Young stars. Shining futures.

Delaware Stars
ERS Specialty Technical Assistant
Training Manual and Procedures

ROLE..3
REQUIRED TRAININGS5
ACCOUNTABILITY PROCESS.6-8
GENERAL PROCEDURES9-12
WHAT TO SUBMIT AFTER A VISIT
MONTHLY REPORT...12
DATABASE ENTRY.13-19
TA COMMUNICATION/E-MAIL19
WHAT TO SUBMIT AT THE END OF THE MONTH
MONTHLY REPORT.12
MILEAGE.12
REQUIRED MEETINGS20

THE ROLE OF THE ERS SPECIALTY TA

This position is a unique blend of technical assistant and assessor. In your role, you are
trained for accountability in the same way that the assessors are trained for reliability,
but you are also working as a technical assistant to use a strengths-based approach
with administration, classroom staff, and the generalist technical assistants assigned to
each center in the quality improvement process. Because of this unique position, there
are several things to note:
1) You will have access to internal information within the assessment office, such as
a copy of their master scales. This scale should not be shared with any technical
assistant, director, teacher, or any other staff member at the site. You should be
using this to guide your feedback, but they should not be able to see this internal
information for confidentiality purposes.
2) You will also have access to conversations within the assessment office. For
example, when you go on reliability checks with your anchor assessor, you will
be discussing scores with that anchor. Because the assessment results take 15
business days to come back to the technical assistant, you should not be sharing
any part of these conversations with the TA or center. This is internal information
and is subject to change. Do not put yourself in a position where you have
shared confidential information that turns out to be unfounded. This could
possibly affect your professional relationship with the site or with the TA. Be
aware of what information can be shared with certain people.
3) In this position, you may sometimes be put into uncomfortable situations, such as
directors or teachers complaining to you about an assessments results.
Remember, any conversation that you have with a center should focus on a
positive outlook on the Stars program. Even if they have been told something
differently from another Stars staff member, focus on relaying the message that
your notes are specific to the scale. Please do not tell them that anyone has
delivered any information to them that is "wrong" or incorrect. This reflects
negatively upon Stars.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE FIRST FEW WEEKS

During your first few weeks in this position, your main job is to learn the ERS scales as
thoroughly as you can. While you will also be participating in ride alongs and going to
trainings, the scales are the basis of your new role. Please spend your office time
reading through the All About books that you have been provided and preparing your
scales to fit the clarifications for Delaware by copying the master guides in the
assessment office. Research the scales, view videos online, and prepare questions to
ask the assessors. Sometimes scheduling prevents you from going on trainings with the
assessors right away. Spend your time getting as versed in the scales as possible.
In addition to scale-specific training, you will also be given trainings about technical
assistance strategies used by the Stars team from the TA mentor in your orientation
trainings. You may also be asked to go on ride longs with generalist TAs to further your
knowledge of these strategies. You will also receive database training from one of the
TA anchors so that you can learn how to utilize the system for internal documentation
among technical assistants.

REQUIRED TRAININGS
As a University employee, you are required to attend a training at the University entitled
"Stewards of Children". This training details the procedures that we follow as
mandated reporters in the state of Delaware and details how to look for signs of child
abuse. You can register via the university's internal employee development system.
In addition to being a University employee, you are also a Delaware Institute for
Excellence in Early Childhood employee. This means that you will be required to attend
a training through the institute entitled "Relationship-Based Adult Learning". This 24
credit class will teach you how to work with other adults in the field and how to adapt
your technical assistance techniques to fit the needs of the adult learners that you will
encounter. Additionally, as a Stars employee, you should sign up for a 6 hour "Building
On Quality" session, which will provide you with information about how to improve
quality in a developmentally appropriate way. Both of these sessions can be registered
for via the Institute's registration site. In order to register, you will have to create a profile
on the website: http://dieec.udel.edu/registry/user/register. This profile will then keep
track of all of the professional development that you attend via the institute.
Additionally, since you will be training on the ERS scales, it is a good idea to attend the
"Applying the" trainings from the institute for ITERS, ECERS, and FCCRS. These
assessor-led trainings will give you some insight into what the teachers and directors
are told about the scales and as to what questions they might have regarding them. You
can check when these trainings are offered on the institutes training calendar at
http://dieec.udel.edu/registry/training/view. These classes are also listed in Provider
Pursuits, the hard copy of the courses that is given to employees on a quarterly basis.
TRAININGS FOR THE POSITION
This position requires much on-site work; however, before beginning the official training
process, familiarize yourself with the following materials. You should know the ERS
scales as well as the assessors do, and technical assistants will rely on you to be the
liaison between the two offices as far as clarifying and relaying information. You will
often have to answer questions that you may not initially know the answer to. Knowing
where to look for the answers will benefit you greatly. Use these sources to begin
becoming knowledgeable in the scales.
-The All About the ITERS book
-The All About the ECERS book
-Observations for the ITERS training video
-Observations for the ECERS training video
-Observations for the FCCERS training video
-NCRLAP videos online: www.ncrlap.org
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ACCOUNTABILITY PROCESS
In this position, you will first have to train with the assessors in order to gain the
knowledge required of the ERS scales necessary to perform your job. You will be
assigned an assessor who will train you by taking you along on either mock or actual
assessments.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR GOING OUT ON AN ASSESSMENT
1) Prepare Your Scoresheet: You will be expected to complete a scoresheet while
on the visit. Prior to an assessment, you will need to prepare your scoresheet
according to the assessment preparation worksheet.
2) Print Any Documents Needed: In addition, you will need to print out any daily
schedules, ASTM F 1292 documentation for the site, and the Ages worksheet.
The assessment team will provide you with these documents prior to the
assessment.
3) Prepare Your Clipboard: The assessment team will be providing you with your
own clipboard to take with you on any assessment. Inside of the clipboard, you
should keep a tape measure, extra pencils (which can be found at the
assessment office at Creek Viewthey are always willing to share!), your scale,
any additional documents needed to help on the assessment (Playground Safety
Sheet, OCCL Reporting Documents, etc.), and your mulch measurement tool
(the assessors will give you one of these too!). Your car keys or cell phone
should fit inside of this clipboard as well. Consult with your training assessor
about whether or not your cell phone is needed. (Usually, only one assessor will
bring a phone in case a call to their supervisor or OCCL is necessary while on
the assessment). Also, remember to wear a watch to the assessment!
4) Review the ERS Scale for the Assessment: Take some time to look back over
the master guide that you have in order to refresh your memory on any changes
or clarifications that have been added since the last time that you attended an
assessment.
5) Discuss Carpooling or Parking with Your Training Assessor: Some
assessments take place very far downstate or have difficult parking situations.
Ask your training assessor if carpooling will help with situations like this. They
often are familiar with the sites and the parking situations.
AFTER AN ASSESSMENT
After an assessment, you have to score. This may take anywhere from one hour to 6-7
hours, depending on your scoring style and how familiar you are with the scale. It is best
to find a quiet place that you will not be interrupted in to score. You are able to use your
master guide, the All About books, etc. to help you determine scores, but you are not
able to ask questions of your training assessor or your fellow ERS TAs during this time.
After scoring, you will need to fill out a reliability sheet for the assessment. This
document can be found in the shared Dropbox folder. This document is meant to give
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the assessors a tool to compare scores and will serve as the basis of your discussion
during your debriefing. E-mail this sheet to your training assessor prior to the next stepdebriefing. At the end of the debriefing, the training assessor will send you a copy of the
reliability sheet.
Usually on the day after the assessment, you will be asked to meet with your training
assessor to debrief. Please make sure that your calendar allows you to have this time to
meet with the assessor. The busier you and the assessor are, the more likely it is that
you will have to communicate with him or her to find a mutual time to meet. This
debriefing is equally as important as the assessment: it is how you know if you have
reached your 85%.
STEPS TO ACCOUNTABILITY
1) Guided practices (one or two)
2) Reliability Checks (at least three; more if 85% is not attained)
Your initial accountability takes some time to complete. You will have one or two guided
practices with your training assessor. A guided practice is an assessment in which you
and your training assessor are in a classroom both scoring an assessment. During a
guided practice, the assessor might talk to you to show you certain items that he/she
wants you to see during the assessment. Your scores in the guided practices do not
count towards your accountability scores. These are simply assessments for you to
learn the new scale without any pressure.
After your guided practices, your goal will be to achieve an average of an 85%
accountability rate with your training assessor on three separate assessments. To
achieve this 85%, you will have to score in the same way that the training assessor did.
You will learn what your score is after you attend your assessment debriefing.
Debriefing is the process by which the assessment is discussed and how we assign
final scores to the center. After scoring, you will debrief with your training assessor,
usually the next day. The two of you will compare your scoresheets in order to make
sure that you are scoring items in the same manner in which the assessor scores them.
This is your learning opportunity. Do not look at this as a high-stakes testing assignment
but rather as a way for you to clarify the items that you view differently. The goal is for
you to be able to walk into a classroom and view it in the same way that an assessor
does, so you will want to make sure that you fully understand why certain items are
scored in various ways.
TYPES OF ASSESSMENTS
During the accountability process, you might be called on to go to various types of
assessments:
Mock Assessments are assessments that centers have volunteered to have completed
as a way to gain some extra insight into how their classrooms would score on the ERS.
These assessments do not count towards their verification. The feedback delivered from
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these assessments is given directly to the technical assistant, as no report is run on it in

the assessment office. Mock assessments are scheduled by your training assessor. You
may complete a few of these during the accountability process if practice assessments
are not available.
Each center is allowed a Practice Assessment in one classroom of their choice prior to
their verification assessment. This assessment serves as a way for the center to know
which items they still need to improve prior to their actual assessment. You are more
likely to go on a practice assessment during the accountability process if the center is a
Family Child Care, as these centers do not usually volunteer for mock assessments.
You may also be asked to do guided practice in these classrooms.
An actual assessment, or Verification Assessment, is an assessment that will assess
if the center scores a certain star level. You will probably only be asked to go along on
verification assessments on your reliability checks.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY
If you have any conflicts of interest with any centers, such as places that you used to
work at or places that have employees that you are related to or know on a personal
basis, you are expected to notify the scheduler prior to the assessment. In this position,
we are also unique in that we cannot go to any center to complete an assessment if we
have been in the center providing technical assistance in the past 3 months. The
scheduler is aware of this and how it limits the amount of centers that you can go to for
your assessments, so she will work with you on finding centers that you can go to.
MAINTAINING ACCOUNTABILITY
Every three months, you will have to go back out on an assessment with your training
assessor on what is called a reliability check. This process ensures that you are still
providing feedback to centers that is consistent with how the assessors are scoring. The
scheduler will keep track of when you are due for your check and will notify you of the
date of your check by e-mailing you an invitation for your assessment. You should
accept this invitation (it will automatically be sent to your calendar when you do so) and
print out the information and documents attached to the invitation that you will need for
your assessment. You are expected to score at least an 85% on this check. If you do
not reach the 85% threshold, you will be assigned another assessment to go out on for
another check until you do reach the 85%.

GENERAL PROCEDURES
RIDEALONGS
In this position, you might be asked to go on a ride along with both assessors and
technical assistants. While with assessors, you should be attempting to score a
scoresheet just as they would. After the ride along, you will have the opportunity to
debrief with the assessors to discuss aspects of the scale, such as where they took off
points and why. A ride along with a technical assistant is a great opportunity for you to
experience how the relationship-based piece of technical assistance comes in. Pay
special attention to how they deliver feedback and notes to the center. While riding
along with a fellow ERS TA, note the process used when going into a room. These visits
are different from regular TA visits because the relationship piece is not necessarily
there (as an ERS TA visit is a less frequent visit). Note the ways that they work to deliver
feedback related to the scale.
ASSESSMENT RESULTS
Once you become reliable, you will start to receive e-mails with assessment results from
the Assessment Coordinator. This information will come to you so that you can better
inform your practice. These results are confidential and should not be shared with
anyone other than the recipients of the original e-mail. The regular TA is responsible for
sharing this information with the center. You can review it and talk to the TA, but you
should not be discussing assessment results with the center. Any questions that a TA,
director, or teacher has about an individual assessment should be sent to the
Assessment Coordinator. When an assessment does not reach the desired star level,
place the scoresheet and summary report into the Failed Assessments folder so that
you can reference it if you are requested by a TA to go to that center.
Reviewing these assessment results is also a valuable way for you to learn how the
assessments are scored. Look through them to see where the classroom scored well
and what they need additional assistance with.
DROPBOX ACCESS
You will receive access to the ERS Specialty TA Dropbox folder. This is maintained via
Dropbox so that any internal documents from the assessment office are not kept on the
Technical Assistants H Drive. This is for confidentiality purposes. In this folder, you will
keep any related files to your position. Browse through the documents and become
familiar with them. This file is maintained because while we have full access to the TA's
H drive, we have limited access to the Assessors' H drive. However, we are entitled to
see some of their internal documents, which we keep in a file labeled "Assessor H Drive
Documents". Please do not share any of the files in this particular folder with anyone
other than an assessor.

MASTER SCALES
One of the first tasks that you will want to complete is to copy the master scales that the
assessors have into your own personal copies of the ERS scales. Remember, this
information is meant to be kept confidential and is an internal assessment document
only. Please do not share specifics from your scale with anyone other than an assessor.
REQUEST SYSTEM
Regular technical assistants have a caseload of sites that they maintain and help
prepare for assessment and the verification process. These TAs can request you by
using the Specialty TA Request Form. They will be required to fill out all of the fields on
the request and submit to the TA coordinator. The TA coordinator logs these requests for
tracking purposes. The TA coordinator will then forward the requests to you. When you
receive a request, please reply to the e-mail from the TA coordinator that you received
and will contact the TA to set up a site visit. Then, e-mail the TA to schedule a time to
visit the center. The regular TA should accompany you on your initial visit to the site so
that he/she can give you a tour of the center and provide you with some insight as to
what they would like to see worked on in each classroom. Any subsequent visits that
you decide should be arranged can be handled directly through the center director. If a
TA requests that they would like to accompany you on subsequent visits as well, this is
their choice, and please try your best to accommodate them. Remember, the TAs are
trying to learn as much as they can about the ERS too.
SITE VISITS
When you go on a site visit, it is important to take detailed notes. Label your notes with
the classroom name, note the age level of the students, and be sure to list any items
that you discussed with the staff about the room. This will provide you with a good basis
for your database entry and monthly report entry. It is a good idea to check in with the
director prior to visiting classrooms to make sure that someone from administration
knows that you are in the building. It is also a good idea to introduce yourself to the staff
in each room that you visit. Their director may or may not have reminded them that you
were going to visit on that day, so it is important to make them feel comfortable while
you are in their room. Remind them that you are not there to assess them but rather to
provide input into items that can help them for their assessment. Be prepared for some
teachers to be extremely nervous while you are there-this is natural. Also be prepared
for some teachers to ask tons of questions-you are their closest source to the
information that they want to know. After visiting the classrooms, it is also a good idea to
debrief with the administration prior to leaving. You can use this time to address themes
that you noticed in all of the rooms and schedule a follow-up visit, if necessary.
Technical assistants may ask you to do a variety of duties while you are on a visit. Some
of these things include: preparing a materials list for the center, observing the teachers
interactions and language, providing insight about room arrangement possibilities,
helping a teacher to understand the concept of free expression in artwork by leading an
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art lesson with the students, working with teachers/directors on classroom schedules,
etc.
CREATING DOCUMENTS
You have the freedom to create whatever documents might help you to complete your
job. From time to time, regular technical assistants might ask you to create something to
help them as well. Some documents that we have created so far are
Language/Interaction Checklists, materials checklists, tips and tricks for moving up star
levels, etc. Your supervisor, the Technical Assistance Coordinator, might also ask you to
create documents. If you feel as though you would like to have an assessor look over
the document for content, Linda Farmer is the current assessment representative to
handle documents (lfarmer@udel.edu). Once created, you will need to submit to the TA
Coordinator via email. The document will be passed along to the ERS Committee,
where it will be reviewed and comments will be added. The TA Coordinator will then
pass the document back to you and ask you to edit accordingly. Once you have made
the desired changes, resubmit to the TA Coordinator with the Delaware Stars logo on
the document. The TA Coordinator will let you know when it has obtained final approval
and can be shared on the wiki or with other technical assistants.
PROVIDING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Each quarter, we are asked to provide professional development to the regular technical
assistants. The topic of these professional development sessions will be determined by
the TA PD Committee. Your supervisor will let you know what topic is to be presented.
Generally, you will have a 2-3 hour block of time during the All TA Meeting to present
this topic. The TAs will look to you as a source of information, and this is the way in
which we communicate information from the assessment team to the technical
assistance team. You will need to make sure that the information you present is relevant
to the ERS and how Delaware scores the items on the ERS.
ANSWERING TA QUESTIONS
Part of this position is to provide clarity and insight into questions that the technical
assistants have about the ERS assessment. Occasionally, they will send you questions
via e-mail, phone call, or in person. You can answer these questions to the best of your
ability if you know the answer, but if you need further insight yourself in order to answer
the question, there are certain procedures that we follow. Each month on the 4 th
Wednesday of the month, the assessor meet. Part of this meeting involves discussion of
TA questions. On the 2nd Wednesday of the month, the anchors will meet and will
answer questions as well. If you have questions to submit that require clarification, you
should e-mail them to your training assessor. Any questions that the TAs have that
you cannot answer, keep recorded in the document in the Dropbox folder. These
should be submitted to the Assessment Coordinator by the 2 nd and 4th Tuesday of
every month.

