Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 A Unifying Foundation (2015) / Chapter Skim
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12 A Blueprint for Action
12 A Blueprint for Action
Pages 487-562
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From page 487... ...
An increasing public understanding of the importance of early childhood is reflected by greater emphasis on this age group in policy and investments. Yet the sophistication of the professional roles of those who work with children from infancy through the early elementary years is not consistently recognized and reflected in practices and policies that have not kept pace with what the science of child development and early learning indicates children need.
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From page 488... ...
This gap exists in part because current policies and systems do not place enough value on the knowledge and competencies required of professionals in the workforce for children from birth through age 8, and the expectations and conditions of their employment do not adequately reflect their significant contribution to children's long-term success. The breakdowns that have led to this gap include the lingering influence of the historical evolution of the expectations and status of various professional roles that entail working with young children; limited mutual understanding, communication, and strategic coordination across decentralized and diverse communities of practice and policy; and limited resources for concerted efforts to review and improve professional learning systems.
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From page 489... ...
FIGURE 12-1 Interacting elements of supporting quality professional practice for the care and education of children from birth 489 through age 8.
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From page 490... ...
This blueprint for action is based on a unifying foundation that encompasses essential features of child development and early learning, shared
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From page 491... ...
Figure 12-2 illustrates how changes in the committee's major areas of recommendations are interconnected and unified by a shared foundation. The two leftmost circular arrows show how local, state, and national changes need to work in synchronicity, while the central circular arrows show how changes in different aspects of professional learning and workforce development need to work together to lead to quality professional practice, including qualification requirements, higher education, profes Interprofessional Learning and Practice (Rec 9)
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From page 492... ...
Significant mobilization of resources will be required, and therefore assessments of resource needs, investments from government at all levels and from nongovernmental sources, and financing innovations will all be important.1 A UNIFYING FOUNDATION The foundation for a workforce that can truly meet the needs of children from birth through age 8 is based on essential features of child development and early learning and on principles that guide support for high-quality professional practice with respect to individual practitioners, leadership, systems, policies, and resource allocation. 1 While acknowledging that the availability of resources is an important reality that would affect the feasibility of the committee's recommendations, the sponsors specified in clarifying the study charge that this committee not conduct analyses addressing funding and financing.
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From page 493... ...
Principles to Support Quality Professional Practice The following principles are based on what the science of child development and early learning reveals about the necessary competencies and responsibilities of practitioners in meeting the needs of young children. They encompass the high-quality professional learning and supports needed for practitioners to acquire, sustain, and update those competencies.
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From page 494... ...
To foster high-quality practice, care and education professionals need access to high-quality professional learning that supports them in the acquisition and application of the competencies they need, both in degree- and certificate-granting programs and during ongoing practice throughout their career. High-quality professional learning systems encompass a coherent series of activities that prepare professionals for practice, assess and ensure their competency to practice, and enhance the quality of their ongoing professional practice.
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From page 495... ...
This results when policies are aligned in accord with principles for high quality across the professional roles and settings that provide care and education for different age groups/grade levels, as well as across the sectors that provide closely related services for young children, especially health and social services. • Professional practice, systems, and polices need to be adaptive.
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From page 496... ...
. All adults with professional responsibilities for young children need to use this knowledge and develop the skills to • ngage effectively in quality interactions with children that foster healthy E child development and learning in routine everyday interactions, in spe cific learning activities, and in educational and other professional settings in a manner appropriate to the child's developmental level.
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From page 497... ...
Practices to Help Children Learn • bility to establish relationships and interactions with children that are A nurturing and use positive language. • bility to create and manage effective learning environments (physical A space, materials, activities, classroom management)
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From page 498... ...
• bility to advance the development and learning of children who have A specialized developmental or learning needs, such as children with dis abilities or learning delays, children experiencing chronic stress/adversity, and children who are gifted and talented. All early care and education professionals -- not just those in specialized roles -- need knowledge and basic competencies for working with these children.
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From page 499... ...
. • nowledge of professional roles and available services within care K and education and in closely related sectors such as health and social services.
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From page 500... ...
