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Core Competencies for Early Childhood Professionals

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Core competencies refer to the observable skills and dispositions needed by professionals in order to provide high quality early care and education. Competencies are concrete, achievable and observable, and establish standards of practice that strengthen the profession. The Core Competencies for Early Childhood Professionals are effective on August 1, 2005 and remain in effect until further notice.   To ensure continued quality and relevance, they will be reviewed on or before August 2007.

Background

The core competencies are the foundation for the Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center, Vermont’s unified system of professional development for early childhood and afterschool professionals. Core knowledge refers to topics describing the knowledge needed by professionals to effectively work with young children. Ultimately both core knowledge and core competencies are used to define the content of professional development curricula, set goals and outcomes for training, and design mechanisms for the demonstration and assessment of a practitioner’s skills.

The core knowledge and core competencies are relevant to practitioners working in a variety of settings such as family child care homes, child care centers, public preschools, Head Start, and afterschool programs. They are relevant for a variety of positions including teacher, teacher assistant, provider, director, playgroup leader, home visitor, early interventionist, early childhood special educator, paraprofessionals and more. The competencies are the foundation for field specific competencies that are being developed, including those in the areas of afterschool education and early childhood and family mental health.

Core competencies may be acquired in a variety of ways, including but not limited to:

  • Participation in workshops, inservice training, and seminars
  • Individual courses or a planned program of academic study
  • Work experience and systematic reflection on one’s work experience
  • Supervision and mentoring

These competencies fit within Vermont’s framework of core knowledge, which has been identified as the following five broad categories:

  1. Child DevelopmentEarly childhood professionals have an understanding of how children develop physically, cognitively, socially and emotionally, as well as how children acquire language and other forms of communication. In addition, professionals need to know about various factors that influence child development, and how individual children’s development can vary. Early childhood professionals use their understanding of child development combined with their knowledge of each child as an individual to support children’s overall development.
  2. Families and CommunitiesEarly childhood professionals understand that children are members of a family and a community. They value both the diversity of and their unique relationships with children, families, and communities.   All early childhood education professionals work in partnership with families by communicating respectfully and by sharing information and resources that support the health of children and families.
  3. Teaching and LearningEarly childhood professionals understand that the substance of teaching and learning is in the combination of interactions, routines and experiences in children’s daily lives. Teaching and learning with young children is complex. It includes a variety of strategies that are designed to match the child’s unique approach to learning; and depends on a thorough knowledge of the content of early childhood education; and is dependent on observation and reflection to plan and develop curriculum and assess children's learning.
  4. Healthy and Safe EnvironmentsEarly childhood professionals use practices that protect children’s health, keep children safe, and promote healthy growth and development. This includes knowledge of good nutrition and the importance of physical activity.
  5. Professionalism and Program OrganizationEarly childhood professionals ensure that children and their families receive comprehensive, high quality early care and education and child development services. They maintain a code of ethical conduct, articulate a philosophy of early care and education, work collaboratively with colleagues, mentors, families and organizations, maintain a solid work ethic and implement sound business practices such as budgeting, administration and evaluation.

While the core knowledge is presented as five specific areas, they are interdependent and interactive and should be considered holistically.

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Using Core Competencies

Northern Lights core competencies are the foundation of the Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center’s system. Competency-based learning can occur at all levels of the professional development continuum and will facilitate transfer of credit and articulation agreements between and among professional development providers and institutions of higher education. In addition, the competencies can be used to assess learning needs, develop education and training curriculum, and as a tool for supervision and mentoring support.

Assess learning needs—Professionals may use the competencies as a self-assessment of their own skills and knowledge, and plan to pursue professional development to address their learning needs. Administrators may use the competencies to assess the learning needs of their staff.

Develop education and training curriculum—Trainers, instructors and higher education faculty may design and evaluate course content to ensure that students and participants have a range of opportunities to develop the core competencies.

Tool for supervision and mentoring support—Training, orientation and staff development plans may be created using the core competencies with individual staff members and protégés/apprentices.

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Levels of Core Competencies

The Northern Lights core competencies address three of the six levels of the professional development continuum. This continuum begins with preliminary knowledge, skills and dispositions that would be expected of an educator who is new to the field and in the first year in an early childhood work setting, and continues through advanced knowledge, skills and dispositions expected of a professional with graduate-level education and degrees. Professionals progress from one level to another through a combination of education, experience and reflection. Individuals may possess competencies at different levels among the core knowledge areas depending on their background, position and life experience.

Level I competencies include the knowledge, skills and dispositions necessary for entry-level professionals, working under supervision or with support from networks or organizations. (Level I training would include the Fundamentals of Early Care and Education offered through the Resource and Referral agencies; programs of study at the technical centers and so on.)

Level II competencies include Level I plus the knowledge, skills and dispositions associated with the Child Development Associate credential or an accumulation of 12 credits in early childhood education, or its equivalent. (Level II training would include CDA study, comprehensive training in the Vermont Early Learning Standards, college-level coursework, and other professional development activities.)

