Resources of Professional Learning December 2023

Dear John,

As we wind down our work in 2023, we pause to reflect on the ups and downs throughout the year. The early childhood field has faced massive challenges but continues to demonstrate great resilience and commitment to children and families. This is in large part because of the tireless efforts of leaders, early educators, home visitors and staff like you. Thank you!

System leaders - once you begin to plan for 2024, please reach out. We are here to support as you identify end of fiscal year spending needs or develop your workforce T/TA/PD plans.

Best,
Start Early Professional Learning Team

Dr. Cooper reflects on the challenges from the past year

How “Culture Wars” Impact Early Education

Hear from Dr. Barbara Cooper, Start Early SVP Professional Learning, as she shares her personal thoughts on how the “Culture Wars” are undoing efforts to ensure justice, diversity, equity, and belonging across the early childhood field – and how we can build hope and a bright future for our workforce and the families they serve.

Partner Spotlight

Early Head Start Recipient Optimizes Staff Onboarding

Mountain States Early Head Start is excited about the improvements they’ve made to staff onboarding. As a result, they saw better alignment among staff with the warm, empathetic, and supportive culture of the organization.

At its core, Mountain States Early Head Start is focused on ensuring the lives of children and families in north Idaho are positively impacted.

Aleta Garcia-Clute, Professional Development & Learning Manager, along with her team and organizational leadership, partnered with Start Early to provide The Essentials of Home Visiting professional development to onboard new home visitors.

“[We wanted to] hone in on what we know is good and utilize each other to offer the best services we can, so we started working with Start Early as a way to get back to the basics.

By mixing staff who have been here a long time and new staff, it was a way for them to come together and talk about the work, share their experiences, ask their questions, and really support each other…"

– Aleta Garcia-Clute, Professional Development & Learning Manager, Mountain States Early Head Start

Interested in bringing Start Early Professional Development to your workforce? Reach out to [email protected].

Nationa Home Visiting Summit. Hybrid Conference January 31- February 2, 2024. In Washington DC

Join Us in D.C. in January!

Register for the National Home Visiting Summit

The National Home Visiting Summit will be held in a hybrid format at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C., on January 31–February 2, 2024. The annual conference brings together leaders, researchers, home visitors, policy advocates and more. Our team will be there and can’t wait to see you.

Visit our website to learn more about registration packages. Can’t attend in-person? Join us virtually!

PD Initiative helps ECE Directors feel more confident as leaders

Strengthening Leadership Linked to Teacher Retention

Start Early has partnered with the University of Massachusetts Boston and the Massachusetts Department of Early Education & Care for 3 years to provide intentional, in-depth professional learning to early education program leaders. Evaluation findings from the implementation are promising so far. Key findings from the impact evaluations conducted by Abt Associates included:

Leaders show more confidence and engage in more positive leader practices.
Educators maintain a positive view of their program climate and are more likely to want to stay in the ECE field or at their current program.

Strong leadership is critical for retention now more than ever. We must invest in supporting our childcare leaders.

Start Early advances quality early learning for families with children, before birth through their earliest years, to close the opportunity gap.

33 West Monroe Street, Suite 1200, Chicago, IL 60603 • 312.922.3863

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