• bility to formulate and implement supportive and rigorous ongoing pro A fessional learning opportunities and quality improvement programs that reflect current knowledge of child development and of effective, high quality instructional and other practices. • bility to foster the health and well-being of their staff and seek out and A provide resources for staff to manage stress.
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From page 501... ...
Comparison to Statements of Leadership Competencies A review of examples of statements of core competencies from early child hood organizations and elementary education leadership organizations suggests that there is a distinction in the stated expectations for these two categories of leaders whose professional roles fall within the birth through age 8 range.a Those for principals include competencies for organizational management but are mainly focused on knowledge and competencies needed for instructional leadership to create working environments and supports for educators that help them improve their instructional practice. Those representing leaders in early childhood set tings focus on how well a leader can develop and manage a well-functioning organization.
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From page 502... ...
High-quality professional learning activities and mechanisms have the following characteristics: Intentional • uided by the available science on child development and early learning, G instructional and other practices, and adult learning. • uided by alignment between the developmental needs of children and G professional learning needs for acquiring and sustaining core competen cies and professional practice standards.
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From page 503... ...
• oherent and coordinated with respect to professional learning activities C for professional roles across practice settings and age ranges within the birth through age 8 span. Collaborative and Interdisciplinary • ased on an ethic of shared responsibility and collective practice for B promoting child development and early learning.
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From page 504... ...
Therefore, an important part of the formative work for agencies and organizations involved in supporting children from birth through age 8 at the national, state, and local levels is to assess and revise as needed any current statements of professional competencies for both practitioners and leaders, and to review the extent to which all professional learning and workforce development opportunities, policies, and supports are informed by and aligned with those competencies. A comprehensive view of the workforce is taken across professional roles, settings, and age ranges.
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From page 505... ...
Diverse stakeholders are engaged in collaborative efforts. In addition to comprehensive representation of practice communities across professional roles, settings, and age ranges as described above, engaging diverse stakeholders means representing the multiple relevant disciplines in the research community, policy research and analysis, policy makers and government leader ship, higher education, agencies that oversee licensure and credentialing as well as accreditation, and organizations that provide ongoing professional learning.
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From page 506... ...
The role of a backbone organization is to convene the various stakeholders; to maintain and refine the collaborative strategy; and to facilitate, coordinate, and monitor the progress of collaborative ef forts. There currently exists no such backbone organization to represent workforce development comprehensively across professional roles, settings, and age ranges entailed in care and education for children from birth through age 8.
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From page 507... ...
Doing so would reinforce the importance of aligning across professional roles and settings, facilitate communication with collaborative partners, and hold the organi zation accountable for a commitment to an inclusive and collaborative approach. Another important aspect of coordinated systems change is that not every action taken to improve professional learning and workforce development will require the collective action of all stakeholders.
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From page 508... ...
Qualification Requirements for Professional Practice All care and education professionals have a similarly complex and challenging scope of work. However, this fact is not consistently reflected in practices and policies regarding requirements for qualification to practice.
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From page 509... ...
These different standards for qualification, which often are based more on historical professional traditions or what systems can afford than on what children need, drive differences among professional roles in terms of professional learning, hiring prospects, and career pathways -- and ultimately can lead to significant variations in knowledge and competencies and in the quality of professional practice in different settings. This lack of consistency is dissonant with what the science of early learning reveals about the foundational core competencies that all care and education professionals need and the importance of consistency in learning experiences for children in this age range.
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510 WORKFORCE FOR CHILDREN BIRTH THROUGH AGE 8 FIGURE 12-3 Tiered representation of shared and specialized standards for knowledge and competencies of professionals who work with young children.
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From page 511... ...
Government agencies2 and nongovernmental resource organizations3 at the national, state, and local levels should review their standards and policies for workforce qualification requirements and revise them as needed to ensure they are competency based for all care and education professionals. These requirements should be consistently aligned with the principles delineated in this report to reflect foundational knowl edge and competencies shared across professional roles working with children from birth through age 8, as well as specific and differentiated knowledge and competencies matched to the practice needs and expec tations for specific roles.
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From page 512... ...
Review processes within states -- driven by mutual alignment with the principles laid out in this report -- would ensure that professional practice expectations are more widely in keeping with the science of child development and early learning and more consistent across professional roles and from state to state.
