Administrator Interview Report ADE 6265 Organization & Administration of Adult and Communication Education Dr.

Debra Hargrove

By Edwiygh Franck February 3rd, 2013

2 Adult and community education is becoming more and more prevalent in todays society. More adults are seeking educational programs for professional gains and improvements. In addition, the adult population is becoming increasingly diverse; therefore adult education programs have to adjust their programs to meet the needs of the learners. Adult learners seek education mainly for professional advancement, and their choice of a course is based on whether or not they are going to be successful in the course. As a result, program planners have to offer courses that are relevant to adult learners so that they can be motivated into taking the courses, contribute to the learning process, and successfully complete (Finn, 2011, p. 34). Palm Beach State College administers the Institute of Excellence in Early Care and Education, which is a program whose mission is to provide adequate professional development opportunities for early childhood professionals and to provide them with the necessary skills to be effective in the classroom and prepare the children to enter the school system ready to learn. The Institute is comprised of four (4) departments: Career Advising, Scholarship, Quality Assurance and Training. Each one these departments have their own functions; however, they are interconnected to effectively provide services to the practitioners. In an effort to get a better understanding of the functioning of the adult training department, the administrator, Darcy Russo, M. Ed., was interviewed. Darcy Russo, as the Director of Education and Training at the Institute of Excellence in Early Care and Education, oversees the development of training programs that help teachers learn the knowledge and skills they need to provide high quality educational experiences for young children. She has a Masters degree in Early Childhood Education and over thirty (30) years of experience in the field of early childhood education including classroom teacher, center director, education coordinator, consultant, and college faculty.

3 A series of questions were asked to provide insight on the different aspects of the program; the critical issues that the program faces; and the future goals and steps. Below is a brief summary of the interview. The Administrators Job The adult training program has been in existence for seven (7) years and is, as mentioned above, part of the Institute of Excellence. The program serves the early care and education community in Palm Beach County which includes providers, school district coaches, and community system partners. The mission of the program is to serve the early care and education community professional development needs; and support training initiatives to improve practices in the classroom. Program Planning The administrators primary role is to have a deep understanding of the community needs and make the necessary arrangements to meet those needs. In addition, she stays on top of educational research and movements to ensure that trainings that are being developed encompass the latest research and practices. She plans the trainings that will be offered throughout the year and assigns the trainers to the trainings based on expertise. She coordinates the logistics of the trainings and supports the trainers to ensure that they are fully equipped to deliver the trainings. Budgeting and Finance The program is primarily funded by the Childrens Services Council of Palm Beach County. However, other small grants such as PNC, STEAM, and more have been sought after and awarded for special initiatives. The Childrens Services Council of Palm Beach County obtains the dollars that it uses to fund the program from a taxation referendum passed many years ago to obtain a portion of property taxes to support programs that provide services to children. The award of funding to programs is

4 processed through a renewable yearly contract with specific deliverables that have to be met each year. The budget process occurs mainly between the Executive Director of the Institute and the funder. However, once the first preliminary budget is drafted, the Executive Director meets with her management team to go over the budget and solicits input from the team to ensure that all grounds are covered and enough funding is allocated for all projects and initiatives, in order to efficiently perform and meet the deliverables. Although budget cuts are unfortunately happening across organizations, the funding of the Institute has stabilized, so it is not going up or down. However, as mentioned above, the Institute is always seeking additional funding to support the work that it is doing within the early childhood community. Staff Recruitment, Selection, and Supervision The administrator currently supervises a team of eight (8) trainers in the department. However, the administrator spends minimal time supervising as the team is primarily self-directed. The main supervising functions of the administrator are to schedule the training wheel, assign trainers to teach the trainings, and coordinate training development. The administrator advised that all trainers have deadlines to deliver projects and she reviews them. If deadlines are not being met and/or the quality of the training development and delivery is not up to par, then she has a conversation with the trainer in order to find ways to rectify the problem. However, the administrator expressed her concerns regarding the scarcity of individuals who have early childhood education degrees. Less and less people are obtaining degrees in early childhood education which makes it hard to find people who have the specific knowledge to develop trainings for the early childhood field. She definitely sees this as a critical issue that will affect the future of the department and needs to be addressed. Public and Community Relations

