The Early Learning Academy, housed within the Lewis Cass Polytechnic Academy, is one of seven schools across the state that will be a part of Indiana’s new Early Childhood Education Registered Teacher Apprenticeship Program.
The program will give students hands-on experience working with children and learning about child development in an apprenticeship setting that includes pay for their work.
Joining Lewis Cass in the program are Anderson Community Schools, Elkhart Community Schools, Greater Lafayette Career Academy, Indianapolis Public Schools, Lawrence Township Schools and New Albany Floyd County.
For Lewis Cass, however, early childhood education is something the school has been doing since 2021.
When the apprenticeship program reached out to the Polytechnic Academy director Mallory Claypool about joining the program, he asked them if they would like to see what it looks like.
“They were very excited about that so we were able to jump on board,” said Claypool.
Members of the Early Learning Academy visited the Indiana Statehouse on Sept. 25 for the official program launch.
Penny Zellers, early childhood education program chair at Ivy Tech, called the statehouse visit an amazing experience.
“It was a great opportunity for the kids to feel like they are doing something that has meaning, which they truly, truly are,” she said. “But to be recognized for that and then get to go out and do it is a great jump-starter for their careers.”
Overall, 65 students across the state will be involved in the apprenticeship program. Nineteen of those students attend Lewis Cass.
“They get a chance to experience (early childhood education) real world-like but also with a safety net underneath it so everything that Penny teaches in the classroom, they get a chance to experience it real word with a subject matter expert who has been in the field for a while,” said Claypool.
There are currently 91 children enrolled in the Early Learning Academy, ranging in age from six weeks up to 12-years-old.
The apprenticeship students work primarily with infants and toddlers.
“It is not babysitting,” said Claypool.
“There is so much more that goes into it than that,” said Angela Johnson, who helped the school develop the academy before moving over to the Maconaquah School Corporation to help the school expand their early education options.
When students graduate from the program, they leave with a child development associates degree, a technical certificate and classroom support specialist credentials from Ivy Tech.
“They are actually walking out with more qualifications than what the apprenticeship requires,” said Claypool.
Better quality childcare
Angela Johnson came to Lewis Cass in 2020 to fill a child care desert need. Claypool and Johnson worked with Ivy Tech for over a year to figure out a way to bring the Ivy Tech technical certificate to the school.
“The main reason, three years ago, behind starting it was staffing and childcare is always a challenge,” said Johnson. “But not only that we need qualified staff. So, once I learned more about the high school pathways and that there was an early childhood option I asked how can we make this work? Can we do this?”
Johnson said it was important to get students into the program young and teach them good habits from the start.
“Ivy Tech has been fantastic,” Claypool said. “College level classes and high school kids. It takes a little time to make that transition but things have worked out. Now the students are coming out and the intent was to come out of high school qualified. They are ready to step right into the workforce if that is what they want to do or they can continue their education.”
Zellers explained that dual enrollment differs from dual credit. With dual credit, students go through a program and get credits for courses through a university. But with dual enrollment, Ivy Tech professors—in this case Zellers—go to a school and teach the students.
Apprentices are in the classroom two days a week and work with children the other three days. The apprenticeship aspect of the program takes place after school and the apprentices are paid for their work.
“As they get halfway through, they get a pay raise and when they complete the competencies they get another pay raise,” said Claypool. “They spent all that time doing a live interview and it gives the facilitators plenty of time to groom the good habits.”
Hands-on learning
Juniors Lilly Shaffer and Halley Douglas are in their second year with the apprenticeship program. Both said their initial experiences were challenging but they now felt at home in the Early Learning Academy.
Claypool said it was easy to tell the second-year students from the first-year students. The second-year students had a certain swagger to them.
Both apprentices agreed that their favorite thing about being in the program was interacting with the children.
“Being able to watch the kids grow, not even physically but mentally—now some of them are talking a lot more and some of them are writing a little bit, but they are growing as little humans in the world,” Shaffer said. “In class we get to learn a lot about how a kid’s mind works.”
Zellers said she teachers the apprentices about the four stages of child development: language, cognitive, motor and social/ emotional.
“We do a lot of hands on in the classroom so that they can then take that and transfer that knowledge into their work with the children,” she said. “They are always assisted, but it gives them lots of time to practice what they are learning—the next day, even, which I think is fantastic because the more you put application to what you learned, the more it sticks and stays and it’s bound to be a habit.”
Students are taught about open ended activities—especially creative activities. Zellers said the students may plan an art activity and pair it with a book. Once she approves their activity, they take it to the classroom teacher. Once the teacher looks the activity over, the student gets to do the activity with the children as the teacher supports them.
Shaffer said that she enjoys working with the toddlers. She said after working in every classroom with different age groups she felt that she made the biggest connection with the children who were ages one to three.
Douglas found that she enjoys working with preschool children because they are at an age where they can participate in more activities.
Breanna Pike, the early learning director, said she enjoyed watching the apprentices grow in skill and confidence.
“Just watching them grow from classroom to classroom, they just get to explore it, be a part of it,” she said.
Claypool credited the Early Learning Academy staff for creating and maintaining the program’s excellence.
“I was very blessed with the Ivy Tech side and subject matter experts,” he said. “(Johnson) has gone on to open a whole other program. I was very blessed. I just get to be the mediator,” he said.
The apprenticeship program is open to students who are freshmen and up. Claypool said interested students could talk with, Pike or their guidance counselor.
“There’s room for plenty of students,” he said.
Johnson said that childcare seats are hard to find and that high quality childcare seats are even harder to find.
“If a small school can do it anybody can do it,” Claypool said. “They really can. That was our whole purpose was to be able to make it replicable.”
More information about the Early Learning Academy can be found at ela.lewiscass.net.
