I. Chapter 1. The Director: A Broad View
A. The history of the child care practice
1. The beginning of the development at the end of the XIXth century
2. The WWII period and state sponsorship
3. The post-war period and its difficulties
B. The director’s qualities
1. Leadership vs. management
2. Successful combination of leadership and management
3. Five C’s and other characteristics of director-managers
C. The director’s duties and responsibilities
1. Delegating responsibilities
2. Organizing the work
3. Planning the work
4. Communicating messages
a. Verbal communication
b. Non-verbal communication
c. Written communication
d. Preventing misunderstandings and problems in communication
D. Evaluating the director’s work
1. Self-evaluation
2. Evaluation by staff
3. Evaluation by a board of directors
II. Chapter 4. Administering Program Plans
Program planning
1. Stakeholders for the planning process
2. Elements the plan must include
a. A mission statement
b. A statement of philosophy
c. A goal
d. Objectives as steps to the final goal
e. Curriculum
B. Assessment
1. Methods
a. Observation and documentation
b. Interviews with parents
c. Standardized tests
d. Checklists
2. Results
1. Individual profiles
2. Changes of the program
C. Policies and procedures
1. The purpose of policies
2. Availability of information about policies and procedures
2. Reassessment of policies and procedures
III. Chapter 8. Family Child Care (FCC)
A. The historic and psychological background of family child care development
1. History
2. Reasons for preferences
B. Types of FCC homes
1. Regulated FCC homes
2. License-exempt FCC homes
3. Differences in the number of children
4. Age differences
C. Characteristics of FCC
1. Positive characteristics, i.e. advantages
a. An opportunity to leave toddlers and infants for day care
b. Children are looked after by the same person at the same place
c. Siblings stay together
2. Negative characteristics, i.e. disadvantages
a. A necessity to look for a substitute provider at short notice if the provider gets ill or quits
b. Poorer equipment of FCC homes in comparison to common child care centers
D. FCC providers
1. Characteristics of FCC providers
2. Job characteristics
3. FCC providers as administrators
E. Aspects of FCC to consider in future
1. Quality improvement
2. Unionization
IV. Chapter 9. Staff Selection / Personnel Policies
A. Staff selection
1. Reasons for staff turnover
2. Criteria to take into consideration
a. Education
b. Experience
c. Personal characteristics
d. Availability of skills required for a position
e. Knowledge of the relevant area
B. Recruitment process
1. Recruiting notices and their components
2. Application information
3. Selection
a. Screening the applications
b. Interviewing potential employees
c. Evaluation
4. Notification
C. Personnel documents
1. Contracts
2. Statements of personnel policies
3. Personnel manuals
4. Personnel records
5. Recommendations
Response. The chapters outlined above present very useful information for those who are engaged in child care business, especially for director-managers of such centers. First of all, the authors clearly explain what qualities are necessary to be successful in business. Those who are already working in the sphere or those who are just planning to do it can evaluate their prospects and opportunities and understand what qualities they still have to develop in order to succeed. Besides, the authors provide a lot of material that can be put to practice, for instance, their description of plan administering procedure. Planning is a very important element of any work aimed at success. Moreover, to be productive, this plan must be drawn up correctly. Director-managers are those who are usually responsible for administering planning. So, the information about the things which must be included in a good plan is quite pertinent. The chapters cover one more rather difficult aspect of director-managers’ work and this is recruiting the right staff. No matter how professional and experienced the director may be, nothing can be done without efficient employees. So, the recommendations provided in Chapter 9 are priceless. Besides, the authors give detailed samples of materials which directors can use in their work with employees, e.g. a sample job description for a teacher and another one for a cook, a sample staff inquiry report, etc. Readers can see what sections must be included into the documents that they are interested in as well as what information can be considered relevant there.
Chapter 8 is a little different from the other three chapters under consideration because it provides information about family child care (FCC) homes which are often opposed to common child care centers. FCC homes are getting more and more popular among US mothers; therefore, it is obvious that they are worth paying attention to. In FCC homes, all the work is often done by one and the same person; so, this person must combine the qualities both of teachers and of director-managers. On the one hand, FCC homes can be seen as something more difficult as everything depends on the qualification of only one person, but on the other hand, some problems which common child care centers face, e.g. recruiting, are just absent in FCC homes.
On the whole, all four chapters are theoretically and practically informative; therefore, there is something for everyone who wants to find answers to questions concerning administering child care centers of different types.
