Accomplishments

Overview of major accomplishments and other highlights

2007-08 FUND DEVELOPMENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

 Dallas Foundation   $  50,000  Program Expansion
 Dallas Women’s Foundation $  21,000  Apprentice Training
 City of Dallas (CDBG) $  30,000  Apprentice Training
 City of Dallas (CDBG) $  34,000  Parent Training
 NCLR    $  55,600  Parent/ Training/Literacy
 ChildCareGroup  $  11,000  Teacher Training
 United Way   $100,000  Additional Funding
 Early Ed/Child Care

RECENT PROGRAMMATIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS

SER/NCLR – Latino Early Literacy Taskforce
NCLR LELT Year 1 (2007)—The SER/NCLR LELT meeting help February 28, 2007 convened leaders of the childcare community in Dallas with a focus on those issues facing providers of early education services to Hispanic children and families.  SER, a small 120 child early education facility, was able to garner support from key Dallas education providers, such as Dallas Independent School District, Dallas Head Start, Dallas United Way, and Dallas Child Care Group, in part, through the support of the National Council of La Raza.  In all, there were fifteen attendees from nine agencies.  During the meeting, Antonia Lopez from NCLR and Juan Torres/Dr. Carol Johnson-Gerendas from SER spoke with members of the LELT to clarify the purpose of the LELT and the PreK PAP training Institute scheduled for May 2007 metoclopramide.   All LELT attendees agreed to send trainers to the Institute and made commitments to explore further activities that would help to support identification of educational issues and obstacles related to Hispanic children and families and to identify appropriate methods of delivery of services to facilitate student school readiness and success within the Hispanic community mxman.

SER/NCLR PreK PAP Train the Trainers Institute
NCLR PreK PAP Institute Year 1 (2007)—The first PreK PAP Institute was held May 7-9, 2007 at a training facility sponsored by the Child Care Group.  In addition, the Child Care Group provided $10,500 in funds to SER to subsidize the expenses for training related to Dallas county attendees.  All LELT members sent trainers to the Institute, for a total Institute attendance of 26 trainees.  Eight of the 26 were NCLR attendees from outside of Dallas county, including attendees from Houston, Florida, and New Mexico.  
Trainee responses were overwhelmingly positive.  All identified the viability of the program and found the materials to be easy to use and adapt to their respective environments.

NCLR PreK PAP (Parents as Partners)
NCLR PreK PAP Session 1 (Fall 2007)--SER Child Development Center’s first Parent Training was held October 9-November 13.  All 17 of 20 parents attended all six session; all parents were  enthusiastic about the material and what they were learning, and all were eager to put their new knowledge into practice in their homes and at school.  We are the first PreK PAP program implemented in the NCLR network and are working closely with NCLR to document our experience and the experiences of our parents in an effort to improve the process and ensure we make any modifications necessary to make this training the best that it can be.  We have found this first experience to be so enriching for our parents that we are committed to making it part of our Parent University offerings multiple times a year in both English and Spanish. Program evaluation found this first session to be high successful in impacting parent behaviors related to school readiness for their children.

Cultural Competency:  All six sessions of the PreK PAP program have at heart an expectation of building cultural competency and the ability for Hispanic families to fully participate in the public school culture.  In the first session, the planning session with parents, the facilitator asks parents to identify (cultural) home, school, and community issues that are of the utmost concern to them and that may prevent their children from entering elementary school ready to learn and ultimately from graduating from high school and moving on to higher education.    Parent concerns are then integrated into the active and action oriented workshops that follow.  An emphasis is placed on helping parents understand cultural differences concerning expectations and involvement of parents in regards to their children’s education and in providing parents with the tools needed to communicate effectively with teachers and principals in the elementary school environment.  The sixth and final session culminates in an interview between parents and a local elementary school principal. Parent participants were given tools to ameliorate difficulties in understanding and communicating in an effective way with elementary school teachers, staff, and principals. Parents discussed the lifelong consequences of dropping out of school, along with the national, state, and local achievement gap and dropout rates that the Latino community currently experiences. 

Proyecto TAP (Teacher Apprenticeship Program)
Proyecto TAP:  Year Five (2007-2008) – SCDC was awarded, in August 2007, $30,000 of Child Care Development Training Funds to begin a new cohort of trainees.  Apprentices will attend two semesters, 6 credit hours, of training towards their CDA in partnership with Eastfield College.  Apprentices will complete 480 hours of practicum at our center or at the center of their choice under the guidance of their instructor and a Lead Teacher. As part of this grant, the City of Dallas funded for 2007-2008 Infant and Toddler High/Scope Teacher Training in High/Scope and Scholastic Curriculum, to enable trainees to create enhanced learning environments, understand assessments, and conduct enriched adult/child interactions.  Five sessions, three hours each, provide teachers with the skills necessary to prepare individualized lesson plans for infants and toddlers.  Training prepares teachers to accurately assess child’s learning levels and plan for activities and promote skill attainment and growth.

Proyecto TAP:  Year Four (2005-2006) – SCDC received $80,000 of economic development funds to begin a new cohort of trainees.  Eighteen Apprentices completed one semester, 3 credit hours from Eastfield College, of training towards their CDA.  Four (4) Interns at SCDC completed one semester of coursework and 800 hours of practicum at our center under the guidance of their instructor and a Lead Teacher.  Fifteen (15) SCDC staff completed Level 1 of ESL instruction, equivalent to 498 hours of instruction in English.

Proyecto TAP:  Year Three (2004-2005) – SCDC received $120,000 of economic development funds to complete the two-year Apprenticeship program as certified by the U..S. Department of Labor.  The completion of the Apprenticeship program field test readies it for replication.  Five (5) Apprentices and 6 Teacher Mentors completed the program.  SCDC successfully piloted the two-year old emergent literacy curriculum to 5 area daycares including an African American-based and Hispanic-based daycare, a Montessori, a faith based, a Headstart, and a rural daycare.  The pilot received EXCELLENT ratings as well as excellent suggestions to incorporate to make the curriculum more effective.  In addition, with the assistance of the City of Dallas, SCDC successfully conducted a one-day City Wide Childcare Conference that received exemplary critiques from speakers and attendees alike.