Early Childhood Educator Competencies

Early Childhood Educator Competencies: A Literature Review of Current Best Practices, and a Public Input Process on Next Steps for California

By request from First 5 California, and with support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment was charged with conducting a three-stage project in 2007 on early childhood educator competencies. The three stages of the project were:

• An extensive literature review to examine the current “state of the art” and best practices across the United States for developing such competencies;
• A statewide input process to solicit feedback as broadly as possible from California’s early care and education field on the appropriate structure and content for early childhood educator competencies for California;
• Preparation of this final report, reflecting input from California’s ECE field, for First 5 California and the Child Development Division, California Department of Education (CDD/CDE).

The purpose of the project was not to develop early childhood educator competencies, but rather to conduct background research in order to best inform CDD/CDE about relevant groundwork that has already been completed by other states and national organizations.