Professional Standards and Competencies for Early ... - NAEYC

Professional Standards

and Competencies for

Early Childhood Educators

Effective early childhood educators are critical for realizing the

early childhood profession¡¯s vision that each and every young

child, birth through age 8, have equitable access to high-quality

learning and care environments. As such, there is a core body

of knowledge, skills, values, and dispositions early childhood

educators must demonstrate to effectively promote the

development, learning, and well-being of all young children.

Disponible en Espa?ol: competencias

A Position Statement Held on Behalf of the Early Childhood Education Profession

Adopted by the NAEYC National Governing Board November 2019

Professional Standards and Competencies

for Early Childhood Educators

3 Introduction

4

6

6

7

Relationship of Five Foundational Position Statements

Purpose

The Position

Design and Structure

8 Professional Standards and Competencies

9

Summary

11 STANDARD 1:

13 STANDARD 2:

15 STANDARD 3:

17 STANDARD 4:

Child Development and Learning in Context

Family¨CTeacher Partnerships

and Community Connections

Child Observation, Documentation, and Assessment

Developmentally, Culturally, and

Linguistically Appropriate Teaching Practices

20 STANDARD 5: Knowledge, Application, and Integration of

Academic Content in the Early Childhood Curriculum

24 STANDARD 6: Professionalism as an Early Childhood Educator

Professional Standards and Competencies

for Early Childhood Educators

Copyright ? 2020 by the National Association for

the Education of Young Children. All rights reserved.



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26 Recommendations for Implementation

26

27

27

28

29

Early Childhood Educator Professional Preparation Programs

Higher Education Accreditation

Early Learning Programs

Federal, State, and Local Policies

Researchers

30 Appendices

30 APPENDIX A: Leveling of the Professional Standards

and Competencies by ECE designation

48 APPENDIX B: Critical Issues and Research Informing

the Professional Standards and

Competencies for Early Childhood Educators

51 APPENDIX C: Glossary

58 APPENDIX D: References and Resources

66 APPENDIX E: The History of Standards for Professional Preparation

68 APPENDIX F: Professional Standards and Competencies Workgroup

Developing the Professional Standards and

Competencies for Early Childhood Educators

In 2017, the Power to the Profession Task Force began an extensive process to

review the range of the field¡¯s existing standards and competencies and establish a

process for arriving at a set of agreed-upon standards and competencies for the early

childhood education profession, working birth through age 8 across states, settings,

and degree levels. This work included a deep look at multiple national standards and

competencies; following a deliberative decision-making process, it resulted in the Task

Force recommendation that the 2010 NAEYC Standards for Initial and Advanced Early

Childhood Professional Preparation Programs be explicitly positioned as the foundation

for the standards and competencies of the unified early childhood education profession.

At the same time, the Task Force set four specific conditions

and expectations for the revision of the NAEYC professional

preparation standards. These included an expectation

that the standards would be reviewed in light of the most

recent science, research, and evidence; it gave particular

consideration to potential missing elements identified in

the Transforming the Workforce report, including teaching

subject-matter specific content, addressing stress and

adversity, fostering socio-emotional development, working

with dual language learners, and integrating technology in

curricula. To revise the standards, and respond to these and

other expectations, including the expectation that the revisions

would occur in the context of an inclusive and collaborative

process, a workgroup was convened in January 2018. The

workgroup comprised the Early Learning Systems Committee

of the NAEYC Governing Board, early childhood practitioners,

researchers, faculty, and subject-matter experts, including

individuals representing organizations whose competency

documents were considered, referenced, and used to inform

the revisions. The organizations included the following

Task Force members: the Council for Exceptional Children,

Division of Early Childhood; the Council for Professional

Recognition; and ZERO TO THREE.

In September 2018, the workgroup released the first public

draft of the Professional Standards and Competencies for

Early Childhood Educators. This was followed by an extensive

public comment period and months of intensive work to

release the second public draft for needed feedback and

guidance from the field, higher education, and others. The

second public draft of the competencies, which included a first

draft of the leveling of the competencies to ECE I, II, and III,

was open from May to July 2019.

The second comment period was followed by extensive

rewriting, supported by a group of experts drawn from

preparation programs at ECE levels I, II, and III. The result

was a third public draft focused solely on the leveling, which

was open from October to November 2019. Ultimately,

the Professional Standards and Competencies for Early

Childhood Educators, leveled and aligned to ECE Levels I,

II, and III, are being released in conjunction with the full

Unifying Framework.

This excerpt is adapted from the Unifying Framework

for the Early Childhood Education Profession.

1 | PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS AND COMPETENCIES FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATORS

Message from the NAEYC Governing Board

The NAEYC Governing Board is deeply honored to hold the Professional Standards

and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators (¡°Professional Standards and

Competencies¡±) on behalf of the early childhood education profession.

In response to the Power to the Profession (P2P) Task

Force¡¯s 2018 decision to name the 2010 NAEYC Standards

for Initial and Advanced Early Childhood Professional

Preparation Programs (a NAEYC position statement) as

the foundation for the standards and competencies for the

unified early childhood education profession, the Governing

Board seriously considered and responded to the attendant

conditions and expectations. The revisions process is outlined

in detail on the opposing page, and we are deeply grateful

to all of the Governing Board members, P2P Task Force

members, early childhood practitioners, researchers, faculty,

state agency personnel, national and state organizations,

and subject-matter experts for their extensive engagement,

feedback, and guidance.

Given that the Professional Standards and Competencies

were developed by and are intended for the early childhood

education field, and need to be adopted and used by

practitioners, states, professional preparation programs,

employers, and others, NAEYC has updated the name of the

standards. The Governing Board agreed to this because we

believe it is critical for all of us in this profession to own and

use these standards and competencies to guide our work.

While it is the members of the early childhood education

profession who, with support from professional preparation

programs, state systems, and others, are responsible for

implementing the Professional Standards and Competencies,

the NAEYC Governing Board commits to uphold its

responsibilities as the holder of the competencies and its

intellectual property to ensure that the competencies are

faithfully and appropriately utilized and that all future

revisions occur through an inclusive process that engages

the early childhood field across states and settings.

With gratitude to our profession for doing the hard work

of defining and leveling the core standards and competencies

for all early childhood educators,

Amy O¡¯Leary

President, NAEYC Governing Board

Elisa Huss-Hage

Chair, Early Learning Systems Committee

of the Governing Board

A POSITION STATEMENT HELD ON BEHALF OF THE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION PROFESSION | 2

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