Florida State College Invests in Early Childhood Education and Economic Growth

“Although education and the acquisition of skills is a lifelong process, starting early in life is crucial. Recent research – some sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in collaboration with the University of Minnesota – has documented the high returns that early childhood programs can pay in terms of subsequent educational attainment and in lower rates of social problems, such as teenage pregnancy and welfare dependency.”  

Those remarks were made by Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke at a Chamber of Commerce meeting back in 2007.

Executive Vice President of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce Jerry Mallot agrees with Bernanke's views on the importance of focusing on early childhood education.  

"if we don’t do a good job in early childhood education then we have a real problem later on," says Mallot. "If we don’t produce the number of people with the right skill sets to be able to fill the jobs we’re trying to grow, you end up with a drag on the economy--people who are not able to actually operate to their potential."

Florida State College created its bachelor’s degree program in Early Childhood Education to educate and train teachers who can prepare our children for the future.

For Mesha Demps and her six-year-old daughter Lauren, reading is their favorite pastime.

“Lauren loves to go to the public library, loves to read, she’s been around books since she was inside,” says Mesha. “It makes me feel really good to know that she loves to read. I didn’t like reading when I was a child—especially at her young age, and so for me to have really gotten her at an early age, to enjoy reading, that really makes me feel good.”

Mesha wants to get more children hooked on reading and learning, so she’s pursuing a career in early childhood education.

“I want to teach kindergarten or first grade,” says Demps.

Demps is getting her education and training at Florida State College at Jacksonville.
She earned her associate degree in Early Childhood Management in 2007—and waited to continue her education until Florida State College launched its bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education in 2010.

“I wanted to finish up here where I started,” says Mesha. “I am getting the quality that I really, really wanted and really needed.”

So what do Demps—and all of the students in the E-C-E program—need to succeed? We went to the largest employer of early childhood education graduates in the region—that’s Duval County Public Schools—to find out.

“We need teachers who are well-versed and skilled in teaching children very young, and it’s more than being a glorified babysitter. It’s about being an instructional leader in your classroom and working with children,” says Katherine LeRoy, Chief Academic Officer for DCPS. It’s also about “engaging children very, very early, teaching them how to critically think, how to connect content areas together, and how to make sense of the real world.”

LeRoy says the District works closely with Florida State College to make sure E-C-E graduates will not only meet—but exceed—the needs of ALL early-ed employers.

“We want to make sure we’re on top of the best practices, so we’re constantly reinventing ourselves and we’re constantly focusing on programmatic improvements,” says Interim Dean Kathlene Holmes. “My purpose is to make sure students are truly prepared and they really can go into that classroom and impact student lives.”

That’s why the College offers small class sizes, 700-plus hours of field experience for students to develop their technical skills, a 14-week full-time internship for students to develop professional skills, online and hybrid courses, the latest teaching and learning technology—that includes e-portfolios graduates can use to effectively showcase their achievements to prospective employers, and a faculty that… rocks.

“We have an amazing staff. Our full-time faculty is made up of all former teachers. Some taught in the state of Florida, others taught in other states and I actually think that is even more powerful because you’re not only bringing the perspective of Florida, you’re looking at a national lens. On top of that, our adjuncts are currently teaching in the field, some are principals, which means they hire our students and that to me means a lot,” says Holmes.

Adjunct Professor Vicki VanGundy is a National Board Certified kindergarten teacher who brings a busload of current, real experience to her Florida State College classes.
She—LITERALLY—hauls that experience over from Hendricks Avenue Elementary School every day.

“It’s a really nice balance,” says VanGundy. “I’m very up to date on the modern trends, and then also the fact that I’m in the kindergarten classroom, I bring the knowledge of what these students are doing, day-in and day-out. Not just the teaching but also the data collection, the paperwork, it’s the conferencing, it’s the organization of taking those students forward.”

“We are preparing the future and I don’t think that there is any career that’s as important as teaching,” says Holmes.

Demps agrees. That’s why she plans to earn her Master’s degree while she’s teaching, so she can come back to Florida State College and teach the next generations of Northeast Florida’s teachers.

“We teach the doctors and we teach the lawyers, we mold them; as early childhood educators, that’s what we do. They are our future.”

Click here to learn more about the bachelor's degree program in Early Childhood Education.