A Northern Essex Community College program that assists local immigrants who already hold college or high school diplomas from other countries reach their professional potential, has been nominated by Congresswoman Lori Trahan for an Examples of Excelencia Award.

“Programa Internacional de Educación Superior Latinos de Northern Essex Community College” (PIÉS Latinos de NECC) which started in 2016 with 98 students, currently has 270 students enrolled.

The program was created to empower the diverse community of learners in the Merrimack Valley. Specifically, it addresses the well-documented issue of “brain waste”. This means college-educated and highly-skilled immigrants are working in low-wage, low-skill jobs, because their degrees and certifications from educational institutions in foreign countries are not readily recognized.

“We are so proud of this nomination,” says Dr. Noemi Custodia-Lora, NECCC vice president Lawrence campus and community relations. “To professional/skilled immigrants PIES Latinos de NECC means the opportunity to work at the fullest professional capacity in highly skilled and better paying careers.  To employers, it means the opportunity to hire highly skilled employees eager to demonstrate their capacity and with that help close the workforce gap.”

The goals of PIÉS Latinos de NECC include a straightforward, simple process to evaluate foreign credentials; access to basic and conceptualized English as a Second Language classes; and a network

Dr. Noemi Custodia-Lora

system to help immigrants develop social capital. This combination helps underemployed immigrants reach their professional potential. Not yet three years old, the program has served more than 620 immigrants to date and as a result, many have secured higher-level positions in the private and public sectors.

One example of the program’s success includes five immigrants, who with the assistance of PIÉS Latinos de NECC, had their credits evaluated, pursued non-credit ESL courses, and were referred to Cambridge College to continue the process to become teachers. All are residents of Lawrence and PIÉS Latinos de NECC will follow-up to guide them to become teachers in the Lawrence Public School system.

Formal agreements were created through PIÉS Latinos de NECC with Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD), the public university system of the Dominican Republic, and with the Instituto Técnico Superior Comunitario (ITSC), the Dominican Republic’s first public two-year college. These agreements simplify the transfer of credits without the need to validate credits through an external agency and are at no cost to students.

PIÉS Latinos de NECC was originally created to help with the foreign credential evaluation process and inform immigrants about their options in general terms. However, the program has evolved since it was first established and continues evolving as immigrant needs change.

The program is successful because of its partnerships with several non-profit organizations and service providers in the city of Lawrence including MassHire, Cambridge College, The Mayor’s ESL Task Force, The Lawrence Adult Learning Center; NECC Adult Basic Education programs; Lawrence Churches; Lawrence Head Start,  the Lawrence Family Resource Center; Spanish Talk Radio; the City of Lawrence Mayor’s Office and City Council, the Lawrence Public Library, Haverhill Community Action’s Adult Learning Center; and regional employers.

Excelencia in Education is the only national effort to identify and promote evidence-based programs that help accelerate Latino student success in higher education. Through a comprehensive yearlong process, Excelencia in Education recruits, reviews, and promotes evidence-based practices at the associate, baccalaureate, and graduate categories in institutions of higher education as well as practices at community-based organizations. Since 2005, Excelencia has received over 1,600 nominations from 33 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. and recognized over 280 programs. Examples of Excelencia.

For additional information, contact Dr. Custodia-Lora at ncustodialora@necc.mass.edu or Analuz Garcia at agarcia@necc.mass.edu

There is a shortage of certified early childhood educators in Massachusetts, and Northern Essex Community College is leading the way in addressing this crisis.

Carol Landry, director of The Children’s Place at Phillips Academy, Jody Carson, Early Childhood Education professor, Gail Feigenbaum, coordinator of NECC’s Early Childhood Education Program, and Kim Burns, NECC dean of academic innovation and professional development.

In collaboration with the Department of Higher Education (DHE), the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC), and nine other Massachusetts community colleges, Northern Essex is leading a consortium to make a college education more accessible to teachers who are working in the field but do not have a college degree.

According to Kim Burns, Northern Essex’s dean of academic innovation and professional development, early childhood educators represent the largest education workforce in the state, but they have the lowest educational attainment.

“There are 70,000 early childhood educators in Massachusetts, but only one-third have a college degree,” says Burns. “The teachers charged with educating our youngest minds are not all equipped with an academic background in childhood development or the science of early learning.”

ECE Faculty Statewide are Driving this Project

In the past three years, Northern Essex has received Performance Incentive Fund grants from the DHE totaling over a half million dollars to develop strategies that will address this issue.

As a result, within the next year, Northern Essex will have created an Early Childhood Director Certificate Program offered in a competency-based-education (CBE) format, meaning classes are online and allow students to move more quickly and receive credit for prior knowledge, such as what they’ve learned on the job. The certificate program will align with the EEC’s certification requirements.

