Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

This week, I was challenged to find at least three local or state organizations that I found appealing and find job opportunities that I thought were interesting, listing skills and experiences that I would need to fulfill each of these roles. In the state of Maryland I was able to find three organizations that I found appealing. The first organization is the Maryland State Child Care Association their mission is to assist in the growth and advancement of Maryland licensed childcares and learning centers (mscca.org). I found this organization interesting because I have a close connection to their mission and vision. I understand the professional development and growth it takes for child care center to become licensed and to maintain that license. This organization supports these centers by providing them with valuable state resources to help them stay on top of current changes and new information. They also provide trainings and conferences in the state of Maryland. The second organization, I discovered was the National Child Care Association based out of Washington, DC. This organization mission is to support policies and regulations that are good for all children (ncc.site-ym.com). They hold special conferences, professional developments, provide articles and resources for members to access. The third organization I chose was the National Early Childhood Teacher Training Association which thrives to build and implement a bi-lingual eLearning experience that uses technology to allow early childhood leaders to reach their goals (nectta.org). They host training all over the state of Maryland for early childhood professional through online classes for an affordable price. I found this organization interesting because I have a passion for training early childhood professionals. These organizations would be great assets to my community of practice because they have valuable information and resources that will be useful in my efforts to extend pre-k to all children in Maryland regardless of economic status. 

There were many teaching opportunities in Maryland and opportunities to work as a director of a daycare center but since I already have experience in those fields I wanted to look deeper at other job opportunities that were not commonly known to early childhood professionals. I came across three that I thought were really interesting, the first job was a position with the State of Maryland as an Education Program Specialist 1. The salary for this position is between $ 60,543.00 and $97, 203.00. The duties include providing support to early childhood programs focusing on early childhood inventions, progress monitoring, and assessment practice. Applicants for this position must have a Master's Degree in Early Childhood Special Education, Early Childhood Education and four year teaching in the field of early childhood. The second job opportunity that I discovered was Professional Development Manager for Apples for Children, which is located in Hagerstown, MD. It did not list the salary range for this position but the duties are developing and implementing professional development for early childhood professionals. Applicants for this position must have a Master's degree in Early Childhood Education, experience teaching adults, and developing professional development sessions. The last job I saw that was different was at John Hopkins University for a CEO position for their partnership school. The CEO will be responsible for establishing evidence-based practice and innovation in Early Childhood Education and Elementary and lead in creating high performing school servicing a diverse community. The salary range for this position is between $90,000.00 to $120, 000.00 and applicants must have a Doctorate degree in Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education, with experience in school leadership. 

For each of these positions I will have to have a graduate degree in the field of Early Childhood and experience working with young children. Some of the positions require that I have leadership experience, understand how to work with adults, and develop and implement trainings. I feel that I will be able to meet these standards with the completion of my Master's degree and entering in to the Doctoral program at Walden University for Early Childhood Education in October. I am also entering in to a teacher leadership program, which starts at the end of this month as well as continue to provide professional development sessions for my school and the professional development training coordinator. I was glad to find position outside the norm that meet what I am currently doing and where I feel I can greatly impact the field of early childhood education.