Earlyedu Alliance

The EarlyEdU Alliance brings together higher education faculty and policymakers to expand high-quality early learning opportunities for young children by transforming teacher preparation and professional development. The patchwork-nature of early childhood education degree and certificate programs is a bottleneck to increasing access to high-quality early learning. The Alliance breaks down barriers to create accessible and equitable pathways for early learning educators to learn and grow in their careers. We offer courses that transform theory into practice, an innovative technology platform that enables competency-based learning, and technical assistance to design early childhood education workforce systems that promote high-quality instruction and continuous improvement. Since 2015, we have partnered with a wide range of institutions of higher education, including tribal colleges and universities, and Hispanic-serving institutions. Our collaborative, flexible approach helps Alliance members meet the needs of today’s diverse early childhood workforce so that they can improve outcomes for young children. We provide relevant, competency-based higher education courses that prepare working and prospective early childhood teachers to succeed in the classroom. Our innovative model puts early childhood theory and evidence-based strategies into action. Alliance members affiliated with an institution of higher education have a choice of engaging, media-rich online and in-person courses. The courses are regularly updated with the latest research in early childhood education. Alliance faculty will contribute to making our courses more relevant and responsive to institutional and student needs.