Level III competencies include Levels I and II plus the knowledge, skills and dispositions associated with completion of the Apprenticeship Program; or the Child Care Certificate from Community College of Vermont; or an associate’s degree in early childhood education or a related degree; or the equivalent.

Level IV competencies include levels I, II, and III, plus the knowledge, skills and dispositions associated with achievement of a bachelor's degree in early childhood education, with or without teacher licensure in early childhood education, or the equivalent

Level V competencies include Levels I through IV, plus the knowledge, skills and dispositions associated with a master’s degree in early childhood education or a related field, or the equivalent credential, with or without teacher licensure in early childhood education.

Level VI competencies would include Levels I through V, plus the knowledge, skills and dispositions associated with a Ph.D. or Ed.D in early childhood education or a related field, or the equivalent credential.

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How Core Competencies were developed

A workgroup of the Professional Preparation and Development Committee made up representatives from child care support agencies, the Vermont Department of Education, the Head Start State Collaboration Office, Northern Lights Career Development Center and the Vermont Child Care Industry and Careers Council, researched and wrote the Northern Lights Core Competencies from August 2004 through March 2005.

Special thanks to the primary authors:

•  Amethyst Peaslee, Mary Johnson Children's Center

•  Daphne Moritz, Vermont Child Care Industry and Careers Council

•  Janice Stockman, Head Start State Collaboration Office

•  Manuela Fonseca, Vermont Department of Education

•  Meg Baker, Success by Six, Franklin County

•  Adam Deyo, Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center

•  Kate Giusti, Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center

•  Kerrie Workman, Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center

To develop the competencies you see before you, this group consulted documents from:

  • Other states including Connecticut, Kansas and Missouri, and Maine
  • The Wheelock College Institute for Leadership and Career Initiatives
  • The CDA competencies and functional areas
  • Vermont Department of Education’s early childhood educator endorsement competencies
  • National Health and Safety Standards
  • National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Following the development of a draft document by the workgroup, the Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center accumulated public feedback through a survey in the Spring of 2005.   The final document is a result of the workgroup's dedication and the advice of various constituents from the early childhood field.

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FAQs

1. Core competencies are yet another layer of change in a system that is growing more complex by the minute. How will they improve the situation for everyone?

For early childhood educators and providers, the core competencies will provide more specific description of how a professional development activity will benefit them. In the short term, they will be able to see a direct connection between the workshop or course description and their desired professional growth. In the long term they will be able to progress along a professional development continuum towards credentials and degrees. It will provide more meaningful and purposeful learning.

For presenters and instructors, it will require an initial investment of time to learn the core competencies and how they align with their workshop or course offerings. Instructors, presenters, and providers of professional development may want to revise their offerings so that competencies are addressed. They will be expected to refer to the competencies in their workshop or course descriptions. Individual instructors will know that what they are teaching will directly apply to the skills and knowledge of practitioners.

2. The CDA is a popular credential in our area. Why do we need these competencies when the CDA is such a good option?

The core competencies aren’t a training program like the CDA is. Core competencies are a means of unifying the professional development and training programs that already exist. CDA competencies are contained within Level 2. So if you have a CDA, you can look at the Level 3 competencies to set goals for your own professional growth.

While we acknowledge that a CDA is a worthy credential that is widely recognized, it is a starting place for early childhood professionals. The core competencies will enable one to plan for continued professional development and more advanced credentials.

3. Who are these core competencies designed for? Do they apply to home visitors, early interventionists, early childhood special educators and para-educators, playgroup leaders, etc?

These are core competencies and comprise the fundamental knowledge and skills that people working with young children should possess. They aren’t specialized competencies that one would want for people who work with special populations—but they do provide the foundation for them. They are precursors to the competencies for early childhood educator and early childhood special educator licensure, and can assist individuals to move into those levels in the future. In addition, they align with the early childhood and family mental health competencies that are presently being developed.  

The competencies were developed with young children (birth-6) in mind, and are currently the base from which a set of afterschool education competencies are being developed.

4. Are these competencies meant for early childhood professionals in home and center-based settings?

Yes, they were written for educators working in both settings. Admittedly, that was a challenge because as you will see, the Level I competencies are numerous in the areas of Healthy and Safe Environments and Professionalism and Program Organization. This is due to the fact that family child care providers are usually the only adult in the program, and must be skilled and knowledgeable about things that might be assigned to administrators or specialists in center based settings. But we didn’t want to develop separate sets of competencies for these early childhood professionals, who in fact share more similarities than differences.

5. How will the competencies be used to enhance other means of professional development like mentoring, supervision and inservice training?

They can be used by staff to do a self-assessment of their competencies. This self-assessment can be the foundation for an individual professional development plan (IPDP), and can inform their work with mentors and supervisors.

Mentors and supervisors will be able to observe staff with these competencies in mind, and be in a better position to guide staff toward higher levels of competence, as well as more effective, and collaborative, goal setting.

On a community level, local professional development agencies, programs and councils will have a basis for doing competency-based training needs assessment which can guide the provision of professional development activities that meet the needs and skills of its early childhood professionals.

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© Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center
Last modified February 14, 2007