ECHO Fact Sheet (2/04)
Early Childhood Higher Education Options (ECHO)
ECHO is a consortium of university faculty from public and private Kansas institutions working together to meet the teacher standards specified by the Kansas State Board of Education for the Early Childhood Unified License.
These faculty members are working collaboratively to:
- Develop institutional curricula that meet the licensure standards
- Develop courses to be shared inter-institutionally
- Develop learning resources to support on-campus instruction
ECHO Participants
Associated Colleges of Central Kansas
Jeanne Schweitzer
Emporia State University
Eileen Hogan
Fort Hays State University
Art Hoernicke
Kansas State University
Mary Deluccie, Browyn Fees, Ann Murray, LuAnn Hoover
Pittsburg State University
Duane Whitbeck, Jan Vetter-Barkley, Marti York
Southwestern College
Shawn Neises
University of Kansas
Eva Horn, Barbara Thompson, David Lindeman
Wichita State University
Linda Mitchell
Washburn University
Judith McConnell
Other Representation at ECHO Meetings: Kansas State Department of Education, Kansas Board of Regents, Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, Kansas Access to Early Childhood Higher Education Committee
ECHO Consortium Achievements
- Supported university redesign of curriculum to address unified early childhood license/teacher or standards based degree program
- Completed a survey of faculty to identify potential course needs
- Development of courses by inter-institutional faculty teams to address core program needs
Courses Being Developed with ECHO Resources
The following courses are designed to be Internet-based and available to students at all participating universities.
| Working Course Title | Partners in Development Lead | Support |
|---|---|---|
Intro/Overview of Early Childhood | McConnell/Washburn | Horn/KU Neises/Southwestern |
| Diversity | Hornieke/FHSU | Thompson/KU DeLuccie/KSU |
| Collaboration | Schweitzer/ACCK | DeLuccie/KSU Mitchell, WSU |
| Curriculum/Methods (Infant-Toddler) | Michell/WSU | Fees/KSU, McConnell/Washburn |
| Curriculum/Methods (PreK) | Horn/KU | Vetter-Barkley/PSU Neisis/Southwestern |
| Social Competence/Social Development | Whitbeck/PSU | Fees/KSU Horn/KU |
| Math/Science Methods | Neisis/Southwestern | DeLuccie/KSU Whitbeck/PSU |
| Literacy/Language Development | Crowe/KSU | Neisis/Southwestern Hornieke/FHSU |
| Creative Expressions | Thompson/KU | Hoover/KSU Hornieke/FHSU |
| Assessment of Young Children | Murray/KSU | York/PSU Angie/ACCK, McConnell/Washburn |
Utility of ECHO Developed Courses
- If a program does not have the necessary resources to offer a particular course – college/university could utilize collaborative offering
- If a student(s) needs a particular course to fill their plan of study and their program does not offer the semester they need it
- Faculty will have the opportunity to work and learn from each other and have the potential for new/additional information to be available for their in-house courses
- Teachers in the field will have additional options for re-certification/licensure
ECHO Next Steps
- Seek continued support of Deans in development of collaborative strategies to meet the state standards for Early Childhood Unified Licensure.
- Meet with appropriate administrators (Deans, Associate Deans, Department Chairs, Financial Officers, faculty) to identify institutional needs and constraints, relative to sharing courses inter-institutionally and begin to formalize an inter-institutional early childhood education alliance.
Financial and Technical Support for ECHO has been provided by:
- USDE - State Improvement Grant Supplement (#H323A990009-02B) awarded to KSDE with subsequent awards to Kansas Colleges/Universities
- USDE - FIPSE grant awarded to KSU
- Meeting facilitator supported by SRS and KACCRRA through a grant from Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation