Wisconsin Professional Development Organizations

Accessibility: The ease by which one can move from one place to another.

Active Learning: Refers to a hands-on learning process; problem solving and exploration takes place through concrete manipula­tion of the environment. Used by High/Scope.

Active Listening: A variety of techniques to be able to listen well, elicit information from others, and communicate effectively. Includes using, “I messages”, restating what the person says, making eye contact, and asking clarifying questions.

Active Parenting: A parent educa­tion program encouraging parents to be proactive in their relation­ship with their children, i.e., leading, listening and guiding not reacting and punishing.

Administration for Children, Youth and Families: (ACYF) Federal agency that administers Head Start and other federal programs related to children and families.

Administrator: The person respon­sible for the daily operation of an organization, including personnel and fiscal management.

Advocacy: Speaking up in support of a cause, often banding together with other like-thinking supporters for organized actions to gain public awareness or influence institutional change. An advocate is a person engaged in drawing public attention to a cause or injustice with the goal of changing present conditions and informing others of the importance of their cause.

Aides / Assistants/Paraprofessionals/Other Support Staff: A term used by school and child care centers for support staff, including classroom support staff, bus drivers, bookkeepers, clerical staff, maintenance personnel, cafeteria workers and program aides.

Articulation: The process of trans­ferring acquired training (course work, certificates, degrees) from one system of training to another, or one degree to another.

Assessment: Testing or evaluating children. Assessments can be formal (psychometric, standard­ized tests such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) or informal (checklists of children’s development such as the Portage Guide Checklist). Screening tests, developmental assessments, readiness tests, and diagnostic tests are all types of assessment used for different purposes.

Assistant Child Care Teacher: A person who works in the class­room with a group of children under the supervision of a lead teacher. An assistant child care teacher must be 18 years or older, take one approved credit or non­credit course in early childhood education within 6 months of being hired, or have completed a DPI assistant child care teacher training program.

Associate’s Degree: Associate of Arts (A.A.), Associate of Science (A.S.), Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.), are certificates of completion awarded from a post-secondary, two-year program of study, generally equivalent to 60-72 college credits.

Attention Deficit Disorder: (ADD) Difficulty in concentrating or focusing attention.

Babysitting: A term used for the caregiver who is hired to come to the home of a client for the purpose of tending children for a short period of time. This caregiver is often a teenager and has little or no formal preparation for working with children.

Baccalaureate/Bachelor’s Degree: The certificate awarded after completion of a 4-year program of study following high school graduation or equivalency. The Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree is issued for a concentration or major in a liberal arts field and the Bachelor of Sciences (B.S.) degree is issued for a major in a career field such as teaching.

Badgercare: Wisconsin’s program to implement a child health plan block grant under the new Title XXI of the Federal Social Security Act and to expand Medicaid eligibility to ensure that all children and parents in families with income below 185% of the federal poverty level have access to health care.

Birth to 3 Program: In accordance with Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Part C and through a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and interagency program. The Wisconsin Birth to 3 Program serves infants and toddlers who are significantly developmentally delayed or are diagnosed as having a physical or mental condition which is likely to result in significant delayed development (HFS 90.04). The program is administered by the Department of Health and Family Services and is implemented in each county.

Block Grants: Federal grants of aid to states; the six annual block grants to Wisconsin State Department of Health and Family Services are Social Services, Community Services, Maternal and Child Health, Preventive Health and Health Services, Substance Abuse, and Mental Health.

Board: A group or a council of advisors chosen to govern an organization.

Boyer, Ernest : The curriculum in many schools is based on the Carnegie Units which were developed by the Carnegie Foundation over 100 years ago. In 1993, Ernest L. Boyer, President of the Carnegie Foundation stated, “I’m convinced the time has come once and for all to bury the old Carnegie unity”. Dr. Boyer suggest eight thematic units: the life cycle; use of symbols; aesthetics; time and space; social web; nature of work; natural world; and values and beliefs.

Career Ladder/Lattice/Matrix: Visual representation of the titles and qualifications, or amount of accumulated training, that represents advancement in a career.

Certification: A type of approval in the form of a written assurance or declaration that an individual, household, service provider or program meets specified condi­tions for receiving something or doing something.

Certified: In Wisconsin, child care providers are certified by local county or tribal agencies as meeting basic health and safety standards in order to be eligible to receive child care subsidy funding. Certification of providers occurs primarily for family child care providers who are not required to be licensed, because they care for less than four children under age 7 who are unrelated to the provider. Family child care care providers can be “provisionally” certified or “regu­larly” certified. No training is required for provisionally certified providers, but 15-20 hours of training (depending on the county or tribe) is required to be regularly certified.

