Early Education Leaders, an Institute at UMass Boston

provides the leadership development opportunities and infrastructure that early educators need to support thriving children and families.

February 24, 2025
by earlyedinstitute
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Early Education Leaders Receives $250K from Stranahan Foundation

Early Education Leaders has received a $250,000 grant from the Stranahan Foundation to evaluate its Early Childhood Fellowship program, which provides a debt-free pathway for racially and linguistically diverse early educators to earn their bachelor’s degrees.

The evaluation will examine how the Early Childhood Fellowship contributes to increasing the quantity, diversity, and quality of the early care and education (ECE) workforce in Boston. The project will include developing a comprehensive data system to track program implementation and impacts, gathering feedback from Fellows and staff, and assessing both short-term and long-term outcomes for Fellowship graduates.

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February 12, 2025
by earlyedinstitute
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From Lifeguard to Leader: How the Essential Leadership Model Influenced One Director’s Approach to Early Education

Sarah Martinez’s entry into early childhood education came through an unlikely clerical error. Fresh out of college and working as a YMCA lifeguard, she applied to a number of different jobs and her application was accidentally stapled to someone else’s who was applying for a teaching job. When a child care center called to interview her, mistakenly thinking she was a certified instructor with classroom experience, Martinez was candid about the mix-up but expressed interest anyway. Her only teaching experience at the time? Leading Sunday school lessons for refugee children at her father’s church and teaching swim lessons. Yet that chance occurrence launched what would become a fulfilling career in early education. Now, as director of an early childhood learning center on the North Shore managing 54 staff across 14 classrooms, Martinez credits the Essential Leadership Model, taught through the Early Childhood Support Organization (ECSO) program with helping her develop a more collaborative and effective leadership approach.

Sarah Martinez at a recent Essential Leadership Model class.
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January 31, 2025
by earlyedinstitute
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Nature Services Framework Offers Path to Environmental Education

Children are naturally drawn to exploring the natural world, yet helping them understand complex topics like sustainability and environmental stewardship can be challenging. How can early educators transform potentially overwhelming discussions about climate change into empowering conversations that inspire young environmental stewards?

A new article by Becky DelVecchio, Ph.D., project coordinator of Early Education Leaders’ Statewide Professional Development Academy, and co-authors Susan Ferguson and David Ferguson published in Exchange magazine’s Spring 2025 issue addresses this challenge by offering early educators a practical framework for teaching young children about their relationship with nature.

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December 12, 2024
by earlyedinstitute
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UMass Boston Report Proposes Fix for ‘Cliff Effect’ in Financial Assistance for Child Care

A report released today by the UMass Boston Early Education Cost and Usage Simulator (CUSP) Project offers an innovative approach to mitigate the total loss of child care assistance that approximately 32,000 families would experience under Senate Bill 2707 (formerly Senate Bill 301) due to cliff effects.

Senate Bill 2707 would expand access to affordable, high-quality child care in Massachusetts by providing financial assistance for child care and early education based on a family’s income. A family of four earning 85% of the State Median Income (SMI), or $96,743, would be eligible for child care benefits worth $8,643. But a marginal increase in income—even if it is just one dollar—would result in the total loss of those benefits, as depicted in the graphic below.

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November 12, 2024
by earlyedinstitute
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Using Mr. Potato Head to learn Plan-Do-Study-Act

One of the tools that participants in the ECSO offered by Early Education Leaders learn is Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA). PDSA is a structured, iterative problem-solving method used to test and implement changes for continuous improvement. When built into the workday routines of early educators, it can be a powerful tool for change and quality improvement.

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October 21, 2024
by earlyedinstitute
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Powerful cross-institutional collaboration: Early Education Leaders and the Maryland Early Childhood Leadership Program

The Maryland Early Childhood Leadership Program (MECLP) based at the Shriver Center/Division of Professional Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, recently hosted its inaugural leadership forum titled “Sustaining an Inclusive and Equitable Future in Early Childhood Education.” The event drew more than 200 early educators and showcased MECLP’s success in cultivating early childhood education leaders from the field.

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September 20, 2024
by earlyedinstitute
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Professor Anne Douglass appointed Research Co-Director of the National Early Care and Education Workforce Center

We’re thrilled and proud that our Executive Director Professor Anne Douglass has been appointed Research Co-Director of the National Early Care and Education Workforce Center. She is one of four new directors who will set the center’s vision moving forward. The others are Rena Hallam, a professor of early education at the University of Delaware and Director for the Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood, who was appointed Research Co-Director; Brandy Jones Lawrence of ZERO TO THREE, who was appointed Technical Assistance Director, and Kathryn Tout of Child Trends, who was appointed Managing Director.

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