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MONTHLY REPORT
After each visit to a site, you are expected to complete an entry in the monthly reporting
document. In the report, you will need to list the site name, date visited, which regular
TA the site belongs to, what star level they are trying to achieve, which classrooms you
visited, the age level of each classroom, and which subscales and items on the scale
that you addressed on your visit. At the end of the month, you and your team will work
together to tally the total number of site visits and classroom visits that you went on
during the month. This report should then be forwarded to the TA coordinator.
MILEAGE
As a university employee, you will be reimbursed for any mileage that you drive over
and above your regular commute (considered your home to the office and back). You
will receive a username and password for the Works system at the University within
your first few weeks of working for the University. A separate list of instructions and user
codes will come with this password. This procedure should be followed on a monthly
basis, with a hard copy being put in the Technical Assistance Coordinators mailbox no
later than the 5th of the month. (For example, submit Julys mileage by August 5 th) The
University has an Excel spreadsheet to help you keep track of this, which we have in
our shared Dropbox under Mileage.

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DATABASE ENTRIES
Each site visit requires a database entry. These entries should be input into the
database as soon as possible after the site visit. You will receive your login information
shortly after beginning the position. Once logged into the system, select Search by
Name.

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Enter the centers name and click the briefcase to the right of the name.
On the left side of the screen is a vertical blue toolbar. Each of these sections will give
you information about the center, but the tab that you will utilize the most as an ERS
Specialty TA is the Star Level Designation tab.

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To view the names of all of the classrooms in the site, click the Classrooms tab and
explore the rooms using the dropdown menu that appears.

To review the regular TAs notes on the center, click on the Assist tab. This will take
you to the TA Contact Log. You will see a dropdown menu with a TAs name and date of
visit. Use the arrow to the side of this menu to navigate through all of the previous TA
visits.

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CREATING A NEW DATABASE ENTRY

In order to create your own entry, click the words New Visit to the right of the box that
says Choose Visit. A new entry will populate using your name and the current date.

If you a documenting a visit from another day, select the calendar icon next to the date
box and change the date. Select if this was an on-site visit, e-mail, phone call,
community of practice meeting, etc.
If you met with particular staff members, please select their names from the dropdown
menu and click Add to Notes after each staff member is selected.
Under what competency areas (goal areas) were addressed during this visit? select
Observation and Assessment. Each visit that you go on is working towards their
assessment goal. This will not change for you as an ERS Specialty Technical Assistant.

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Under what kind of TA did you provide? select Other AND Technical Assistance. In
the Other box, write what scale you were looking at (ECERS ERS Specialty TA, ITERS
ERS Specialty TA, FCCERS ERS Specialty TA).
Under Standards Addressed this Visit, select the appropriate (L0) ERS Assessment
SLD for the star level that this center is trying to reach. For example, if they are trying to
reach a Star 4, select, (L0) ERS Assessment SLD 4.
Under What ERS Standards addressed during this visit, check any subscale that you
provided TA on during this visit.

