The Early Childhood Contact (ECC)
As part of administering the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), the Intermediate School District (ISD) will designate an Early Childhood Contact (ECC). The ECC is the early childhood leader at the ISD, facilitating an ISD-wide plan with a vision to improve child outcomes, to minimize achievement gaps and help all stakeholders to see the “big picture” of how GSRP strategically fits into local early childhood efforts. The ECC uses the written GSRP philosophy statement as a foundation to partner with the GSRP Early Childhood Specialists (ECS) on data-based decisions for continuous quality improvement. For ISDs with larger populations, the ECC may work with a team to fulfill the responsibilities of the position. For ISDs with smaller populations, the ECC may also serve as the ECS. In this instance, care must be taken to ensure that responsibilities of the ECS, as outlined in the Early Childhood Specialist section of this manual, are not compromised.
The ECC and other ISD staff, including the ISD Superintendent, Fiscal Office, Pupil Accounting, etc. must work in collaboration to ensure the program is compliant with all GSRP requirements and meeting children and family needs, while also supporting the regional early childhood landscape.
ISD administrative policies and procedures document approaches to overarching aspects of the grant, such as community needs assessment, choosing and supporting subrecipients, notification of funding, community partnerships, recruitment, family engagement, communication, record-keeping, staff credentialing, and program and fiscal monitoring. Administrative policies and procedures must also address systematic oversight of subrecipient practices.
ECC Responsibility for Early Childhood Specialist (ECS) Coordination and Support
The ECC ensures that there is an ECS assigned to each classroom. At times, ISDs are unable to identify a well-qualified candidate to fill an ECS position after an extensive search. In that case, the ECC should contact the assigned consultant.
In determining ECS classroom assignments and other duties, the ISD is responsible first and foremost for assuring the ECS’s role in coaching and supporting the teaching team. Please refer to the ECS section of the Implementation Manual for further guidance. As the ECC designs the system of ECS supports for the ISD and assigns classrooms to individual ECS, the following elements are considered:
- Required ECS functions and the hours needed to fulfill functions.
- Additional functions the ISD assigns to ECS, and the hours needed to complete them.
- Expertise and experience of the ECS.
- Experience of the subrecipient and teaching team(s) with operating a PreK program, maintaining a child care license, and meeting GSRP requirements. For example, the ECC may plan additional classroom visits and/or more intensive support for beginning teachers, teachers new to GSRP, teachers that have less-than-expected program quality, or teachers on compliance plans.
- Number of assigned subrecipients, sites, and classrooms.
- Geographic location of the assigned classrooms and amount of travel time between sites.
- Relationships between the ECS and teaching teams, especially if ECS are monitoring teaching staff as well as coaching them.
The ISD provides:
- A master calendar for all ECS activities, which aligns with reporting requirements on program evaluation, scheduled professional learning calendars and meetings such as ECS peer group, the local family participation groups, school readiness advisory committee (SRAC), or superintendent/school board meetings.
- A coaching documentation system and form(s) used for each session that is maintained and reviewed periodically. It must include at a minimum:
- Date of observation, coaching, or feedback session
- Intention of the session,
- Method of feedback with the lead and associate teachers,
- Observational notes reflecting the session,
- Any expected follow-up on either the part of the ECS or the teaching team, and
- Confirmation that all members of the teaching team and the ECS participated in the session and agree to the content of the form.
- The ECC should review documentation periodically to see that teaching teams are getting the support needed and that the ECS team members are fulfilling the requirements of the position.
- A position description for every ECS, whether employed or contracted by the ISD or subrecipient, that includes the amount of time to be dedicated to GSRP work for the year. All position descriptions must be clear in the expectations to meet GSRP requirements: classroom observation/program evaluation, feedback, ongoing support, meetings, professional learning, etc. All must include a requirement to attend ISD and/or Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP) ECS meetings and professional learning required for the ECS as well as being available to the ISD or MiLEAP as needed as part of the monitoring process. References to meeting the requirements included in the position description must be included in all subrecipient contracts where the subrecipient provides the ECS.
- Support alignment of GSRP with K-12 and children’s transition into kindergarten and protect hallmarks of early childhood education such as learner-centered, active, participatory learning and authentic partnership with families in their child’s development. (See the Transition section of the Implementation Manual for more information.)