Chapter 115: of Wisconsin Statutes. This is the statute addressing the roles and responsibilities for schools in the implementation of special education programs and services.

Chapter 46: of the Wisconsin Statutes. This is the basic statute for the Department of Health and Family Services.

Chapter 115: of Wisconsin Statutes. This is the statute addressing the roles and responsibilities for schools in the implementation of special education programs and services.

Chapter 46: of the Wisconsin Statutes. This is the basic statute for the Department of Health and Family Services.

Chapter 48: of the Wisconsin Statutes. This is called the Children’s Code. This collection of statutes covers court and agency responsibilities for children found abused, neglected, in need of adoption, or otherwise in need of protection and services, or who live in foster family or group homes, child-caring institutions, or shelter care or secure-detention facilities, or who attend day care centers.

Chapter 49: of the Wisconsin Statutes. Covers public assis­tance programs including Medical Assistance.

Child Care: The regular supervision of a child by a person other than the parents.

Child Care Teacher: A person in charge of planning, implementing, and supervising the daily activities of a group of children at a child care center. A child care teacher must be 18 years or older, have a high school diploma or its equiva­lent have worked at least 80 days as a full-time assistant teacher or 120 days as a half-time assistant teacher, and have completed the course requirements outlined in the licensing regulations.

Child Development: The stages of growth and change (cognitive, emotional, social, and physical) that occur as children mature.

Child Development Associate: (CDA) A national Credential certifying basic competence in working with young children. Administered by The Council for Early Childhood Development Professional Recognition.

Children’s Defense Fund: (CDF) An organization that educates and lobbies for improved quality of life for children and families.

Collaboration: The act of working together. Within an organization or across organizations, sharing the responsibility for tasks, decision-making, and funding.

Continuing Education: Participation in training or professional devel­opment related to one’s career field, beyond the entry-level requirements of the job.

Course: A unit of training, which is conducted over time and usually has a value assigned to it called credits or hours.

Credential: Formal/documentation of a specified level of training and/or education.

Credit/Credit Hours: A measure­ment of value given to courses that lead to a degree. Degree completion depends on the accumulation of the required number of credits or credit hours.

Comprehensive System of Person­nel Development (CSPD) : A term used to define the ongoing education and in-service plans that the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and/or school districts develop for their employ­ees based on special education laws.

Curriculum: The content of a course of instruction; the plans for facilitating experiences that lead to new understandings, and the activities selected to reach targeted goals.

DACUM: Developing A Curriculum. A curriculum development process that has been found to be effective, quick, and valid. It is also an approach to occupational analysis in terms of duties, tasks, knowledge, skills, traits, and attitudes.

DACUM process is based on the premise that:

• Expert workers are better able to describe or define their occupa­tion than anyone else.
• Any job can be effectively and sufficiently described in terms of tasks successful workers in that occupation perform.
• All tasks have direct implications for the knowledge and attitudes that workers must have in order to perform the tasks correctly.

Day Care: See “child care”. Many have replaced the term “day” with “child” because the child is the focus of care (which may take place at any time).

Developmental Disability: A disability of a person manifested before the age of 22, and ex­pected to continue indefinitely, attributable to mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism, brain injury or another neurologi­cal condition closely related to mental retardation or requiring treatment similar to that required for mental retardation, and that results in substantial functional limitations in three or more major areas of life activity.

Developmental Delay: Any special need or disability that results in a child’s skills or learning abilities maturing more slowly than his/her peers.

Developmental Psychology or Developmental Education: The branch of psychology or education that ascribes human behavior to the interaction between the growing/maturing process and the environment.

Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Guidelines by which teachers do activities, interact, and create environments that meet the needs of young children according to their age level and their indi­vidual strengths, weaknesses, and interests. These guidelines are described in the following publica­tion: Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8 Expanded Edition, edited by S. Bredekamp. Washington, DC: NAEYC, 1987,

Direct Services: Services provided directly to people by agency staff rather than purchased by the agency from an outside provider.

Director: The person who is ulti­mately responsible for establishing a child care or Head Start center’s program, maintaining its quality, hiring and supervising all the other staff.

Distance Education: Courses that take place in non-classroom environments or multiple locations through the use of technology (e.g., computer courses, com­pressed video, telecourses, correspondence courses, etc).

