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Front Row (L-R): Chassidy Curry (technical assistant trainee), Wanda White (ECI), Sharon Rice, Rasheda Campbell, Barbara Walker, Shonta Bland (technical assistant trainees) Back Row (L-R): Kimberly Triplett (field supervisor), Tekeshia Brooks, Kimberly Kelly, Pamela Durant (technical assistant trainees), Crystal Blackmon (field supervisor), Cathy Grace (professor and director, ECI) Click on photo for larger view.

Mississippi Delta Early Learning Corps Recruits Technical Assistants

OCT. 16, 2008 | The Mississippi Delta Early Learning Corps has completed recruitment of the inaugural members of the Technical Assistants Unit, launching the second phase of a two-year project to promote higher early literacy skills for young children in the Delta.

After the new trainees complete an intensive two-month training course, they will begin supervised field work at child care centers, providing consultation and mentoring and focusing on classroom methods for promoting early literacy. The assistants also will advise licensed programs on how to succeed in the Mississippi Child Care Quality Step System.

Along with working under supervision to assist child care facilities, the members of the Technical Assistants Unit will complete the requirements for the Child Development Associate credential, which is awarded by the national Council for Professional Recognition.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded $300,000 for recruitment and training of the Mississippi Delta Early Learning Corps to the National Center for Rural Early Childhood Learning Initiatives, a program of the Mississippi State University Early Childhood Institute (ECI). Cathy Grace, Ed.D., professor and director of ECI, is coordinating the project.

The corps also includes a Campus Instructors Unit and will add a Child Care Providers Unit. Members of the Campus Instructors Unit teach child development and related courses at colleges and universities in the Delta counties of Mississippi. They participated in an intensive one-semester training program in order to strengthen material in their courses on ways to support literacy development in young children.

The Child Care Providers Unit will be comprised of participating teachers, paraprofessionals, and directors at centers that receive the corps’ technical assistance. The participating centers will receive sets of learning materials. At centers that achieve improvements in standardized assessments of center quality, directors and teachers will receive one-time financial awards.

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