A New Year and New Momentum for Advancing as a Profession

A New Year’s Message from Project Coordinator Susan Titterton

We have much to celebrate.

As we enter a new year, it’s a good time to take stock of where we are in this work to advance early childhood education as a recognized profession. Led by the Task Force, our accomplishments (past and near future) include:

• Support from the workforce for advancing as a recognized profession (2019)
• Consensus Document on Professional Identity (April 2020)
• Discussion Draft on Three Designations (ECE I, II, and III) with Aligned Preparation Pathways (under consideration since October 2020; Consensus Document soon)
• Discussion Draft on Professional Compensation (coming February 2021)
• Discussion Draft on Necessary Supports & Resources (expected Summer 2021)
• Active engagement with hundreds of members of the ECE workforce in every year of the project

There is growing momentum behind this work.

You can see shared themes in BBF’s 2020 Early Childhood Action Plan and in LGK’s 2021 Policy Agenda. Higher education and other stakeholders are beginning to discuss Power to the Profession’s Unifying Framework and consider what it might mean to align with it. Thanks to support from Let’s Grow Kids and the Vermont Community Foundation, the project now has funding for at least two more years.

As the work gets bigger, coordination and long-range thinking become more important.

Until this year, the Task Force, outreach to the workforce, and communications were the main parts of the project. It’s getting bigger. So, a Core Team was added to provide coordination for all the new connections that are in motion. Here’s my drawing of what it looks like right now.

Until now, we’ve been figuring out a plan for the project one year at a time. It’s time to begin going beyond conversation — to action. That takes long-range planning. The Core Team and Task Force are in the process of creating a multi-year project plan that identifies some concrete “wins” we believe we can achieve.

So, what’s your part? Stay involved!

This is so important, you’ll want to keep it front of mind. Read the newsletters, visit the website, participate in conversations and surveys about the discussion drafts. And, here’s one more invitation: If you have an idea of some things you believe we can accomplish in Vermont in the next three years to advance the ECE profession, please email me sstitterton@gmail.com to get them in the mix of ideas for the multi-year plan. You will want to read the Unifying Framework first. Now that’s a great New Year’s resolution!