Doctorate/Doctor’s Degree: A certificate of completion usually requiring two to seven years of study at a college or university, usually after a Master’s degree.

Early Childhood: Generally refers to the period of childhood encom­passing birth to eight years of age.

Early Childhood Care and Educa­tion: A new term applied when more than one program (child care, Head Start, schools) are considered and/or blended to provide a more comprehensive approach to serving young children from birth to eight years of age.

Early Childhood Level: A Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction teacher licensing term meaning a license level to teach children birth through age 8.

Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE): In accordance with Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part B, Wisconsin school districts provide special education and related services to children with disabilities who meet the criteria defined in CHPT 115. ECSE services are provided to children from three to five years of age in a variety of settings including schools, child care, and Head Start. The Department of Public Instruction provides state-level oversight of special educa­tion. School districts are man­dated to locate, identify, and evaluate children from birth to twenty-one who may be eligible for special education and related services. Each eligible child receives appropriate services in accordance with his/her Individu­alized Education Program (IEP). ECSE teachers are licensed in special education for birth through age 8.

Educational Support Personnel Certificate (ESP). A certificate program sponsored by the Wisconsin Education Association Professional Development Academy for support personnel (e.g., Paraeducators, secretaries, bus drivers) in Wisconsin public schools.

Early Childhood Program: A general term to describe any program directly serving young children from birth to eight years of age.

Early Intervention: Early interven­tion describes the provision of services to young children with disabilities or at risk of developing disabilities. These services include the evaluation, assess­ment and treatment of young children with disabilities from birth to age three. Families are often included in an early intervention plan.

Early Learning Center: A facility that combines several programs (i.e. child care, Head Start, four year old kindergarten, five year old kindergarten, special education) to provide full day, full year services.

Employer-Sponsored Child Care: Child care funded in part by an employer and provided either at the workplace or contracted with providers at other locations.

Evaluation: The process used by qualified professionals to determine eligibility for early intervention or special education based on a child’s developmental status.

Even Start: A federally sponsored Title I program which promotes family literacy by assisting early childhood programs collaborating with community partners.

Experiential Learning: Credit given for life and work experiences by some institutions of higher education toward credit requirements of a degree.

Family Day Care Center: A place where a person other than a parent, relative or guardian provides care and supervision for four to eight children under 7 years of age, for less than 24 hours per day, for compensation.

Family Literacy: Services provided on a voluntary basis that are of sufficient intensity in terms of hours, and of duration, to make changes in a family, and which integrate all of the following activities:

• Interactive literacy activities between parents and their children.
• Age-appropriate education to prepare children for success in school and life experience.
• Training for parents regarding how to be the primary teacher for their children and full partners in the education of their children.
• Parent literacy that leads to self-sufficiency.

Family Resource Centers: Family Resource Centers. Centers providing parent education addressing multiple family needs (e.g., recreation with other families, counseling, children’s playgroups, home visits, etc.)

Federal Poverty Level: This is used to determine eligibility to qualify as “poor” family. The poverty guidelines are issued each year in the Federal Register by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The guidelines are a simplification of poverty thresholds for administrative purposes such as determining eligibility for certain federal programs.

Food Program: A program for subsidizing meals served in child care programs. To be eligible, the programs must be certified or licensed.

Foster Care: Residential care for children outside their own homes with families who take up to four children; homes are licensed by county social services depart­ments, licensed private child-placing agencies, or by DHFS. Regulated under chs. HSS 56 and HFS 38 rules.

Group Care: Residential care, mainly court-ordered, for children outside their own homes with families or organizations that take from five to eight children; homes are licensed by the Department and regulated under Ch. HSS 57 rules.

Group Child Care: A child care program caring for more than eight children, with more than one adult supervising.

Head Start: The largest preschool program in the United States is funded by the federal government to serve children ages three to five from low-income families. The type of program varies according to the need in each community. It is characterized by its comprehen­sive services and by its emphasis on parental involvement. This program includes education, health and developmental screening and services, nutrition and mental health services, and social, education, and support services for adults. This program also has an Early Head Start component which funds programs for infants and toddlers and their families.

Healthy Start Program: Wisconsin State Department of Health and Family Services program dating from 1988 providing Medical Assistance benefits for pregnant women and children to age six, with family incomes up to 155% of federal poverty guidelines.

High/Scope: An instructional approach built on the constructivist theories of child development of Jean Piaget, defining key areas of experience, adult-child interaction and active manipulation of the environment as essential to children’s learning.