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Under the notes section, begin typing your notes from the visit. This is the box that you
will want to copy and paste from for the technical assistant.

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When you are finished typing your notes, click the Save button at the bottom and wait
for the green message Information saved successfully to appear in the space to the
right of the box. This means that your entry has been saved. If you want to check on it,
you can now access the entire entry at the top of the screen on the dropdown menu
under your name and date of the visit.

COMMUNICATION WITH TECHNICAL ASSISTANTS

After a site visit, please maintain clear communication with the regular TA. Copy the
database entry into an e-mail to send to them so that they know what you worked on
and what you told the center. This will come in handy when they go on their next visit to
the site. We want to maintain clear communication in every step of the verification
process so that we can develop the relationship bond that we use in the relationshipbased technical assistance model.
PROVIDING FEEDBACK
After each visit to a site, you should enter your visit into the database. Then, this
information should be copied and pasted into an e-mail to the regular TA. This is to
make sure that the regular TA knows what was worked on, when you went, and can
forward any information onto the director or teachers of the site. ERS Specialty TAs are
not to send e-mail directly to the site, as we want to make sure that the line of

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communication is clear and that all information goes through the regular TA. This helps
our technical assistants to maintain a strong relationship with the center.
ASSESSOR MEETINGS
On the fourth Wednesday of each month, the assessors meet together to discuss
updates on the scales, clarifications, and assessment topics. You are required to attend
this monthly meeting so that you can keep up to date on information shared among
assessors. This meeting takes place at 9:00 am at the assessment office at 300 Creek
View Rd in Newark. Meetings usually last until around noon.
TA MEETINGS
In addition to assessor meetings, you are also required to attend the monthly All TA
meeting on the third Tuesday of the month. Locations vary from month to month; check
with the TA coordinator for an updated calendar of meeting places. Additionally, the UD
TA's meet on the third Friday of the month at 1:00 pm on campus.
We are also invited to attend the Easter Seals and Children and Families First meetings
each month. While these are not required to attend, keep the dates in mind in case you
are asked to present on a topic at the meetings or answer questions. Easter Seals
meets the last Monday of the month in Georgetown at 22317 Dupont Boulevard and
Children and Families First meets the fourth Monday of the month in Dover at 91 Wolf
Creek Blvd.
REQUIRED MONTHLY MEETINGS
Assessor Meeting- fourth Wednesday of the month 9:00 am-12:00 pm
All TA Meeting- third Tuesday of the month 1:00 pm-4:00 pm (sometimes extended 9-4)
UD TA Meeting- third Friday of the month 1:00 pm-2:30 pm
Specialty TA Meeting- third Friday of the month 2:30-4:00 pm
Office Time-last day of the month (to submit monthly report & mileage)
WHO DO I REPORT TO?
Delaware Stars is a branch of the Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood
at the University of Delaware. We follow guidelines from the Delaware Office of Early
Learning and the Delaware Office of Child Care Licensing. The next page is a chart of
your supervisors in your position. Note that we are a blend of assessor and technical
assistant, but your immediate supervisor is the Technical Assistance Coordinator, not
the Assessment Coordinator. All requests should go through the TA Coordinator.

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Delaware Stars Staff Organization Chart

21

Martha Buell,
DIEEC Director

Rena Hallam,
Delaware Stars
Director

Mary
Sonnenberg,
Deputy
Director of
Stars/ CoPrincipal
Investigator

Nicole Hylton,
Program
Manager of
Operations

Laura Cutler,
Curriculum &
Assessment
Coordinator

Curriculum &
Assessment
Specialty
Technical
Assistants

Christina Joe,
Technical
Assistance
Coordinator

Regular
Technical
Assistants
(from Udel,
CFF, and Easter
Seals)
and Other
Specialty
Technical
Assistants

Kaitlin
Bargreen,
Research
Specialist
Coordinator
/Co-Principal
Investigator

Alvita Kelly,
Program
Manager of
Verification &
Assessment

Michelle
Richards,
Assessment
Coordinator

ERS Specialty
Technical
Assistants

Kristy Sheffler,
Program
Manager of
Data &
Evaluation

Valeria
Smirlock,
Professional
Development &
Outreach
Specialist

Resarch
Assistants and
Graduate
Students

Assessors

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