Texas Early Childhood Education Administrators' Knowledge, Leadership Practice, and Core Competencies

• In Event: The Role and Impact of Leadership Development, Well-Being, and Practice in Early Care and Education

Abstract

Administrators often lead ECE programs with limited training in child development, education, and leadership (Children’s Learning Institute, 2019). K-12 education has a transparent leadership model, but leadership in ECE needs to be more clearly defined (Talan et al., 2014). The lack of clearly defined leadership roles creates variance in the quality of ECE centers (Cook & Coley, 2019). Considerations of how best to support and create pathways for ECE leadership that foster advocacy for developmentally appropriate practices and create high-quality ECE experiences for children is crucial (Cook & Coley, 2019). To ensure that the role of the administrator is more clearly defined, a quantitative study was employed to understand the leadership skills administrators are currently practicing, the relationship between them, and the State Core Competencies to explore possible leadership effectiveness.

A self-reported survey was distributed to ECE administrators who are currently participating in a statewide quality improvement program. Administrators (N=232) completed the survey over a five-week period. Administrators whose schools participated in the statewide quality improvement program for three or more years indicated a greater knowledge of maintaining a healthy and safe environment. There was a significant difference between administrators' knowledge of maintaining a healthy and safe environment and the years an administrator has been involved in Texas School Ready. X2 (1)=4.24, p=.04. Results indicate the most significant difference in administrators’ knowledge of core competencies occurs between their years of experience as an administrator. For example, there is a significant difference between administrators' knowledge of instituting family and community-centered programming and an administrator's years of experience X2 (1)=5.85, p=.02. Race and salary also showed significant differences in how administrators rated their knowledge of core competencies, including establishing and maintaining an effective organization, their knowledge of business and operations management, and their knowledge of maintaining a healthy and safe environment. For example, there is a significant difference between administrators' business and operations management knowledge and their salary. X2 (1)=4.97, p=.03.

Logistic regression was used to understand how administrators' leadership skills and demographics influence their knowledge of core competencies. Results show that the administrators’ years of experience are important to consider when working towards increasing administrators’ knowledge of business and operations management. Leadership skills of external connection and communication and the administrators’ years of experience are important to consider when increasing administrators’ knowledge of human resource leadership and development. Finally, teaching and learning external connection and communication and the administrators’ years of experience are essential to increase administrators’ knowledge of instituting family and community-centered programming.

Future work to provide targeted support for ECE administrators through state quality improvement programs can provide a bridge for future research, practice, and policy to work. Together they can support targeted initiatives prioritizing ECE administrators, help them gain a deeper understanding of core competencies, and provide them with opportunities to practice leadership skills to improve the quality of their programs. Over time leveraging research to measure and disseminate the program's outcomes while practice and policy can support the work on a state level.

Authors

• Anna L. Burton, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

• Angela Urick, Baylor University