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From page 513... ...
A transition to a minimum bachelor's degree requirement for all lead educators -- if implemented through a comprehensive approach alongside other related changes -- is likely to contribute to improving the quality of professional practice, creating coherence in qualification systems such as credentialing and licensure, stabilizing the workforce, and improving consistency in high-quality learning experiences and optimal outcomes for children from birth through age 8. Recommendation 2a: State leadership and licensure and accreditation agencies, state and local stakeholders in care and education, and insti tutions of higher education should collaboratively develop a multiyear, phased, multicomponent, coordinated strategy to set the expectation that lead educators who support the development and early learning of children from birth through age 8 should have at a minimum a bachelor's degree and specialization in the knowledge and competen cies needed to serve as a care and education professional.
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From page 514... ...
• The current differences in expectations across professional roles are largely an artifact of the historical traditions and perceived value of these jobs, as well as the limited resources available to the care and education sector, rather than being based on the needs of children. These expectations lag behind the science of child development and early learning, which shows clearly that the experiences of children in the earliest years -- including their interactions with care
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From page 515... ...
Few would argue, for example, that current expectations for early elementary school teachers should be lowered, and if the work of lead edu cators for younger children is based on the same science of child development and early learning and the same foundational com petencies, it follows that they should be expected to have the same level of education. • Greater consistency in the minimum educational expectations for similar professional roles regardless of the age of the child will bring the care and education sector in line with other sectors, which do not vary in minimum expectations based on the age of the child.
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From page 516... ...
516 FIGURE 12-4 Interrelated components involved in implementing a minimum bachelor's degree requirement.
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From page 517... ...
• Pathways and timelines for systems and policy changes to effect parity in compensation across professional roles within the care and education sector; in workplace policies; and in workplace envi ronments and working conditions, including adequately resourced and high-quality learning environments in practice settings. • Pathways and timelines to improve the availability, accessibility, and quality of professional learning during ongoing practice.
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From page 518... ...
A similar diversity of sectors will need to be represented in efforts at state and local levels. The range and complexity of factors that need to be coordinated also means that changes to degree requirement policies will need to be implemented over time with careful planning, and as a result, concurrent steps need to be taken to ensure that specialized training related to early childhood development and the core competencies that are critical for quality practice can be achieved through a range of professional learning mechanisms.
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From page 519... ...
Phases of implementation should be planned with specific ambitious yet feasible timeline benchmarks for percentages of care and education professionals with a bachelor's degree. Specific timeline benchmarks for quality improvements and the capacity to absorb more students in degree-granting programs in institutions of higher education will also need to be set and aligned with the timeline for degree requirements.
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From page 520... ...
For this reason, the important criterion is not that the degree itself be in a specified major but that to be qualified to practice as a care and education professional, a candidate both have a bachelor's degree and complete a formally defined, accredited course of study in child development, early learning, and instruction. Such a course of study cannot just be related to child development in some way but should be appropriately designed to provide the knowledge and competencies associated with being a care and education professional and to meet the standards for components of a high-quality higher education program.
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From page 521... ...
In parallel, the quality and accessibility of all professional learning needs to be improved so that better-quality practice for today's children is not dependent on long-term change. Concurrent steps such as those outlined in the recommendations that follow need to be taken to ensure that specialized training in child development and early learning, including the knowledge and competencies necessary for quality practice, can also be achieved through a range of professional learning mechanisms, as long as they are of sufficient quality and are accessible to the workforce.
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From page 522... ...
Guided by the science of child development, this could serve as a baseline prerequisite for further study or as a child specialization enhancement. This would support preparation for various professional roles working with children from birth through age 8 in care and education, social services, and health/allied health professions.
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From page 523... ...
