About Us {What We Do}
The California Early Childhood Mentor Program links remuneration with better access to education and professional development opportunities for both classroom teachers and program administrators. The Program selects experienced classroom teachers to mentor student teachers from community college, ROP and four-year early childhood programs. In addition to a stipend for professional development, Mentors are paid stipends to use their classrooms as high‑quality training environments. Stipends vary depending on the number of hours spent supervising student teachers. Student teachers receive course credit for the practicum requirements of their training institutions. Because many early childhood students work full-time in centers or family child care homes, they often cannot take time from work to complete the practicum course at the campus laboratory center. The California Early Childhood Mentor Program aims to make the practicum course more accessible by offering it through Mentors in programs throughout the community.
Mentors may also receive stipends for non-course-based mentoring. For example, Mentors are paid stipends to work with students after their practicum course is completed, to assist ECE students who need support in other areas, and to take on increased leadership roles in their colleges and communities.
The program recruits teachers who have worked at least two years in an early childhood classroom or family child care home, who have completed a college early childhood training program that included a supervised teaching course and who are eligible for the Master Teacher level, or above, of the California Child Development Permit. In order to apply, teachers must complete a course in adult supervision skills and classroom evaluation, offered by participating community colleges. Upon completion of the course, these teachers may submit an application which includes information on their educational background and experience, a personal statement, and a self-evaluation of their classrooms using one of the Harms and Clifford Rating Scales (ECERS-R, ITERS-R, SACERS, or FCCERS-R). A Selection Committee composed of instructors from the community college and teachers, directors and others from the child development community reviews the applications and evaluates the applicants' classrooms using the Rating Scales.
After Mentors are selected, the practicum instructor places student teachers in the Mentors' classrooms. Mentors concurrently participate in a variety of activities for their ongoing professional development, including monthly in-service training seminars, the Mentor Institute, and public speaking engagements. The linkage between stipends, access to training, and professional development opportunities is intended to create new career opportunities for experienced teachers, decrease teacher turnover, and improve the quality of child care.
In 1996, the Program developed new activities for directors. Program directors or site supervisors with at least three years of administrative experience, currently or formerly employed in child development programs, who have a participated in a half-day information session and completed a full-day Director Mentor Institute are eligible to apply to become Director Mentors. First, they must submit an application packet to the Mentor Program Selection Committee in their community. Following initial screening and when appropriate, members of the Selection Committee conduct a site review to verify program quality as well as specific areas of the applicant’s leadership and management skills. The Mentor Program has adopted the Program Administration Scale (PAS, Talan and Bloom, 2004) as an assessment tool used in Director Mentor selection.
Those applicants who are subsequently certified as Director Mentors for three years receive a stipend to provide twenty hours of technical support to each protégé with whom a contract is signed, pending approval of the Mentor Program Coordinator. The Director Mentor provides a unique one-on-one learning relationship with the novice director in the practical and theoretical aspects of Center administration and leadership. Director Mentors are offered support for their own professional development through a monthly Director Seminar which focuses on supervision, leadership and advocacy strategies. The Seminar may be attended by any director. Seasoned Director Mentors receive further training in mentoring and leadership development at Advanced Director Mentor Institutes, offered annually. Director Mentors will also have opportunities to receive stipends for short-term mentoring, for assisting Director Mentor applicants in understanding and administering the PAS, and for giving presentations about the Mentor Program.