United States

Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education outlines a framework for a funding strategy that will provide reliable, accessible high-quality early care and education for young children from birth to kindergarten entry, including a highly qualified and adequately compensated workforce that is consistent with the vision outlined in the 2015 report, Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation.

The recommendations of this report are based on essential features of child development and early learning, and on principles for high-quality professional practice at the levels of individual practitioners, practice environments, leadership, systems, policies, and resource allocation.

This report was published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. You can download the PDF version, read it online or buy it in print here.

In debates about child care and early education, the voices of providers are often missing. Voices of child care providers: an exploratory study on the impact of policy changes document findings from a study on child care provider perspectives on how regulation and policy changes impact their work.

Researchers used interviews and focus groups with home-based providers and center-based administrators in New York, United States counties. Several themes emerged, including:

• the undervaluation of child care providers;
• challenges faced by providers and the parents of the children they serve;
• regulatory disconnect; and
• discretionary implementation of laws and regulations.

Findings from the study suggest that, excluding input from providers when creating policy, may have unforeseen and even harmful results.

The EC Workforce 2020 Plan sets out a three-year roadmap for a comprehensive professional development system designed to recruit, retain, compensate, develop, and support a high-quality, diverse, early childhood workforce.The first section of this plan outlines the shared vision and guiding principles that underpin the goals provided in the document. Next, the plan details six goals:

• Workforce development
• Recruitment and retention
• Compensation
• Leadership
• Finance
• Data and continuous quality improvement

The plan also highlights key objectives and activities to best support and advance the workforce. 

Early Childhood Policies and Systems in Eight Countries: Findings from IEA’s Early Childhood Education Study  is an exploration of early childhood education (ECE) provision and its role in children's preparation for school and participation in society. In this context, formal early education and provision of care for young children from birth to the age of primary school is described and analyzed in Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Poland, the Russian Federation and the United States. The data was collected by way of a policy questionnaire, which collected basic information about the wider policy context for ECE in the participating countries. This report provides an overview of strategies, as well as systemic and structural results of ECE policy at the national and, where necessary, subnational levels.

This research study, from International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, presents key findings are presented throughout the report, alongside their supporting evidence. 

The Danielson Framework for Teaching is a research-based set of components of instruction. This white paper includes the findings of a research team made up of  researchers from Illinois State University and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 

The early learning examples in this document align to the 2013 Framework for Teaching and were developed through the shared efforts of early childhood teachers and coaches, school and district administrators, and early childhood policy and research groups to identify those aspects of teaching that are research-based and recommended practices for early childhood educators. Examples align to Danielson's 2013 Framework for Teaching domains/components and critical attributes in Preschool (3 & 4 year olds), and K-3 classrooms. The 2013 rubric with early learning examples is available on for download below, or on the project website.

The complexities of societies impact the Early Childhood Education (ECE) sector as a whole – including the professionals working within it. Changes in societies challenge the workforce to grow and evolve. The research study, Longitudinal Study of Changes in Teachers’ Views of Early Childhood Education in the USA, Russia, and Finland, takes a look at the changes in teachers’ views of the needs of children in the aforementioned countries.Researchers documented teachers’ views about the needs of children, their professional work, and center-based child care between 1991 and 2011. Data was collected from teachers in child care centers through focus group discussions. Results suggest vast changes on both the micro and macro levels of ECE.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the family—which includes all primary caregivers—are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment.

Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Professional preparation and ongoing professional development (PD) for the early childhood education workforce is essential to providing high-quality services to children and families. Consistent terminology and definitions related to PD methods, roles, knowledge, and capabilities have emerged as a critical issue for the early education field. Recently, states have experienced new early childhood education system challenges and needs related to training and technical assistance (TA). The urgency of these issues grows, particularly as states increase their focus and work on quality improvement activities, including quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS).

To support related efforts, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) jointly developed this glossary of professional development, training, and technical assistance (TA) terms. Additionally, NAEYC and the Alliance of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (a collaborative effort of the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators and ACCESS–Associate Degree Early Childhood Teacher Educators) will continue to explore and develop national education-related definitions as a companion to this training and TA glossary.

This report focuses on strengthening systems that support professional development as a critical task for the early childhood development field. The report advocates for an integrated professional development system that:

• Fully incorporates infant-toddler workforce preparation and ongoing professional development based on widely accepted, evidence-based competencies;
• Is aligned with and articulates into college degree programs;
• Includes alterative pathways to credentials;
• Connects the various service delivery program types;
• Provides appropriate compensation.

The report defines an early childhood professional development system that includes the infant-toddler workforce, highlights the six essential policy areas that need to be addressed and shares policy recommendations in context.

Zero to Three

2012