Coaching has received attention in early childhood education, early intervention, and family science. In the home visiting field, coaching is a distinct professional development tool to improve home visitor effectiveness in meeting the complex needs of families, improve child development outcomes, and meet home visiting field priorities (e.g.,…

Standards and competencies are critical structural supports for any professional workforce, including early childhood professionals. Workforce capacity building, career progression, and career longevity can be supported by the foundation of consistent competency expectations. Defining and embedding consistent, evidence-based competencies is a…

Early childhood development (ECD) policies and programs are increasingly recognized as having a strong, positive impact at both the individual (e.g., learning, health, behavior) and societal (e.g., inclusion, social cohesion, earnings) levels. Yet, little attention is given to the lived experiences and working conditions of the workforce who…

Increasing numbers of young children are now routinely screened for developmental delays during well-child visits in primary care settings which support early identification of developmental delays. Unfortunately, research indicates that there is often a gap between the number of children who receive an abnormal screen and the number who…

This Research-to-Policy Resource List focuses on resources in the Research Connections collection published in the past ten years that focus on building high-quality after schools systems. The resources on this list have been assigned to the following categories: building systems, improving quality, supporting the workforce, and sustaining program…

Children's earliest years are times of significant development and learning, yet the professionals who provide care for young children often do not receive the economic or professional support they need and deserve. Given the unique situations of child care professionals, especially those running their own family child care businesses, we must…

New evidence at the intersection of neurobiology, developmental science, and economics carries vast implications for how the responsibilities, skills, and qualities of children's early childhood teachers are thought about: (1) their influence on early brain and behavioral development; (2) their responsibility for managing many children's first…

This summary describes how an early childhood workforce investment credit, modeled after the Louisiana school readiness tax credit, rewards professional development for child care providers and can foster the quality early childhood education (ECE) workforce necessary to promote children's learning and school readiness. Quality child care matters…

This article describes some of the extraordinary accomplishments of the second cohort of states to participate in the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Financing Policy Project (IECMH-FPP). The purpose of the IECMHFPP is to support states' advancement of IECMH assessment, diagnosis, and treatment policies that will contribute to the healthy…

Social and emotional learning (SEL) provides a foundation for healthy development. It is the process children, youth, and adults go through to develop the skills to engage with others, manage their emotions, show empathy, handle stress, resolve stress, set goals, and make responsible decisions to succeed in work and life. School climate is a…

Bringing effective practices to scale across large systems requires attending to how information and belief systems come together in decisions to adopt, implement, and sustain those practices. Statewide scaling of the Pyramid Model, a framework for positive behavior intervention and support, across different types of early childhood programs…

Early intervention takes its form from a variety of fields. It has its obvious roots in the fields that primarily provide early intervention services--special education, allied health, and early childhood education. Early intervention also draws from public health as a coordinated approach to addressing the biological, psychological, and social…

The central purpose of curriculum, assessment, and teaching, especially in putting them together, is to improve children's and adult's learning. Examples of this came to the author via modern communication media and are being furthered through such technology. Soon after the publication of her book "Mind in the Making" (MITM) in 2010, the author…

Ideas are not one-time "Eureka" moments, but are parts of concepts progressing forward. Sometimes years pass before ideas are implemented. They then resurface, connect with other ideas, and move policies ahead. Meanwhile, the idea remains alive in the field, influencing decisions and goals. Ideas build on one another when implemented. The field of…

An individual professional development plan (IPDP) is a document early childhood educators create, review regularly, and update as needed to guide their future professional development. The plan includes personal and professional goals guided by professional standards and strategies for meeting them. Educators learn and grow continuously by…