“Teachers who have been working in the field and don’t have a degree will now have access to the college courses that will help them grow their careers,” says Gail Feigenbaum, coordinator of the Early Childhood Education Program at Northern Essex.

In addition, Middlesex, Holyoke, Bunker Hill and MassBay community college faculty will have developed six early childhood education courses for CBE delivery; courses such as Child Growth and Development and Children with Exceptional Learning Needs. Each of these classes will have four to seven competencies that align with professional standards and must be demonstrated in order to receive credit.  Students will receive ongoing and personalized support from faculty and a learning coach.

With the help of the grant, the ​consortium is also looking to create pathways for teachers who want to continue on for a bachelor’s or advanced degree.

“Faculty from ten community colleges are working to align academic programs for ease of transfer,” says Feigenbaum.  “We want to create multiple pathways and greater access to credentials and college degrees.”

To keep costs down, faculty are developing open educational resources, rather than expensive textbooks, meaning students can access high quality course materials free on the Internet.

Collaboration with Employers is Key

Carol Landry, director of The Children’s Place at Phillips Academy in Andover, a practicum site for Northern Essex Early Childhood students, says that finding and retaining qualified teachers is a struggle for all early childhood education providers.

“During the first five years, children are building 90% of their brain development.  Giving young children well-trained and educated teachers is critical,” she explains.

Landry supports all efforts to provide educational opportunities for early childhood teachers, and she has spoken publicly about this issue.

“Having better educated and trained professionals in the classrooms increases the quality of care that Massachusetts child care centers offer our communities. Quality teachers lead to quality programs which lead to accreditation through the National Association of Education of Young Children,” she says.

To learn more about Early Childhood Education programs at NECC, contact Gail Feigenbaum, gfeigenbaum@necc.mass.edu or 978 556-3831.

Northern Essex Community College student and Knights basketball player Ajani Phillip spent $170.00 on textbooks this semester. He hopes to save that and more next semester by using Open Educational Resources.

Since 2014 nearly 10,000 Northern Essex Community College students have realized close to a $1.5 million in textbook savings thanks to Open Educational Resources or OER as it is known on college campuses.

History books, as well as other expensive texts, are becoming…well history as faculty move toward creating courses using OER.

What is OER?

By definition, OER includes teaching, learning, and research resources that are available for free or low cost to anyone with access to a digital device such as a tablet, phone, or computer. The resources reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits free use and repurposing of the material.

By design, it is another initiative Northern Essex is using to create an affordable and accessible college education for its students. During last fall’s semester alone NECC had 53 courses for a total of 90 sections that included OER materials. Nearly 70 faculty members have replaced commercial texts with open educational resources.

Why OER?

Northern Essex has Early Childhood Education Professor Jody Carson and Sue Tashjian, coordinator of NECC’s instructional technology, to thank for making the college an early adopter of OER. They have trumpeted its merits since they introduced the free OER to the NECC campus back in 2014 with a textbook task force.

“The average college student typically spend $1,200 a year on textbooks,” said Tashjian.  “This program encourages faculty to use free, open educational resources (OER) in place of expensive textbooks.”

Sue Tashjian (left) and Jody Carson (right) spearheaded the initiative to encourage the use of OER by faculty members.

How OER Started

“NECC’s Textbook Task Force started as a way to save students money, but it has turned into so much more. OERs have changed the way faculty are teaching and the way students are learning,” Carson said.

That task force evolved into NECC’s “Adopt Open Program,” which in turn developed into a statewide initiative titled “The Massachusetts Community Colleges Go Open Project”. This was a finalist in 2018 for the prestigious Bellwether Award, sponsored by the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Florida. The award focuses on cutting-edge, trendsetting programs. It was one of 10 in the nation selected.

Go Open gave faculty across the state’s public higher education institutions an opportunity to embrace the concept of free or low-cost (under $40) course materials for their students. Faculty are taking advantage of professional development opportunities for implementing OER on a broader scale.

OER at NECC and Beyond

Carson and Tashjian, were recently appointed as members of the newly formed OER Working Group under the direction of the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. The Working Group is charged with expanding the use of OER statewide to make public higher education affordable and accessible for all students.

“I am very excited to see the OER movement gain momentum and support in Massachusetts,” said Tashjian. “Having the resources from the Department of Higher Education will allow us to explore opportunities for implementing OER on a broader scale.”

Realizing Savings

What does the cost savings mean for the students? According to Tashjian and Carson they hear a variety of comments from grateful students. Some apply the savings to paying off their tuition and fees, while others are able to purchase other books necessary for other classes. Still others say they are able to enroll in additional classes and finally some say the money covers basics like the cost of food and transportation.

“We are all about student success and free access to educational resources translates into student success,” said Carson.

NECC is making it easier than ever for students to narrow their course options. They now have the ability to research which courses offer open educational resources instead of texts. The course search tool has a “free access: low-cost/no-cost textbooks” box that can be checked when a student is researching course options.