teacher Recruitment Project (TRP) has a focus to increase the number of students seeking a career in Teacher Education. The funds from this project will create an educational faculty task force, which will includes faculty from other disciplines at Butte College. The faculty task force will design strategies to strengthening advising, outreach, marketing and identifying students who are seeking a career in teacher education. The selection of faculty will be those faculty members interested in supporting students pursuing teaching careers in the STEM field, special education, bi-lingual and para-education. In the second phase of this project, the department will enhance our partnerships with surrounding, high schools (2 +2 agreements), TK-12 school district, state preschools and Head Start agencies. Their partnerships are key to the placement of students to meet the requirement of field experience hours (aka lab). In the final phase of this project, it is all about transferring to a CSU. The faculty task force will coordinate field trip events for students to attend events at the CSU, Chico, and/or CSU, Sacramento. |
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