Implementation Considerations for Recommendation 4 Considerations for the Goals and Content of the Foundational Baseline This foundational baseline across professional roles and sectors should • orient students to the field through an interdisciplinary introduction that incorporates content and context from multiple fields associ ated with the science of childhood, team taught across disciplines; • include requirements for core coursework that are designed to establish a more continuous and comprehensive understanding of child development; • inform students about the broad range of professional roles from which to choose a future career; • provide advising for students to learn about and select pathways starting from the core prerequisites to their chosen professional role; • lay the foundation for competencies in interprofessional practice to support communication and collaboration across professional roles, settings, and sectors; • provide opportunities for students to build relationships with indi viduals preparing for multiple professional roles and to understand the implications of the science across those roles; • provide cross-disciplinary field experiences so that students pursu ing professions in health, mental health, and social work can expe rience the realities of health and social service needs in childcare, kindergarten, and early elementary settings, and educators can experience the health settings and social service agencies where children they support are referred for services; and • provide incentives and reduced administrative barriers for faculty and student participation in degree-granting pathways that cross departments and majors.
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From page 524... ...
For example, they should create opportunities for teams of faculty and students to come together based on common interests, opportunities for faculty from different disciplines to interact, seeded projects that cross disciplinary lines, agreements between administrators that underscore the value of group and cross-disciplinary efforts, faculty rewards and incentives for cross-departmental and cross-disciplinary work, and benchmarks for promotion and tenure documentation that account for and value excellence in group work. Mechanisms to support interdisciplinary faculty might include • enabling faculty to readily cross departments, campuses, and schools in their teaching and research by − eveloping "professional learning communities" throughout d campuses with joint appointments across departments, − incentivizing cross-departmental participation, and − sing learning institutes that address teaching, research, and u community engagement; • using team teaching to provide students with both breadth and depth of expertise in a course and to model cross-disciplinary col laboration for students; • facilitating knowledge sharing among faculty by supporting them in working in teams within and across programs; and • educating people at the graduate school level who are rooted in the sciences of child development and pedagogy but are interdisciplin ary in their training and approach.
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From page 525... ...
Building on the cross-disciplinary foundation described in Recommendation 4, high-quality programs in higher education are needed that further ensure and document the acquisition of the knowledge and competencies needed for quality professional practice in care and education for children from birth through age 8. As described previously, these programs need to provide a formally defined, accredited course of study in child development, early learning, and instruction.
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From page 526... ...
To this end, students will need to develop − knowledge of the different nomenclature and terminology used in different care and education systems, as well as in the health and social services sector, to enable mutual understanding in interprofessional communications; − knowledge and skill in the use of discussion protocols and other tools for structured, facilitated information sharing that will
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From page 527... ...
so they can gain the understanding needed to support continuity for children across settings and professional roles in care and education. Pathways for Transitioning Professionals Institutions of higher education should develop tailored pathways for transitioning professionals, including differentiated pathways for practicing professionals in care and education seeking additional levels of qualification and for those in other sectors who decide late in their training or while in practice to focus on care and education for children from birth through age 8.
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From page 528... ...
Meeting this need is particularly challenging for smaller institutions and departments. Collaborations and connections across institutions are one way to meet this challenge by allowing students in smaller institutions to access courses and learning experiences with the necessary depth and specificity at institutions with greater faculty capacity.
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From page 529... ...
These tools should serve to promote access to consistent qual ity and content in professional learning and to promote joint participa tion in professional learning activities across settings and professional roles for care and education professionals who work with children birth though age 8. This clearinghouse and quality assurance system should • define local gaps and needs in the availability and accessibility of professional learning activities; • draw on the related efforts of existing organizations and initiatives and on resources already developed; • provide guidance for individuals and employers or institutions on how to set professional learning objectives, select and prioritize professional learning activities, map out a sequence of professional learning activities, and access financial and other supports; • coordinate with state accreditation or regulatory mechanisms for professional learning providers to create a quality assurance, ac creditation, or endorsement infrastructure; • coordinate with state quality rating and improvement systems or other quality improvement systems that apply to programs and
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From page 530... ...
These efforts should include interagency pooling of resources to support clearinghouses, quality as surance systems, and other means of better coordinating professional learning systems. Implementation Considerations for Recommendation 6 Taking into Account the Current Status of Professional Learning Across Professional Roles, Settings, and Age Ranges To be successful, collective efforts to improve systems for professional learning during ongoing practice must place equal emphasis along the birth through age 8 continuum and across professional roles and settings.
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From page 531... ...
