For Immediate Release:
February 11, 2009
February 11, 2009
NAEYC Publishes a Policy Blueprint for State Early Childhood Professional Development Systems
Blueprint creates an integrated system ensuring qualified and well-compensated early childhood education professionals
(Washington, D.C.) – The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has just released Workforce Designs: A Policy Blueprint for State Early Childhood Professional Development Systems, along with a one-of-a-kind database of related state policies.
Research demonstrates that a key to quality early childhood programs is the knowledge and ability of the teachers and staff in an early childhood program. While many states have efforts underway to improve the quality, recruitment and retention of the early childhood workforce, there is still a significant need in every state for real systems for professional development for teachers and staff serving young children birth through age five.
With the input of hundreds of experts, practitioners and policymakers, NAEYC has produced a flexible Blueprint that provides a roadmap for every state to build or sustain an integrated system of professional development—a system that ensures quality in all settings in which early childhood professionals work. The Blueprint includes six essential policy areas and four policymaking principles that help states look beyond the status quo. Together, the principles and policy areas help states reach the goal of creating and maintaining educated and effective, diverse, stable, and adequately compensated professionals. Policy makers should use this Blueprint to evaluate, fill in gaps and address disconnected parts of their systems.
In addition to the Blueprint, NAEYC has created a unique database of actual state policies to help both policy makers and advocates as they work to create or revise state professional development systems. NAEYC will regularly update the database with changes and additions to enacted state legislation, regulations and executive orders along the Blueprint’s essential policy areas.
The Early Childhood Workforce Systems Initiative, including the Blueprint and the database, is supported by the Birth to Five Policy Alliance and Cornerstones for Kids.
Founded in 1926, the National Association for the Education of Young Children has nearly 90,000 members worldwide. The association is the largest and most influential voice for early childhood education professionals and the field of early childhood education in the United States.
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Founded in 1926, the National Association for the Education of Young Children is the largest and most influential advocate for high-quality early care and education in the United States.
