As 2021 comes to a close, we are reflecting on our team’s outstanding research and efforts from the past 12 months. These are the McCormick Center’s top 10 most viewed resources from this year.
To achieve transformational change, we must TEAR down our biases by doing the reflective work of facing our Truths, Evaluating our systems, Aligning our behaviors with our beliefs, and developing authentic, collaborative Relationships.
Data collected by the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership since 2011 are examined here to provide the most current picture of the administrative practices of a large, national sample of center-based programs.
Promoting professional development has become an important focus of early childhood program leadership in continuous quality improvement efforts. However, the opportunities and accessibility of professional development can be limited for many early educators, such as family child care providers and professionals who work in full-year, full-day programs in under-resourced communities (Warner-Richter, Paschall, Tout, & Lowe, 2020).
In today’s world, parents are bringing up their children within increasingly diverse forms. As early childhood professionals, we understand it is critical to create welcoming and supporting environments that resonate with every family.
Nationally, early childhood education leaders are working to define the profession and establish a unified professional framework for the workforce.
The Program Administration Scale (PAS) highlights how important systems are for establishing and sustaining quality. To receive credit for having a system, there must be three components in place: tangible, concrete evidence; involvement of multiple individuals; and a defined process of accountability.
Storytelling can be a way of building community through sharing something real about ourselves. Listening to one another’s stories can help us to understand differing perspectives, find areas of commonality, and help us move from judgement to empathy.
During Hispanic Heritage Month, early childhood program administrators and leaders can highlight and celebrate the cultures and contributions of the groups and individuals with whom they work: community members, children and families, and colleagues.
Those who work in the field of early childhood experienced tremendous stress, adversity, and challenges with the onset of COVID-19 and social justice issues. There are multiple ways to build our resilience to be better able to cope with the stressors that arise in our lives.
At the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National Louis University, we know that leadership matters. Research has shown that the early childhood workforce needs effective leaders, and much attention has been dedicated to building leadership capacity in the field.
Read and download these resources and more in the McCormick Center Resource Library.