These elements should inform the actions of both those who provide professional learning activities and leaders in care and education settings, who need to understand how to select and structure effective professional learning activities for the practitioners and settings they oversee: • Standards for quality that are based on best practices and evidence based strategies to support the acquisition and maintenance of core competencies and accord with the principles for professional learn ing outlined earlier in Box 12-4. − Effective professional learning during ongoing practice should encompass active learning involving the details of setting up, conducting, and formatively evaluating experiences and activi ties for children, including a focus on review of children's prog ress and small-group instructional activities.
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From page 532... ...
• Guidance on effective joint professional learning that − romotes professional practice with greater continuity across p age ranges and settings; − promotes participation of professionals from different roles and settings in the same professional learning activities; − ffers activities specifically designed to bring together profes o sionals who work with different age ranges within the birth through age 8 span and in different settings and to provide training in better supporting children as they move from infant/ toddler services to preschool to kindergarten to grades 1-3, such
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From page 533... ...
Factors that affect access for diverse professional roles and diverse populations of practitioners include affordability and financial support, geographic location and convenience, and time available to participate. Although barriers in these areas affect care and education professionals across settings and roles, they are particularly challenging for those in smaller organizations or family childcare, as well as those in rural areas or in urban areas with limited transportation.
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From page 534... ...
are incorporated in a continuous system of supports to inform and improve professional practice and professional learning systems. Developing and implementing more appropriate systems for evaluating and assessing the performance of care and education professionals will require a shift from the current paradigm.
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From page 535... ...
Nonetheless, to make more informed decisions about priorities in reforming evaluation and assessment systems, district and state leaders would benefit from taking stock of which outcomes and practices their current evaluation and assessment policies favor, which they omit, and how these decisions affect the professional growth of care and education professionals and children's progress in learning and development. This review should be informed by whether evaluation and assessment systems are able to answer the following questions: • How effective are professionals at knowing and implementing practices that support the development of general cognitive skills, academic skills and content knowledge in specific subject areas, so cioemotional skills, learning competencies and dispositions, execu tive function, and mental and physical health in developmentally appropriate ways for the age group and population with which they work?
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From page 536... ...
In addition, more research and development is needed to inform the design of evaluation and assessment systems for practitioners working with young children that distinguish high-quality from poor practice, provide data to inform improvement efforts, and are integrated with professional learning strategies. Recommendation 7b: Federal and state policy makers in education and health, along with nongovernmental resource organizations, should invest in research and development to improve or create new tools for evaluating and assessing the practice of professionals who provide care and education for children from birth through age 8.
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From page 537... ...
Evaluation and assessment systems should be designed and implemented to encourage a comprehensive approach to practice across all domains of child development and early learning that affect child outcomes. Setting-Level and Community-Level Considerations Evaluation and assessment systems need to take into account that setting-level factors outside of the practitioner's control can affect both the outcomes of the children with whom they are working and their own performance and quality of practice.
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From page 538... ...
Finally, those engaged in the review and redesign of evaluation and assessment policies and systems should be mindful of the potential to inform and be informed by, and to coordinate with when possible, ongoing efforts throughout the systems of care and education for young children so as to improve alignment with what is known about child development and early learning, effective instruction in the early grades, and best practices in early childhood assessments. The Critical Role of Leadership Elementary school principals, early care and education center directors or program directors, and other administrators are an important factor in the quality of early learning experiences for the children in the settings they oversee.
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From page 539... ...
For early childhood center and program directors, education and certification requirements are inconsistent across states, credentialing is largely voluntary, and the current standards and expectations are insufficient for the knowledge and competencies needed for instructional leadership in learning environments for young children. Recommendation 8: Ensure that policies and standards that shape the professional learning of care and education leaders encompass the foundational knowledge and competencies needed to support high quality practices for child development and early learning in their organizations.
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From page 540... ...
In addition, both types of leaders need specific competencies for collaboration and communication because of their important role in bridging systems to support greater continuity in early learning experiences before and after young children enter school systems. Considerations for Leaders in Early Childhood Settings The effort to develop a consensus statement of core competencies for early childhood leaders should be undertaken in collaboration with organizations that have developed similar statements for principals, such as the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Association of Elementary School Principals.
