Rural outreach and early childhood professional development.

In an attempt to meet the growing professional development needs of early childhood practitioners in North Carolina, Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) is reaching out to the rural areas of North Carolina by offering programs that will certify North Carolina teachers in birth through kindergarten education (BKE). The BKE program provides prospective teachers with the necessary knowledge, skills, and dispositions to work effectively with typical and atypical children, birth through kindergarten, in a variety of settings. These settings include public schools; Head Start classrooms; developmental centers; rehabilitation centers; hospitals; child care centers; family child care; and infant, toddler, and nursery school programs. The WSSU program prepares teachers who are competent in supporting child and family development, and it has responded to initiatives across the state and nation.

In his 2002 State of the Union address, President George Bush indicated the need to prepare our children to read and to succeed in school. The White House developed an early childhood initiative, the Good Start, Grow Smart Early Childhood Initiative. Many programs would be affected by the initiative; one program, Head Start, a federally funded program serving low-income children, would be affected significantly by requiring higher educational qualifications for classroom personnel (www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/HHS-2005-ACFACYF-YH-0004.html).

North Carolina also established a program for improving the lives of young children. Governor Mike Easley has founded the More at Four Initiative. More at Four is a state-funded, community-based, voluntary pre-kindergarten program designed to provide early academic preparation for at-risk 4-year-olds in order to increase their chances of success in school, in the More at Four classrooms, children are prepared in five major domains of development, as outlined by the National Goals Panel: 1) health and physical development, 2) social and emotional development, 3) approaches toward learning, 4) language development and communication, and 5) cognition and general knowledge (www.governor. state.nc.us/Office/Education/Moreat4PKInitiative. pdf). More at Four focuses on preparing children through the use of developmentally appropriate curricula and methods. The teachers in the More at Four classrooms are required to have birth through kindergarten teacher certification.

To meet the challenge of preparing rural early childhood education teachers, representatives from Winston-Salem State University, located in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, traveled to the northwest corner of the state to meet with representatives from Surry Community College (SCC) in Dobson, North Carolina. The focus of the meeting was to ascertain the higher education needs in the rural area. The data showed that the local Head Start classrooms were anticipating the future mandates for birth to kindergarten certified teachers, and the More at Four classrooms had the requirement for certified teachers already in place. The challenge for the SCC catchments area was that the closest college for teacher certification was a two-hour drive, round trip. Plans were made to start a satellite program on the Surry Community College campus.

In the spring of 2003, the satellite program became a reality. A birth through kindergarten teacher certification program was put in place. It, along with an articulation agreement between WSSU and SCC, allowed for a smooth transfer from the community college's associate in early childhood education, or the associate in art/associate in science transfer curriculum, to individuals who wished to pursue the bachelor's degree in BKE. This was a major breakthrough for the early childhood providers who wanted to transfer to the university. The current distance learning BKE program offerings are face-to-face; however, Web-assisted and online courses are being planned to add another dimension to the distance learning option.

The mission of the birth through kindergarten education program at Winston-Salem State University is the preparation of knowledgeable, ethical, critical, and creative teachers who facilitate learning for all students in a diverse society. The ultimate goal of our program is to make the world a better place for ALL children. Meeting the needs of early childhood professional development with outreach to the rural areas will help to meet these goals.

--Claudia Warren, Chair Diversity Concerns Committee, Professor of Education/Coordinator of Birth through Kindergarten Education (BKE), Winston-Salem State University and Kay Hamlin, Assistant Professor/Interim Coordinator of BKE Distance Learning, Winston-Salem State University