Advancing ECE As A Profession

Register now for Winter 2024 Professional Development:
Who We Are and What We Do: Communicating About Our Professional Identity

It's time for early childhood education to be a well-prepared, well-compensated profession.

Advancing Early Childhood Education as a Profession is an initiative led by Vermont’s early childhood education workforce. Our aim is to create an early childhood education profession in Vermont, aligned with a future national early childhood education profession.

We believe in this vision:

That each and every child, beginning at birth, has the opportunity to benefit from high-quality, affordable early childhood education, delivered by an effective, diverse, well-prepared, and well-compensated workforce.

Our Shared Vision

In Vermont, we first reached a shared understanding of who we are and what we do.

Then, we created a shared vision for what an early childhood education profession could look like in Vermont.

We envision an early childhood education profession with clearly defined professional roles, with pathways to enter and grow within the profession, with individual and portable licenses to practice, and with professional-level wages and benefits, all within a supportive state infrastructure.

How We Will Get There

“I believe this shift will take time and calm, consistent, organized effort. Educators from all levels should be welcome and welcomed to actively participate in realizing the end goals.” 
– Vermont Early Childhood Educator

Our Process

Vermont's workforce-led, consensus-based process is based on the collaborative that created The Unifying Framework and affirms the profession taking the lead.

A Bridge For Today

Honoring the expertise of current early childhood educators as we transition to individual professional licensure.

Supports For Tomorrow

Aligning with stakeholders to build a supportive statewide system. We are all invested in and accountable for the success of the new profession.

Project Leadership

This initiative is led by a Task Force of Vermont early childhood educators; resourced by a Core Team of stakeholders, funders, and consultants; supported by Design Teams; and energized by a growing group of ECE Ambassadors for our shared vision.

Three people ride down a snowy hill on an orange plastic sled. Two smiling children in orange and red hats are in the front and middle, a smiling teacher with long brown hair is in the back.

Project Timeline

In 2018, a workforce engagement study of Vermont early childhood educators found overwhelming support for advancing ECE as a profession.

Since then, thousands of early childhood educators have contributed to our shared vision of an ECE profession.

Resources

Includes social media posts, flyers, and toolkits, Consensus Documents, videos, Professional Development recordings and recaps, links to publications, and more.

What Can I Do?

Stay engaged with ongoing professional development and informational opportunities.

An early childhood educator smiles at the camera in the middle of an active classroom

Who We Are and What We Do: Communicating About Our Professional Identity

Led by Rachel Hunter, Outreach Coordinator, and Kim Freeman, Task Force
1.5 PD Hours

This workshop is centered around the recently-developed “Professional Identity Toolkit” that is full of ideas and resources for communicating with families and others about the unique role and specialized skills that early childhood educators have in their work with children and families.

Download the flyer for this PD.
Looking for alternate dates? Request a PD session here.

Request a Session: Getting Up To Speed

Request through Rachel Hunter; led by Project Ambassadors

Designed for early childhood educators new to the work to advance ECE as a profession. This professional development will bring you up to speed on this project. Learn:

Join us: say "I'm In!" for Advancing ECE As A Profession

Join more than 600 Vermont early childhood educators. Add your name in support of our shared vision.

In order to make the case for public investment, we need to show policy makers and legislators who we are, what we will be accountable for, and that we stand together behind our shared vision.

We need a powerful message from an informed workforce. This action takes just ten seconds of your time: say “I’M IN!” and sign the pledge today!

What Can I Do Next?​

If you attended our info sessions, signed the pledge, shared the Unifying Framework with your teaching community,
and want to get even more involved, contact us about becoming an ambassador for our shared vision.