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From page 541... ...
Considerations for Early Elementary Principals To better connect the foundational knowledge and core competencies elementary school principals need to policies that govern their training and ongoing professional learning, state policy leaders can look to states such as Illinois that have made progress in improving the expectations and supports for integrating instructional leadership for early learning into the principal development pipeline. Existing avenues for developing instructional leadership competencies could be expanded to integrate considerations and best practices for principals with leadership responsibilities in the early elementary years, which now includes prekindergarten in many school systems.
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From page 542... ...
Interprofessional Practice A critical factor in providing consistent support for children from birth through age 8 is the ability of care and education professionals to work in synergy with other professionals both across settings within the care and education sector and in other closely related sectors, especially health and social services. Recommendation 9: Improve consistency and continuity for children from birth through age 8 by strengthening collaboration and communi cation among professionals and systems within the care and education sector with closely related sectors, especially health and social services.
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From page 543... ...
Unfortunately, most communities lack sufficient capacity in child mental health services and consultation, and national infrastructure is insufficient for training developmentally oriented clinicians in providing these services. Recommendation 9b: To improve linkages that support children's men tal health and socioemotional development, leaders in care and educa tion settings should facilitate greater availability of child mental health professionals to assist care and education professionals with consulta tion and referrals for comprehensive services.
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From page 544... ...
Although the conclusions and recommendations in this report were not developed to be specific to the professional learning systems for the health and social services sectors, many of the core principles that inform the committee's recommendations for developing the care and education workforce would also inform a review of professional learning for these other sectors. Recommendation 9d: Given their critical connections to child develop ment and early learning and to the early childhood care and education sector, decision makers and leaders in health, mental health, and social services should review their standards, practices, and systems for pro fessional learning to better incorporate expectations for fundamental knowledge in child development, as well as the competencies needed to work with young children and to collaborate with care and education professionals.
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From page 545... ...
. These efforts should include revision of categorical policies and funding streams to identify and remove barriers to continuity across practice settings, professional roles, and age ranges for the birth through 8 age span.
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From page 546... ...
• Periodically review the science of child development and early learning and translate its findings into updated guidance to serve as a foundation for quality professional practice across profes sional roles, practice settings, and age ranges. The products of these efforts should inform competency standards, qualification requirements, standards for higher education programs and other professional learning activities, and standards for evaluation of quality practice.
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From page 547... ...
Implementation Considerations for Recommendation 11 Considerations for Participating Organizations As described in the framework for collaborative systems change, the success of collective efforts depends on having balanced representation among the professional roles and settings involved in care and education across the birth through age 8 continuum from infancy through early elementary school. The representation in such efforts also should reflect practice communities, the research community, policy research and analysis, policy makers and government leadership, higher education, agencies that oversee licensure and credentialing as well as accreditation, and organizations that provide ongoing professional learning.
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From page 548... ...
The aim is to build both a more robust and coherent platform for what is common across professional roles and a shared foundation that consistently informs the work of collaborating organizations in their specialized areas of workforce development. Considerations for Use of the National Collaborative Guidelines The aim of the proposed national collaborative guidelines is to promote consistency among the various entities with oversight and influence over the many professional roles that entail working with children from birth through age 8.
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From page 549... ...
Rather, the purpose of the endorsement is to create a new credential for those professional roles that currently have no mechanism for documenting competencies in child development yet whose responsibilities require core knowledge and competencies for working with children from birth through age 8. These roles include those professions whose current licensure systems cover their field broadly but lack a specific specialization in these young children -- for example, some health and social services professions.
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From page 550... ...
Recommendation 12: Support comprehensive state- and local-level ef forts to transform the professional workforce for children birth through age 8. Federal and state government agencies and national nongovernmental resource organizations should support collective efforts at the state and local levels to transform the professional workforce for children from birth through age 8.
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From page 551... ...
Guided by the science of child development and early learning, these initiatives should implement a collective effort to build a more coherent infrastructure of professional learning supports; improve the quality, availability, and accessibility of professional learning activities; and revise and align policies, incentives, and financial and technical support. To that end, these state or local coalitions should be supported in carrying out the following efforts: • Ascertain the current status and landscape of the local care and education workforce for children from birth through age 8 across professional roles, settings, and age ranges (including demograph
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From page 552... ...
