Preparation & Continuous Professional Learning

The City University of New York (CUNY) Early Childhood Working Group was charged by Chancellor James B. Milliken to generate a set of recommendations to ensure that CUNY takes a lead in the future preparation of the early care and education workforce.

In April 2015, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council released the report Transforming the Workforce for the Children Birth Through Age Eight: A Unifying Foundation (IOM/NRC Report). We view this report as the blueprint for the Foundation for Child Development’s work to support the preparation, competency, well-being, and on-going professional learning of the ECE workforce.

This full report discusses the implications of child developmental science for early care and education professionals in terms of necessary competencies and practices, as well as the systems change needed to better support the preparation, competency, professional development, and compensation for the early care and education workforce.

The University of Chicago Urban Education Institute (UEI) and the Ounce of Prevention Fund (the Ounce) embarked on an effort to form a partnership whose vision is to “… build a model of public education for children and their families that begins at birth and creates success in school, college, and life.” The goal is to collaboratively and continuously align and create instructional practices, and academic and social supports, to demonstrate a new model of public education that seamlessly and successfully prepares children for college, beginning at birth.

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.

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.