The U.S. faces a confluence of crises: a pandemic, economic destabilization, and a long-coming reckoning with systemic and historic racism. The early childhood workforce is a linchpin to a stronger, more resilient future for our country, but educators are often under-prepared and under-supported. Published by the National Head Start Association in…

To better support districts and preschool program providers, the Ohio Department of Education's Office of Early Learning and School Readiness is providing answers to the following frequently asked questions pertaining to Ohio Administrative Code 3301-51-11. This document is divided into sections aligning with each section of the rule. This…

Research shows that a child's healthy growth and development hinges on high-quality and consistent caregivers and teachers. This demands a stable, highly skilled, and qualified workforce. In response to the science, the federal Head Start program and a growing number of states now require early learning professionals, especially lead teachers, to…

Children act as emergent scientists through active involvement with their environment and adults. Science forms an important component of early childhood education curriculum in Mauritius. Since 2015, The Rajiv Gandhi Science Centre (RGSC), has initiated a new project: empowering educators to teach science in pre-primary schools. One-day workshop…

Using the Pacific metaphor of the vaka, va'a, waka [canoe] this review considers the journey of Pasifika early childhood education (ECE) in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past decade. The discussion covers three major areas within the Pasifika sector: the need to celebrate the strong heritage and resilience of Pacific early childhood educators and…

Many school districts and states have long encouraged teachers to pursue graduate education. Teachers are frequently permitted to use graduate credits for recertification (Hill, 2007), and teachers with graduate degrees generally earn a higher salary or receive an annual stipend (Miller & Roza, 2012). Advocates have argued that graduate…

New evidence at the intersection of neurobiology, developmental science, and economics carries vast implications for how the responsibilities, skills, and qualities of children's early childhood teachers are thought about: (1) their influence on early brain and behavioral development; (2) their responsibility for managing many children's first…

Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative (ELNC) began as a year-long initiative to support early learning for very young children and families. The program has grown into a self-sustaining, nonprofit, place-based organization committed to improving the lives of children and families in the underresourced neighborhoods of Grand Rapids, MI.…

Our country's existing and long-term child care crisis--inequitable access for communities of color, poverty-level wages for early educators, and unaffordable care for far too many families--has been exacerbated by the terrible, inequitable impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, which has pushed the child care and early learning sector to the brink…

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated longstanding systemic and structural inequities in early childhood, particularly for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and low-income families and providers. Through the remainder of 2020, it is anticipated that the pandemic will continue to disproportionately impact these communities. In July and August, the authors…

This report provides a descriptive comparison of the early care and education (ECE) landscape across rural, moderate-density urban (suburban), and high-density urban areas. The goal of this comparison was to understand whether ECE availability and characteristics in rural areas differ from those in more densely populated communities. We used…

Improving services for the youngest deaf and hard of hearing children in Washington State has meant the creation of a professional learning community, or community of practice, for professionals in early intervention for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. In a state that has distinct geographical differences, these highly specialized…

This paper discusses the pedagogical practice of developing reading for pleasure in pre- schools and primary phase settings through the lens of one key dimension of twenty-first-century reading: personalisation. It draws on a series of studies and examples to identify, address and problematise human- and digitally mediated personalised reading for…

Working methodologically and theoretically with the hydro-logics of bodies of water, this article addresses the limitations of humanistic perspectives on water play in early childhood classrooms, and proposes pedagogies of watery relations. The article traces the fluid, murky, surging, creative, unpredictable specificities of bodies of water that…

Every culture has developed some version of performance art. Children especially appreciate performance; their innate openness, forgiveness, and self-love make them delightful performers and audience members. Every time they engage with performance art, children are learning about storytelling, history, sociability, artistry, and physicality.…