Whether or not the federal government has decreed it, every child in the US ought to have a highly qualified teacher. However, there has been a lack of qualified preschool staff as more school districts add early childhood programs, especially in low-income areas. At the Children’s Learning Institute of the University of Texas, the focus is on training a non-licensed preschool teacher to become as effective as a licensed teacher in giving the underprivileged students an opportunity to stay in level with their luckier peers.

In a four-year study funded by the federal Institute of Educational Sciences through the Interagency Education Research Initiative, it was discovered that through intensive professional development, mentoring, and regular analysis of student assessments, even non-licensed teachers could give quality instruction on an actual basis while using data-based decisions to help students succeed.

On blended training, the combination of professional development with weekly mentoring and detailed monitoring of student proved to be the most significant aspect to the teachers. The program provided teachers with a balance between teacher-directed activities that develop skills, and child-directed active explorations. It made teachers become more aware of the importance of purposeful instruction that is both playful and creative for the children.

The program showed an improvement in teachers’ instruction in the areas of letter knowledge, shared reading, writing, and phonological awareness. They also administered more frequent and better-quality center-based instruction and kept more detailed and useful portfolios on children.

As a result of the study, a development program called Texas Early Education Model School Readiness, or TEEM, began to take form. One of TEEM’s main functions is to examine how blended training can help improve the readiness level of children who are about to begin kindergarten, especially the underprivileged ones.

Investments on high quality early childhood education programs would result to fewer special education students, a better-educated future, and most possibly, lesser crime.