As part of a continuing push to be at the forefront of the field, Newberg High School’s Great Expectations early childhood education and daycare center director Susan Ludwig became one of the first to receive the state’s new childcare director credential a year ago.

Having recently accomplished two of its major goals, it’s clear the program is continuing along that lofty trajectory.

At the end of August, Great Expectations became the first childcare program in Yamhill County and one of just 42 in Oregon to receive a 5-star rating from the state’s relatively new Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS).

Secondly, all six of the program’s instructors — Pam Grant, Amanda Gregory, Mary McClean, Bekkah Morgan, Christina Pilcher and Elizabeth Poznanski — have gone the extra mile by earning the Infant-Toddler Professional Credential from Portland State University and the Oregon Center for Career Development (OCCD).

Ingrid Anderson, who serves as credential programs coordinator for the Oregon Registry, was not able to confirm Ludwig’s belief that Great Expectations is the only program in the state whose entire staff in credentialed infant-toddler education, but did say it does, by far, have the most credentialed instructors in Oregon.

“They’ve done an extraordinary job,” Anderson said. “Susan is very dedicated to making her team successful and providing the best possible care.”

Having an infant-toddler credential is one way to fulfill the teaching qualification standards in QRIS, but is not required, so for the very-experienced Great Expectations staff to spend their own time and money to pursue it was proof of their dedication.

For instance, Poznanski already has a master’s degree in early childhood education, while McClean has an associate’s degree in child development, a bachelor’s degree and a teaching credential.

“All of us were clearly qualified for our job to begin with, but it was kind of an above-and-beyond opportunity,” Poznanski said.

To receive the credential, the instructors had to construct a portfolio according to strict guidelines and supplement their professional development with training at PSU.

While the training served mostly as a review for them, some instructors found it useful to receive feedback on their strengths and weakness or to help focus their future goals.

Ludwig and the staff have developed a strong team dynamic and approached the credential process in the same way.

“I feel like it really bonded us as a team,” Morgan said. “We were all working towards the same goal and we were all helping each other, supporting each other as we got them at different times.”

Like the infant-toddler credential, the rating portion of the QRIS program, which was funded by the federal Race to the Top grant, provides a level of assurance and oversight for Oregon’s 4,306 licensed childcare programs.

After going through a pilot testing phase, QRIS granted its first ratings in November 2013 before opening up the system statewide in March.

Childcare and education programs are not required to apply for a rating, but more than 800 have already done so, with 146 having been rated as of Sept. 30.

“Any kind of early childhood program realizes that parents are going to see the rating just like a restaurant,” Ludwig said. “As it becomes more familiar, people are going to realize that it isn’t just about the state having your name and address. It’s that somebody actually comes in and observes and monitors the program to some level.”

There are five rated programs in the county, including Mi Escuelita Bilingual Preschool and Childcare in Newberg, which became the county’s second 5-star rated institution when the latest ratings were released last month. There are 21 other programs in the county, including six in Newberg, that have begun the application process, which QRIS classifies as having made a “commitment to quality” or C2Q.

And because the primary goal of QRIS is to raise the level of care for all children in Oregon, Ludwig prefers not to view the ratings in a competitive way.

“The goal is that everybody gets there,” Ludwig said. “It’s not that we’re better or smarter, it’s just that is the goal that everybody is moving towards and we tried to get there so we could feel confident about what we’re doing.”

QRIS and the OCCD are also pushing to change the perception that education begins at kindergarten. That is still when the state and local school districts officially take on that responsibility, but QRIS is part of Governor Kitzhaber’s 40-40-20 plan to increase the graduation rate in Oregon to 100 percent by 2020, specifically by better preparing children for kindergarten.

“We learn through our entire lives, but the early years are critical,” Anderson said. “There is a lot of research on that. So the more we can do to heighten the awareness of the importance of these early years and the individuals who go above and beyond and really focus their energy and show their professionalism by doing something like the credential is pretty amazing.”

Written by: Seth Gordon