In 2016 North Dakota adopted the Aim4Excellence National Director Credential  as the State’s defined Center Director Credential. It was also added to the North Dakota Career Pathways and remains there today. Using funds from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, North Dakota named Aim4Excellence as one of the professional development opportunities that receives support from three types of incentives available to North Dakota ECE professionals participating in the Growing Futures professional development registry.

In 2017-2018 SC First Steps 4K was tasked with assisting child care providers in building the quality of their programs. The AIM4X program was one initiative implemented to strengthen leadership and improve opportunities for higher education. Since that time they have successfully led five cohorts to strengthen leadership, 4K instruction, and strengthened quality within programs. A sixth cohort is launching for 2023-2024.

ECCLA’s Rural R.U.N. Scholarship has supported early childhood professionals in Colorado’s Rural communities (basically the whole state aside from Metro Areas!) as they earn credentials and certificates related to early childhood education. Students can earn the Aim4Excellence National Director Credential, CDA, CLASS, Coach Credential, ERS Scales, and any certificates taken at colleges. Students are provided 1:1 support throughout their entire credential and are connected to ECCLA’s other scholarship programs if they wish to continue their education. R.U.N. is an acronym for Reskilling, Up-skilling, and Next-skilling. This program supports professionals impacted by COVID-19 who want to upgrade their careers and credentials.

The Learning & Training department at Goddard Systems, LLC (franchisor of The Goddard Schools) hosted an Aim4Excellence director cohort in 2022. Twenty-seven Goddard School directors worked to pilot the Aim4Excellence program to better understand the impact of the program on leadership capacity. Nominated by Goddard School franchise owners, selected director cohort participants were led by a member of the Learning & Training Department. Several participants commented on their personal and professional growth and also the opportunity to become reinvigorated to continue leading in an early childhood program environment.

The frenetic pace that characterizes the professional lives of most early childhood directors leaves little time for reflection. Yet it is through reflection that educators often gain insight into the issues and problems that confront them. This session provides a focused opportunity for participants to reflect on their administrative roles. Key to this reflective journey will be the use of metaphoric imagery.

True leaders come in all shapes and sizes. Some are outgoing and charismatic; others are quietly influential. This session explores the concept of leadership in the context of early childhood education. It looks at the multifaceted role of the center director and the skills and competencies needed to nurture leadership at all levels of an organization.

Directors often have a global impression that things are going well or not so well at their centers, but they lack specific information on just what areas of the program’s operation contribute to these impressions. This session provides an overview of the dimensions of organizational climate and how directors can improve the quality of work life at their centers.

Well-trained and experienced staff are the key to early childhood program quality and healthy child development. Skills in recruitment, interviewing, screening, selecting, and orienting new teachers are ones that every director needs. This session breaks down the recruitment, selection, and orientation process into manageable components and suggests practical and effective techniques to help directors find competent and capable teachers for their program.

This session provides a comprehensive, integrated model for creating a professional learning community. Through the lens of continuous quality improvement, participants learn how developmental supervision, teacher induction, individual learning plans, peer learning teams, and 360-degree feedback can help them achieve their vision of program excellence.

Building trust and a spirit of collaboration in early childhood programs is central to achieving high-performing work teams. Meaningful involvement in decision making is one way that trust and commitment to organizational goals can be achieved. This session presents a framework for analyzing different types of decisions in program management and how directors can move to a more participatory process in achieving organizational goals.

This session looks at the importance of staff meetings as the primary vehicle for staff development and community building. Topics include an analysis of social interaction in groups and how interpersonal orientation among group members affects group functioning. A key focus is applying methods for managing meetings that achieve maximum participant satisfaction and productivity in a minimum amount of time.