Six weeks ago, Brown awarded a $1.5 million grant to the Community College of Rhode Island as part of the University’s commitment to invest $50 million in Rhode Island workforce development over 10 years.
Now, the grant will help CCRI launch five cohort-based early childhood education certificate programs that will serve 125 educators over the next three years, CCRI Chief of Staff Amy Kempe wrote in an email to The Herald. This will be Providence’s first bilingual credential program.
Brown’s contribution will also fund “more than $1 million in scholarships and student support,” including bilingual tutoring and mentorship, technology and transportation, for individuals pursuing programs in early childhood education.
“Investing in the next generation of those educators is incredibly important,” Professor of Education and Economics Matthew Kraft told The Herald. “I think these investments will help to both expand the pipeline of future early childhood educators and to ensure that those educators are well prepared and trained to succeed in their roles.”
CCRI and the PPSD held two virtual information sessions for the program in the first week of March, according to Kempe. Starting in May, CCRI will pilot the program’s first 20-student cohort. The first two classes will take a hybrid approach and meet once per week at CCRI’s Providence campus, she added.
About 40% of PPSD students are multilingual learners, and the majority of those students primarily speak Spanish at home.
“Providence schools, like many school communities across the nation with diverse student populations, are in need of bilingual educators, and CCRI's bilingual credential program will be a long-overdue game changer for our community,” PPSD spokesperson Alex Torres-Perez wrote in a statement sent to The Herald.
“This program will help us strengthen our schools from the inside out by creating a clear pathway for our teaching assistants and community members. It will also ensure more of our students can learn from mentors who speak their language, share their culture and understand their lived experiences,” she added.
“Children’s early cognitive and social emotional development is the core building block for all that they go on to accomplish and experience in their lives,” Kraft said. “Those fundamental early years in which brain development happens most rapidly, and early childhood education plays a critical role in supporting healthy child development.”
Marinel Russo, deputy director of the Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children, believes the grant is “a great way to provide additional opportunities to our workforce.”
She added that professional development opportunities, including both training and higher education, are “foundational” in ensuring educators bring their “knowledge back into their classrooms” and utilize it.
Currently, about 1 in 4 elementary school teachers in the PPSD are using preliminary or emergency certifications, according to Rhode Island Department of Education data.
“Obviously, the nurturing and the compassion that (teachers are) providing in their classrooms is important,” Russo said, but education provides “that level of expertise that is needed in order to be the best they can be in their classrooms.”
Ava Stryker-Robbins is a sophomore and a Metro editor at The Herald.