Individualized Education Progam (IEP): A written plan through which a school district provides special education and related services to an eligible school student from three through twenty-one years of age. Re­quired by law for all children receiving special services, this plan details the child’s current abilities, sets educational goals and objectives, lists the services the child will receive, and tells where the child will spend his time. A team of people including the teacher, specialists, and the parents develop the plan. It must be reviewed and updated periodically.

Individualized Family Services Plan (IFSP): A written plan through which a Birth to 3 Program provides services to an eligible child from birth to three years of age and the child’s family. Required by PL 99-457 for children from birth to age three with special needs, this plan is similar to an individual­ized educational plan, but it includes supporting the needs of the family to aid the child.

Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): The federal program which oversees programs and services to children with disabilities. Part B of this program regulates special education and related services for students from three through twenty-one. Part C of this program regulates early inter­vention services for children from birth to three and their families.

Intergenerational Care: Utilizing older adults as caregivers for children.

Itinerant Special Education Services: One approach for providing special education and related services to identified children which involves school district special education staff traveling to community or school based locations (i.e. child care center, Head Start program, kindergarten classroom). The school’s itinerant staff works with an identified child individually or in small groups and/or consults with on-site staff to implement the child’s Individual Program.

Katie Beckett Program: A Medical Assistance program (also called SSI Deeming) for disabled children who need skilled or intermediate nursing care, with only the child’s income and assets considered (and not the income and assets of the parents).

Kindergarten, Public School:

Programs operated by public school in accordance with state statutes. Wisconsin schools must make part-day kindergarten programs available to any child who turns 5 years old on Septem­ber 1 of the school year. School districts may also offer full day kindergarten programs or part-day 4-year-old kindergarten programs.

Kinship Care: Program under s.48.57 (3m), Statutes, to provide monthly payments to support a child who is being provided care and maintenance by a close relative, called a kinship care relative. DHFS or the county social services or human services department approves the payment if it determines that the child needs to be placed with the relative, the placement is in the best interests of the child, and the relative meets specified condi­tions.

Lead Teacher: See “child care teacher”.

Least Restrict Environment (LRE): A term defined in IDEA requiring that to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabili­ties are educated with children who are not disabled, using the general education curriculum..

Literacy: Skills related to reading and writing.

Looping: A classroom model in which the teacher is responsible for the same group of children for two or more years, through several grade levels.

Master’s Degree: A graduate-level certificate of completion awarded after one to two years of study at a college or university (after earning a Bachelor’s degree).

Medical Assistance (MA): Wisconsin’s term for the Medicaid (Title XIX) program which pays for necessary health care services for persons whose financial re­sources are not adequate to provide for their health care needs.

Mentor: An individual who is knowl­edgeable about a career and willing to share his or her exper­tise with someone less experi­enced.

Mentoring Program: A program where more experienced workers pair up with inexperienced workers in order to assist them through the initiation period, to encourage reflection on the part of experienced workers, and to improve job performance.

Montessori Education: An educa­tional philosophy based on the work of Maria Montessori. It is a teaching method built on struc­tured child-oriented environments, which allow children to control their own work activities through manipulating self-teaching objects and learning tools.

Multi-age Classrooms: Classrooms where children of different ages and grades are intentionally placed together, where grad distinctions are minimized, and where teaching and learning strategies capitalize on the age range within the group.

Multiple Intelligences: A popular theory developed by Howard Gardner, based on the eight leading styles; musical, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, logical-mathematical, linguistic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and, recently added, nature/natural intelligence.

National Academy of Early Child­hood Programs: The agency that administers a voluntary certifica­tion of centers and schools for young children called the Center Accreditation Project (CAP). Also called “The Academy.”

Natural Environment: A term used particularly by the Birth to 3 Program to describe settings that are natural or typical for a child’s non-handicapped age peers.

Non-Credit: Courses, which receive no unit of measurement toward a degree, but may fulfill other requirements, i.e., relicensing.

Off-site Child Care: Child care contracted with a provider at a location other than the workplace.

On-site Child Care: Child care provided at the workplace.

Parent Education: Programs informing parents of good practices in parenting, through classes, support groups, mentoring/respite, and resource dissemination.

Part C: Early intervention program for infants and toddlers (birth to age two) with disabilities under IDEA. See BIRTH TO 3.

Partnership: Two or more parties engaged in a mutually beneficial activity involving a division of responsibilities.

Piaget, Jean: Renowned Swiss psychologist, whose study of environments led to his constructivist theory of how the ability to think develops in children.

