Online Graduate Certificate in Early Childhood Care and Education Policy

• Provides a thorough overview of the pedagogy, practices, policies, and issues framing the design and delivery of contemporary ECEC. Central to such formulations, the role of parents and families is addressed as a critical contouring variable. Designed in three units, the course addresses: (i) understanding early childhood education and care practice and policy in the US; (ii) identifying critical policy challenges; and (iii) addressing critical policy challenges.

By the end of this course, students will:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the major theoretical approaches to early childhood pedagogy.
2. Explicate the major challenges facing contemporary early childhood educators and policymakers.
3. Explain the need for and approaches to a systems orientation to guide practice and policy.
4. Describe the important and diverse roles that families play in the development, care, and education of their children, and the services that impact them both.
5. Demonstrate their understanding regarding framing of the policy zeitgeist and the major policies affecting young children in the United States today.

• Provides an overview of the developmental science that informs policy and program development; social, political and economic forces that shape the study of young children and contribute to developmental trajectories with an emphasis on equity; changing roles of families; and implications of these issues for policies affecting young children.

By the end of this course, students will:

1. Identify and describe past and current social forces that shape the development of policies related to early development and learning including early childhood care and education (ECCE) for children who represent racial, cultural, linguistical, developmental, and social class diversity.
2. Discuss and relate the developmental period from birth to age five to the role ECCE principles and science have played in influencing current early childhood policy concerns (e.g., access and equity).
3. Analyze and evaluate the contributions of specific areas of research and specific ECCE principles on early childhood policy.
4. Analyze and evaluate equity-oriented early childhood policies that promote inclusion and social well-being, including those written for individuals with or at risk for disabilities, dual-language learners, children who are racially or ethnically diverse, children who are refugees, and their access to high-quality ECCE.
5. Analyze and evaluate the tensions that may exist in addressing inequities through targeted early childhood policies that increase segregation of particular groups of children (e.g., children who are dual language learners, children who are racially or ethnically diverse, children who are refugees, or children with or at risk for disabilities).

1. Generate a list of current challenging social issues related to child development and learning research and policy that remain unanswered, as well as the possible limitations of policy solutions to these issues.
2. Debate policies regarding the accessibility and equity of ECCE in the United States.

• Provides an interdisciplinary perspective on early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy, focusing on the systematic study, analysis, and interpretation of policy. Designed to help students understand the role of policy analysis in the policy process, and to explore theoretical frames used in ECEC policy discourse.

By the end of this course, students will:

1. Demonstrate understanding that ECEC policy is not value-neutral but is influenced by and interpreted through different theoretical frames that reflect different disciplinary and values-based perspectives.
2. Compare and contrast different theoretical frames and analytic approaches to current ECEC policies.
3. Demonstrate understanding of how theory and policy analysis contribute to policy decisions at different stages of the policy cycle.
4. Recognize and produce effective policy writing and analysis.
5. Define and demonstrate their own, personalized situatedness in the broad field of policy research and analysis.

• Focuses on understanding, analyzing, and evaluating early childhood policies at federal, state, and local levels and internationally. Analyzes relationships among early childhood policies, research, and practices.

By the end of this course, students will:

1. Generate working definitions of governance and policy for application in early childhood.
2. Compare and contrast frameworks often used to inform early childhood policy: (a) risk, resilience, and ecological frameworks; (b) promotion, prevention, and intervention frameworks, (c) biodevelopmental framework; (d) eco-bio-developmental-behavioral framework.
3. Analyze and evaluate relationships among early childhood policies, research, and practices.
4. Appraise how early childhood policies impact states; communities; early childhood programs; early childhood practitioners, children, and families; and other stakeholders.
5. Appraise the impact of diversity and cultural differences on the development, implementation, and evaluation of early childhood policies.
6. Identify and relate various early childhood “sectors” and investigate policies and policy alignments within and across these sectors.
7. Analyze and evaluate early childhood policy concepts, constructs, principles, and indicators that influence policy development, implementation, and evaluation.
8. Compare and contrast early childhood policies at the federal, state, and local levels as well as internationally.
9. Judge alignments between early childhood “policies on the books” and “policies on the streets”.
10. Describe strategies effective for advocating for resources and supports that ensure young children and their families benefit from evidence-informed policies and practices.