Tamara Halle

An exploration of goals for the professional development of early childhood educators, and an inquiry into effective practices for achieving these goals, based on a review of studies on professional development programs and their practices

This 2006 Microsoft PowerPoint presents background information on the issue of measuring early childhood professional development. A "common core" of items for State data collection is being developed. A distinction is made between formal education and training. How this distinction can be adopted in data collection and reporting is discussed. Some of the components of professional development include: (1) format, (2) auspice, (3) mode of delivery, (4) content, (5) recency or time frame, and (6) extent of training.

This brief explores areas for refining, extending, and developing measures of quality for early childhood education and school-age care settings. It focuses on identifying the practices and aspects of the environment that support specific domains of children’s school readiness as well as two specific contexts of development (families and culture).

This brief reviews previous research regarding the importance of identifying the purposes of measurement, distinguishes among different purposes for conducting assessments ofquality in early childhood settings, discusses the need for precaution when assessments seek to address multiple purposes at once, and raises implications for developing future measures.

A paper addressing the problems with definition and measurement of the early childhood workforce.