Advancing the Profession

FirstSchool is committed to working with teacher educators from early childhood, elementary, and special education to help future teachers be responsive to the needs of young children.

Learn what effective PreK-3 teaching looks like and how New Jersey and Oklahoma are building a highly qualified PK-3 teaching force.

Dan Bellm and Marcy Whitebook document how federal policy on child care and early education led to a decline in wages and education among staff in early childhood programs.

The Foundation for Child Development’s Advancing PreK-3rd Series No. 5 Michael Sadowski outlines what experts identify as core knowledge for the ten areas of high-quality PK-3 teaching: Knowledge of Child Development; Methods for Teaching Diverse Children; Use of Multiple Forms of Assessment; Organization of Learning Environments; Curriculum Design That Helps Children Make Connections; Strategic Use of Resources and Technologies; Parent and Family Outreach; Professional Collaboration and Development; Reflection for Enhanced Teaching; and Vertical Alignment.

The Foundation for Child Development’s Advancing PreK-3rd Series No. 6 Rutgers University researchers Sharon Ryan and Carrie Lobman show how New Jersey established a set of mandates supported by incentives to upgrade the qualifications of the PK-3 teaching workforce in the state’s poorest school districts.

The New America Foundation recommends that Congress expand NCLB to cover Prekindergarten teachers.

To reframe the debate about what constitutes a highly qualified teacher, the Foundation for Child Development invited a group of education leaders to participate in a round table discussion about what teachers should know and be able to do. The result, Bridging Two Worlds: PK-3 Teachers As Architects of Children’s Learning, is the centerpiece of the Foundation’s 2006 Annual Report.

Two papers from the Erikson Institute show that state-based teacher preparation standards and teacher education programs do not adequately address the developmental and educational needs of diverse groups of children.