Several of the preceding recommendations for workforce development hinge on the ability of local, state, and national stakeholders and policy makers to understand the current status, characteristics, and needs of the workforce across professional roles and settings that serve children from birth through age 8, and to monitor the progress over time that results from change efforts. This information also is essential for mobilizing resources and galvanizing public support for new initiatives.
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From page 553... ...
An important component of the knowledge base for workforce development and professional learning is the dynamic cycle of continuously learning about child development and best practices and translating that knowledge into widespread professional practice. If emerging science is not reflected in instructional practice and in professional learning activities and systems, familiar but possibly inappropriate instructional practices and learning environments will be reinforced and maintained.
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From page 554... ...
As evidenced by the examples in Box 12-6, improving the knowledge base will also require expertise not only in disciplines traditionally involved in child development, health, and education, but also in other disciplines related to workforce development, such as labor economics, systems financing, and law. BOX 12-6 Examples of Ongoing Evaluation and Research Needs Basic and Applied Developmental Science • Better understanding of the manner in which early social experience contributes to the development of very early implicit understanding and explicit knowledge in infants and toddlers • Better understanding of the processes that can help mitigate the effects of chronic stress on child development and early learning • Better understanding of how executive function and cognitive and emo tional self-regulation can be strengthened in young children, especially those growing up in adversity • Better understanding of the connections between the mental health of young children and the mental health of those who teach and care for them in settings outside the home • Better understanding of the use of digital media in concert with direct teaching practices to foster early learning, including studies of various types of content (e.g., characters, concepts, storylines, imagery, anima tions, game mechanics, functionality)
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From page 555... ...
are most effective for addressing geographic, socioeconomic, racial, eth nic, and cultural disparities in access to higher education? • What are the best methods and approaches for evaluating the effective ness of professional learning activities in higher education and during ongoing practice for their alignment with the science of child development, continued
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From page 556... ...
THE REALITY OF RESOURCES Significant resources will be needed for the comprehensive changes in workforce development the committee believes are required to achieve the quality of professional practice that is needed to better support children
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From page 557... ...
This committee was not charged with making recommendations about specific funding sources or financing mechanisms for its recommended actions.8 Nonetheless, as demonstrated in many of the considerations for implementation described previously, the committee recognizes that implementing its recommendations will require the allocation of new or reallocation of existing resources and therefore some discussion of this issue is warranted. To transform workforce development and professional learning for those who provide care and education for children from birth through age 8, all of the relevant stakeholders will have to come to terms with the true costs of high-quality professional practice that accord with the importance of these professional roles.
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From page 558... ...
The committee did not conduct a comprehensive review BOX 12-7 Innovative Funding Strategies The reality of limited resources for children from birth through age 8 has been a consistent feature of the landscape of early care and education for de cades. These resource limitations constrain the compensation of educators, the resources available to them for their work with children, the recruitment of capable and motivated individuals into this workforce, the training they can obtain, and other essential features of building a high-quality system that best serves young children.
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From page 559... ...
; • redevelopment funding, such as through developer impact fees or Tax Increment Financing districts created by local governments; and • public land trust revenue (e.g., an initiative approved by Nebraska voters in 2006 to create the Nebraska Early Childhood Education Endowment through a combination of public funding from allocated public land trusts and private-sector funds)
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From page 560... ...
Thanks to significant advances in understanding of child development, the idea that "the early years matter" is becoming more widely accepted. In the meantime, however, workforce policies have lagged behind the science and the growing consensus on the importance of fostering development and early learning for young children from infancy through early elementary school.
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From page 561... ...
Devoting attention to the adults who work with young children is one of the most important channels available for improving the quality of their care and education. The committee expects that building on a unified foundation, driven by the science of child development and early learning, will introduce a selfperpetuating cycle of excellence, supported by policy makers and a society that recognize the complex and important role of early care and education professionals; the intellectually, physically, and emotionally challenging nature of their work; and the deep, extensive, and ongoing professional learning required for them to be successful.
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