Our Center is focused on building awareness that an integrated, comprehensive system of personnel development (CSPD) for the early childhood (EC) workforce in every state - one that is cohesive with state and national personnel standards, competencies, and recommended practices, will produce the most successful outcomes for children and families with disabilities.
Assist states in integrating EC professional development systems to ensure that IDEA Part C and Part B programs and personnel in each state are included in the state’s professional development initiatives.
Our knowledge generation component is completed by ECPC staff & faculty renowned in the field of Early Childhood Education. Our Technical Assistance and leadership & coordination programs are structured to operate at the state level, being guided by an ECPC trained leadership and/or Technical Assistance consultant. These programs require a diverse set of state participants in order to ensure all perspectives are being considered when forming a CSPD.
The conceptual framework that describes the scope and depth of ECPC consists of six rings circling the heart of the model, which is improved child and family outcomes.
The first ring of the model depicts the early childhood workforce, which is made up of all types of early childhood professionals who directly affect children’s development and family well-being. A competent early childhood workforce is built by systematically infusing quality early childhood practices into services and programs for children and families, which is described in the second ring. High quality practices, services, and programs are achieved through a statewide CSPD, which are comprised of six subcomponents; leadership, personnel standards, recruitment and retention of personnel, preservice personnel development, in-service personnel development, and evaluation. These subcomponents can be found in the third ring and are the critical components that make up the core of our ECPC work.
ECPC works to establish state CSPDs by building knowledge and offering universal, targeted, and intensive technical assistance to state leadership teams through evidenced-based resources, materials, and tools as represented on the fourth ring. The breadth of the work of the Center is expanded through collaboration with a variety of stakeholders across the field of early childhood including; higher education, other technical assistance centers, and personnel professional organizations.
Collaboration occurs through joint participation in the validation, and dissemination of assessments, products and training's which target effective practices that lead to a high quality, competent, early childhood workforce, as located on the fifth ring. This broad, complex, and in-depth work is held together with a comprehensive management system that includes center directors, staff, as well as contractors and consultants from across the country. This sixth ring of the framework places a strong emphasis on the use of evaluation to monitor and inform data-based decision making, with both internal and external sources of evaluation.