Providers

Child Care Aware of Minnesota is excited to align our work with the national Power to the Profession (P2P) initiative, hosted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The early childhood education profession is working toward having unified standards and guidelines for our field. We know that high-quality early care and education…

A recent news story on National Public Radio highlights the continued need to promote a play-based approach to learning. A randomized, longitudinal study of over 2,900 low-income children in Tennessee found that those who attended a free, public pre-kindergarten program initially scored higher than their peers on school readiness, but by third grade, were doing…

In Part 1 of this blog post, we reviewed the early days of Eager-to-Learn. In this post, we look to the program’s future. Eager-to-Learn (ETL) began 20 years ago as a pioneering online learning program for early educators and continues to innovate and grow. One program priority is to keep addressing equity and accessibility through…

This year, Eager-to-Learn (ETL), our early education online learning platform, celebrates its 20th anniversary. An institution in Minnesota’s training environment today, ETL started when online learning was just emerging. As Cory Woosley, Director of Workforce Development, remembers, “Online learning was not a big thing twenty years ago. We worked with national partners to learn about…

T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® MINNESOTA is a scholarship program that helps early childhood and school-age care providers increase their levels of education, compensation, and commitment to the field by earning college credits and degrees. T.E.A.C.H. program recipient Lynn Barten recently shared the following story with us: “I had the goal of obtaining my early childhood education degree…

Parent Aware, Minnesota’s Quality Rating and Improvement System, has a mission to help families find the quality care and education their children need to succeed in school and life. The five Parent Aware Recruiters are a crucial part of building the program throughout the state. Amber English is the recruiter for southeast Minnesota, based at…

The Council for Professional Recognition recently shared a blog post with five tips for choosing a quality Child Development Associate Credential (CDA) program. This nationally recognized credential offers recognition for valuable knowledge about working with children and helping them reach their full potential. It is often a first step into a career educating young children.…

Something I have always admired about early childhood educators and program leaders is our tenacity, passion, and drive to ensure that all of the children in child care receive the best education while in their programs. We have all had to address numerous challenges and stressors during the past few months, first because of the…

T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® MINNESOTA is a scholarship program that helps early childhood and school-age care providers increase their levels of education, compensation, and commitment to the field by earning college credits and degrees. T.E.A.C.H. program recipient Yun Sun recently shared the following story with us. (Her story has been edited for length.) My name is Yun…