Plan-Do-Review: The process of team planning and evaluation used by the High/Scope teaching method.

Portfolio: A collection of documents (work experience, documentation of self study, training, and professional competencies) that may be submitted for review, usually to a post-secondary institution for credit evaluation.

Practicum: A supervised experience that provides practical application of theory for the student in a pre-service program.

Prerequisite: Requirements that must be fulfilled or courses that must be taken before a student is allowed to register for a higher-level course.

Professionalism: Acting in a manner worthy of the highest standards of a profession.

Professional Development: Ongoing educational experiences related to ones chosen career path.

Postgraduate: Coursework that takes place after attainment of a four-year degree from a college or university.

Protective Services: Assistance to protect vulnerable persons from being abused, exploited, or treated in a degrading manner, and to help those who are adults live as independently as possible.

Reggio Emilia: A city in Italy, which advocates a child-centered teaching style. Co-developers, Loris Malaguzzi and Lella Gandini, have stimulated interest in this program among American educa­tors.

Reimbursement: Money that is paid back after an initial outlay. Certified child care providers are reimbursed by the county for a portion of their fees for clients of social services.

Relicensing: The process of renewing the permission given by the Bureau of Regulation and Licensing to care for eight children under age 7 in one’s own home. This takes place every two years and requires fifteen continu­ing education hours annually.

School Age: Children five through twelve years of age.

Screening: A process for identifying children who need further evalua­tion because they may have developmental delays, disabilities, or atypical development. Informal screening involves the recognition of potential problems through observation or interview. Formal screening includes the administra­tion of a developmental tool that provides a brief review of a child’s developmental functioning and health history.

Stakeholders: Those who have an interest in or will be impacted by certain decisions or actions.

Support Groups: Several people sharing an interest, experience, problem, or vocation who, through contact with each other, are better able to deal with their own situations.

Team Teaching: Two or more teachers working together to teach and/or supervise a group of children.

T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood®Project: Teacher Education and Compensation Helps. A program originating in North Carolina to provide statewide educational scholarship opportunities for child care center teachers, directors, and family child care providers who work in regulated settings. In return for a one year commitment to stay in the sponsoring center, a provider receives release time, travel stipend, a percentage of books and tuition paid for, and a bonus or wage increase when college coursework is completed.

The Registry: This is Wisconsin’s recognition system for the Child­hood Care and Education Profes­sion. It acknowledges and high­lights the training, experience, and professionalism, which are vital to quality child care. Depending on the type of application selected, The Registry awards a certificate verifying that individuals have met all State of Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services entry level and continuing educa­tion requirements. Training above and beyond those requirements along with experience and professional contributions are represented by the levels and stars of the Registry’s career ladder. All training is quantified by core knowledge areas as defined by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Title I: Part of the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994, PL 103-382. Title I programs provide supplemental instruction to individuals or small groups of children who need additional academic assistance. Federal Title I funds go to individual school districts, who then hire the Title I teachers. Each school chooses the ages or grade levels for which to provide Title I services. Many school districts blend Title I preschool program services with other preschool special education services, to offer a single public preschool program that serves a variety of children.

Training: A planned event designed to facilitate learning specific to career needs.

UW-Centers: University of Wisconsin campuses, in the process of being changed to UW-Colleges.

UW-Extension: A statewide alterna­tive education program sponsored by the University of Wisconsin which provides continuing education classes through a variety of delivery methods to adult learners.

UW Cooperative Extension: A statewide alternative education program sponsored by the University of Wisconsin providing a variety of programs designed for local delivery of skill-building training for all ages.

W-2: Wisconsin Works. The state’s program to replace Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Makes cash assistance dependent on taking a job or undertaking job training. Cash benefits limited to 60 months. Administered by DWD. Began September 1997.

WIC: Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Nutrition Program. Seeks to improve the health of low-income, nutritionally at-risk pregnant and nursing women and infants and children under age five through improved nutrition made possible by nutrition education and vouchers for the purchase of certain foods.

Wisconsin Technical College System (WCTS): A 16-district state network of higher education institutions whose thrust is to provide educational opportunities for individuals throughout their lives by offering a variety of programs emphasizing technical training for careers. Program offerings include Associate Degree, Vocational Diploma, and Special Educational Services. Previously referred to as VTAE (Vocational, Technical and Adult Education).

Working Paper: A preliminary document on the findings or results of a study or initiative.

Workshop: A one-session training event.