The Child Development Center, on the campus of Blessed Sacrament Academy, is pleased to announce achieving a 4 Star rating in Texas Rising Star--a rating and improvement system for Texas early childhood programs.
“We decided to overcome these challenges by changing our attitude and implementing other systems. Our equipment was old, and we needed to purchase new equipment and materials. I knew we must improve staff qualifications and morale to stop staff turnover. In addition, we wanted to establish community connections for services our families needed, but we couldn’t offer.” It was determined that a partnership with the administrators was necessary to achieve these improvements.
Regular meetings would establish better communication. It was concluded the best way to achieve our goals was by starting to work very closely with the Texas Rising Star Program (TRS). Since they had recently launched quality guidelines approved by the State. Administrators met with our mentor often, and followed through with her recommendations.
“Here at the Child Development Center, we believe offering the highest quality of services to our children and families, and we are always looking into ways to improve those services,” said Carol Silva, Director. “We had a lot of challenges throughout the years, but always our heart was in the services we should offer. At Blessed Sacrament Academy, when we entered the Texas Rising Star’s new system, we made the decision to start working toward our goal of better quality in the overall program.” Silva added.
One recommendation was to target each Texas Rising Star category individually—one at a time. As the Director, Silva started by improving her knowledge about leadership and management. Learning about systems and program policies implementation, attending directors’ trainings and other professional development opportunities, she enhanced her skills as an administrator. The office management team also took advantage of opportunities to enhance their abilities to grow professionally.
Silva and her team confirmed all changes were worth the effort for the children in their care. “We are willing to take risks to improve program performance and offered quality services for our families. For the past three years we have seen a tremendous growth, we have been able to enhance our program services and quality.
The TRS mentor provided information to staff and administration about Child Development Associate trainings and conferences to attend. In the last three years, 80% of Blessed Sacrament Academy teachers have obtained their CDA credentials through different TRS opportunities. A teacher resource area/ lounge was created for staff use during breaks to build staff morale. At the present time, Blessed Sacrament Academy has achieved staff stability with very little turnover. Continued meetings with the TRS mentor allowed us to learn how to develop, implement and score lesson plans, which are part of the curriculum category.
Our program has grown by leaps and bounds with the mentorship and tools TRS had provided to our program during that timeframe. It is with the mentoring services, materials/equipment grants, professional development opportunities that our center has grown and evolved into a better program with top quality services and performance for the benefit of our families and children.”