Beginning August 2020, each local school district must administer the Comprehensive Early Learning Observational Assessment, Brigance Screener III, to every public pre-kindergarten student. The Screener will be administered twice per year. Screening must be completed by October 1st and in May before school ends. Students that indicate areas of deficiency on the developmental screener should be provided targeted interventions to remediate the deficiency and progress monitoring should be documented by the classroom teacher. For further information, please reference the Early Learning Guidelines for Classrooms Serving Three- and Four- Year Old Children- Guidelines for Assessment: Requirements for Assessment and Screening.
The administrator of each pre-kindergarten program for their district must complete the Brigance Training Webinar on our website. The online webinar will take approximately forty-five (45) minutes to complete and will include the following information: preparing to screen, administering and scoring a screener, interpreting screening results, identifying next steps, and an overview of the online management system.
Upon completion of the webinar, administrators must complete the Assurances Form and email to earlychildhood@mdek12.org.
Make sure to note on the assurances if your district does not have access to a Brigance Screen III Kit for pre-kindergarten or the Brigance Online Management System (BOMS). The Mississippi Department of Education will provide access to BOMS for all school districts and will review the results of the data submitted. If you have any questions concerning this procedure, please email jgreer@mdek12.org.
MDE Early Childhood Specialized Training
This training is offered to teachers that need to acquire twelve hours of approved early childhood coursework to teach in pre-k classrooms. The completion of this training program will be the equivalent of twelve hours of course work needed for teachers and assistants of pre-k classrooms, general education and special education, lacking an emphasis in early childhood.
Completion of this training program includes:
- one-day onboarding training (July 2020)
- two on-line courses (beginning August 2020)
- submission of all assignments to receive certification
- and a two-week face-to-face training at one of our six locations across the state (Jackson, Hattiesburg, Indianola, Columbus, Brookhaven, and Oxford, June 14-25, 2021, excluding the weekend)
The face-to-face components of bootcamp training will also meet the requirements of professional development for administrators of pre-k classrooms. Typically the face-to-face component is offered first, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic MDE is reversing the order of the program.
Please reference the graphic on the early childhood web page to help determine if you should attend the Specialized Early Childhood Training Bootcamp.
Registration: Additional information regarding registration will be coming soon. Registration will be handled through North MS Education Consortium (www.northmsec.com). Participants will be required to create an account, provide a valid email address that is checked on a regular basis, and select one of the six sites for the two-week face-to-face training that you will be attending.
Teacher Certification and Teacher Assistant Qualification Policy Update
On April 16, the Mississippi Board of Education passed a waiver for the following rule in the Early Learning Guidelines for Classrooms Serving Three-and Four-Year Old Children due to the COVID-19 pandemic:
By August 1, 2021, 50% of teachers in each district will meet the requirements described below. By August 1, 2023, 100% of regular education pre-kindergarten teachers in each district will meet the requirements described on page 16 of the Guidelines.
Special Education pre-kindergarten teacher requirements are newly announced within the Mississippi Early Learning Guidelines for Classrooms Serving Three- and Four Year-Old Children, therefore; 50% of Special Education classroom teachers must meet this requirement by August 1, 2021, and 100% of Special Education classroom teachers must meet this requirement by August 1, 2023. This guidance can be found on page 17 of the Guidelines.
The pre-kindergarten assistant teacher qualifications will change effective August 1, 2021.
By August 1, 2021, 50% of assistant teachers in each district will meet the requirements described below. By August 1, 2023, 100% of assistant teachers in each district will meet the requirements described on page 18 of the Guidelines.
(If you are a teacher or assistant in an Early Learning Collaborative, your requirements are different from the ones listed in this section.)
Mississippi Early Childhood Association Conference
The Early Childhood Education Conference that occurs in July has been cancelled. As an option for teachers and administrators of pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms the Office of Early Childhood is partnering with the Mississippi Early Childhood Association to offer pre-conference and conference sessions. The Office of Early Childhood plans to have staff presenting sessions on infants and toddlers, pre-k and school age children at the Mississippi Early Childhood Association Conference October 14 – 16 in Starkville at the Mill. Registration for the conference can be found at the MsECA website soon.