The Connecticut Core Knowledge and Competency Framework for Professionals Working with Young Children and Their Families (CKCs), published by the CT Office of Early Childhood in 2017, provides us with a clear vision of what early care and education teachers and caregivers serving children birth to five need to know and be able to do.
Most early care and education programs and schools serving children birth to five are required to provide evidence of the professional development activities of staff members. These requirements come as part of CT state licensing, National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accreditation, funding sources (Head Start, School Readiness, PDG, Smart Start), or public-school teacher evaluation systems. While some of these requirements specify the number of hours or topics required, others are structured in such a way that values the diverse needs and interests of the program as well as teachers and caregivers.
The CKCs provide a framework that professionals can use to reflect on their knowledge and skills related to seven domains. The CKC Reflection Tool for Developing Individual Professional Development Plans provides a format with which professionals can identify their own professional areas for growth and develop goals to support their growth. This process provides the opportunity for each individual to seek out professional learning that is most closely tied to their self-identified needs and interests. Just as we expect teachers and providers to meet the individual needs of children, it is also critical that professional development opportunities meet the individual needs of teachers and caregivers.
Professional development has largely been defined as a “training” or “workshop” that meets one time and results in a certificate of attendance serving as evidence of completion for the requirements mentioned above. While one-time trainings have a purpose with regard to introducing professionals to new information, in our experiences at Professional Development Services at C.E.S., we have found effective professional development takes place in the context of support that is more ongoing in nature. This type of professional learning can take on various formats such as multi-session trainings, mentoring, coaching, technical assistance, consulting, professional learning communities, peer observations, and book study groups.
These professional learning formats provide the opportunity for interaction among professionals, reflection, application, and ongoing support. They also provide greater opportunity to meet the individual needs of professionals. As more and more professionals across the state utilize the CKCs to develop individualized professional learning goals, there is a growing need for all of these professional learning formats to be recognized as adequate evidence of professional development for the requirements mentioned above.
Accessing high-quality professional development has been a long-standing challenge in the early childhood community, with the main obstacles being funding and staff schedules. Some programs have found creative ways to pool funding to provide professional development opportunities across communities. Many programs have addressed the obstacle of scheduling by integrating professional development time into their program calendar. With the goal of supporting individual professional development plans, some programs have found it useful to create a “floater” or substitute teacher position, which can lessen the financial strain and stressor of providing coverage for individuals engaged in professional learning. Likewise, some programs have also found it valuable to invest in a staff position that is focused on coaching or reflective supervision to support individualized professional learning. In some programs, this may be a Director, Curriculum Coordinator, or Instructional Coach. While this approach appears to be a large financial investment at the start, it provides a mechanism to support individual teachers and providers in an ongoing way.
In addition to recognizing all professional learning formats as professional development, our state could benefit from developing a mechanism for communicating opportunities that target the seven domains of the CKCs to all early childhood teachers and caregivers. As we strive to provide the highest quality experiences for our youngest learners, it is critical that we leverage resources within our communities to support the individual professional growth of all teachers and providers.