5 The administrator collaborates with system partners to conduct community building activities. All of the stakeholders (system partners, providers, funders) come together to share ideas and concerns, and come up with viable plans to advance the community; specifically to advance the early childhood education community. When new initiatives are being undertaken, meetings are conducted to clearly define roles and responsibilities of stakeholders to ensure the success of the project. The biggest critical issue that the administrator pointed out was the lack of time that partners have to attend meetings and the services of a strong facilitator who can keep everyone on track and move projects along. With additional responsibilities being placed on partners across the board, it becomes more difficult to get everyone in a room at once to meet about projects, and when they do get together, they are distracted by other tasks that they need to accomplish. She advised that other means of conducting meetings, using technology mainly, and the use of a project manager will soon become the norm in the community. Marketing The marketing practices are interesting at the Institute because the clientele has already been targeted through the scholarship and Registry system. Therefore, the marketing efforts focus on making sure that the practitioners have a good understanding of the trainings that they are signing up for through the use of flyers and by attending meetings to talk about the trainings that are being offered. Because the captive audience already exists, no recruitment is needed. However, the administrator mentioned that the critical issue that she was concerned about was to continuously be responsive to the professional development needs of the early childhood education community, and how to support quality programs, the children and their families through convincing them on the importance of continuous professional development.

6 Program Evaluation The Administrator conducts individual staff evaluation annually as it is a requirement of the college. Throughout the evaluation process, the administrator and the staff member review what has been accomplished, and together they create a professional development plan and goals for the new fiscal year. Another evaluation that is conducted is the funders audit process. For this evaluation, an auditor comes to the institute and reviews all of the deliverables in the contract and reviews documents for proof of deliverable successful completion. The administrator advised that for every audit she has had, she has always exceeded the deliverables for which her department was responsible. However, she advised that the critical issue she was worried about was based on, although funding has stabilized, the reality that the work load continues to grow but the number of staff is not growing. She advised that the department has to try very hard to keep the momentum and enthusiasm going so that the deliverables can be completed. She advised that more employee motivation and recognition strategies are being looked into to ensure job satisfaction in the department. Additional Questions The administrator advised that the skills that she mostly needs on the job are early childhood education content knowledge; people skills, and how to relate to people and being sensitive to their personal issues. Due to the nature of the profession, the population who she serves comes with a lot of baggage, and the trainers have to be able to connect with them to motivate them through the learning process. In turn, they will further their education and improve practices in the classroom. The greatest challenge that the administrator faces on the job is balancing being sensitive to the personal needs of her staff and ensuring that the deliverables are being met. She believes that an administrator needs to be supportive of all aspects of her staffs life; but at the same time putting forth that the main goal of the department is to meet all of the deliverables. Finally, when asked how technology has affected the

7 way she communicates and delivers her program, she advised that technology has had a big impact on the way she delivers her program and manages her staff, from using simple emails to having webinars for the community. Technology has also redefined the way trainers deliver trainings in the classroom through using multimedia equipment, along with having innovative and interactive PowerPoint presentations. Conclusion The interview revealed that there were many critical issues in the field that need to be addressed in order to ensure that quality and effective programs are offered to adult learners. Some top issues that were mentioned by the administrator were the fact there are less and less people who have degrees in early childhood education which makes it hard to find people who have the specific knowledge to develop trainings for the early childhood field; therefore, the practical expertise lacks in the classroom instruction as the trainer is unable to connect with the learners using practical workplace examples to which the learners can relate. Another issue was the lack of time that community partners have to assist in the planning process of adult education programs and the services of a strong facilitator who can keep everyone on track and move projects along. The last issue that the administrator was concerned about is her staff. They are being asked to do a lot more with quite a bit less, and she is looking for ways to keep her staff motivated and enthusiastic about the work, and create an environment of continuous learning, so that they can continue to develop quality trainings for the learners. All of these issues are very important and need to be addressed; however, in prioritizing issues, the administrator decided to tackle the issue of motivating her employees to continue to be effective on the job. This issue will be researched and possible solutions and implementation plans will be presented in the near future.

References Finn, Donald (2011). Principles of Adult Learning: an ESL Context. Journal of Adult Education, 40(1), 34 39. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/recordDetails.jsp?ERICExtSearch_SearchV alue_0=EJ960967&searchtype=keyword&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&_pageLabel =RecordDetails&accno=EJ960967&_nfls=false&source=ae