The purpose of this guide is to introduce the Child Development Associate (CDA) program, a national effort to train, assess, and grant a professional credential to people who work with young children. This program is designed to fill the need for trained staff in Head Start, day care, nursery schools, and preschool programs. The six CDA competency…

A model for assessing and awarding credit for prior experiential learning is presented; the adult student's experiences are summarized in a portfolio. The model incorporates eight stages: facilitating the construction and assessment of a portfolio, identifying significant prior experiences, expressing the learning outcomes of prior experiences,…

This student guide is directed at the adult student who petitions for college credits based on prior experiential learning. It will assist such adults in maximizing the value of their prior experiences in relation to educational goals and successfully obtaining appropriate credit. The reader is led step by step through the process of identifying…