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EdSurge
With the Pandemic Shining New Light on Early Childhood Educators, Proponents Look to ‘Radical’ Changes
By Emily Tate
Jan 14, 2021
Along with Dolly Parton, good weather, well-stocked toilet paper aisles
and the “stop video” function on Zoom, the pandemic has brought a
newfound appreciation—reverence, even—for early childhood educators.
Families, fellow educators and the general public have begun to see
just how integral child care professionals are to a smoothly
functioning economy, says Ashley LiBetti, associate partner of policy
and evaluation at Bellwether Education Partners, a national nonprofit
that aims to improve outcomes for underserved children. Many people,
LiBetti notes, are realizing that the existence of early childhood
education programs almost single-handedly allows mothers of young
children to participate in the workforce.
“The pandemic catalyzed this previously unmatched level of attention on
early care and education,” LiBetti says, adding that “the potential for
aspirational change to early educator preparation is possible right
now.”
But it’s more than just the pandemic that has made this a “prime
moment” for the field, says Cody Kornack, director of government
affairs for the National Head Start Association (NHSA). As the country
grapples with its long and enduring history of racism, early childhood
educators—about 40 percent of whom are women of color—are
well-positioned both to support young children who have experienced
trauma from systemic racism as well as to expose children to
anti-racist ideas and education at a young age.
These factors, plus the economic downturn that has devastated the child
care industry, amount to what Kornack calls a “confluence of crises”
that together have led to a shift in attitudes toward the field, whose
workers historically have been treated more like babysitters than
trained professionals.
With this in mind, early childhood advocates and practitioners are
taking a fresh look at how to tackle the biggest problem points related
to workforce development. In particular, they’re taking aim at how
educators are credentialed, how they receive on-the-job training and
other ways they might advance their careers.
In August, dozens of early childhood researchers, educators,
policymakers, practitioners and philanthropists convened virtually for
a full day of discussions and brainstorming about these and similar
topics. “The immediate goal was to think outside of the box,” Kornack
says, “to be unafraid to bring bad ideas to the table, because maybe it
could lead to one good idea; to be willing to share.”
That conversation helped spawn a recent report, authored by Kornack and
LiBetti, titled “Broader, Deeper, Fairer: Five Strategies to Radically
Expand the Talent Pool in Early Education.”
“Radical” is key, as some of the ideas envision an early childhood
preparation landscape that looks wholly different from what is
currently in place. But that’s what Kornack and LiBetti—and their
adviser, NHSA executive director Yasmina Vinci—intended. Pulling from
concepts that already exist in pockets of the early childhood education
ecosystem, as well as from programs that are deeply entrenched in other
industries, the five strategies are “at once exceptionally simple and
frustratingly complex,” the authors write in the report. “Improving
early educator preparation is not just about disrupting the current
system, but it is a function of designing new strategies and improving
existing strategies, then implementing them with fidelity at scale.”
Below are summaries of three of the five strategies and recommendations
detailed in the report. You can read the full report, including the
remaining two strategies, here.
A New Credential for Early Educators
The Child Development Associate (CDA) is the most widely used and
recognized credential in early childhood education. More than 20 states
include CDAs among their requirements for working with children. Yet it
“remains under-recognized as a lever for change,” the report argues.
Not all CDA programs are alike, which can be confusing for early
childhood educators, and not all of them grant college credit. To help
candidates better navigate these programs, the field should “develop a
single national repository” that both names and assesses the various
options, the report says.
At the same time, the field should develop another national
credential—to be called the Child Development Professional (CDP)
credential—that would expand on the skills and expertise of the CDA and
eventually be “held in equal esteem to four-year degrees.” Early
childhood educators who have already earned CDAs would, theoretically,
do additional training and/or coursework to earn their CDPs.
In this path, the authors compare the current CDA to a “driver’s
permit,” which would allow educators to serve as assistant teachers,
while the CDP would act as a driver’s license that would enable them to
serve as lead teachers.
CDP courses might focus on topics such as classroom management,
including how to supervise and work with assistant teachers; the use of
technology in early education; inclusion and anti-racism practices;
trauma-informed care; and practices to support dual language learners.
The new credential also opens up possibilities for educators to
specialize in tracks such as mental health, disabilities and
dual-language instruction.
Some strategies outlined in the report are more ripe for swift action
than others, Kornack acknowledges. “I would name the national
credential as one of those strategies where there are pieces that could
more easily be implemented,” she says. “We’re not that far off.”
‘Premier University’
It has become increasingly common for states to require that assistant
teachers have an associate’s degree and lead teachers hold a bachelor’s
degree. But given the low wages and slow growth in compensation that
the typical early childhood educator experiences, the return on
investment can take years to realize.
The report proposes the creation of an online, accredited,
degree-granting institution of higher education, dubbed “Premier
University.” The course content and wraparound services of this
institution would be designed with early childhood educators—potential
and current—in mind.
Eventually, Premier University might offer associate and bachelor’s
degrees, with courses that are competency- or project-based. The report
floats several more ideas for the school, including coursework relevant
to early educators (such as a statistics course that uses student-level
data); a diverse, culturally responsive faculty; and flexible schedules
that allow educators to work and take classes at the same time.
Pieces of this idea are already in place in certain parts of the
country, Kornack says. “In reality, if we got five to 15 people in a
room, we could manifest Premier University.” Some of those people
include Gail Joseph, who helped design and roll out EarlyEdU, a suite
of competency-based courses for early childhood educators that is
hosted through public universities, and the team that develops new
academic programs at Southern New Hampshire University, which is known
for its online offerings.
“The devil’s in the details,” Kornack says, “but it’s my impression
there is a willingness on the part of multiple parties to get there.”
A Push Toward Apprenticeships
Practice-based training—which in K-12 is usually offered through
student teaching— is among the most valuable components of teacher
preparation, the report argues. In early childhood education,
apprenticeships should be the “cornerstone” of practice-based training,
says Kornack, “and there should be more of them.”
Apprenticeships allow educators to “earn while they learn,” gaining new
skills and competencies as they pursue a credential, and often
collecting incremental pay increases along the way.
The report suggests something called “Apprenticeships+,” which would
pair apprenticeships with additional practice-based training
opportunities. The latter could follow the model that nurses use in
their rotational programs: trying out different specialities and
learning from experienced professionals in each.
“Gaining experience under mental health consultants, family engagement
teams, special education interventionists and data specialists would
build educators’ competencies in complementary aspects of a classroom
instruction position,” the report says.
There is already a lot of momentum around apprenticeships in the field,
LiBetti says, adding that it is the most feasible strategy to implement
because there are clear policy and practice steps to help them
“proliferate” in early childhood education.
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