EVENT: Moving Beyond Moving Choices for Early Childhood Educators

At a time when the importance of children’s access to high-quality early childhood education has gained national attention – across the states and in presidential debates – the early childhood education field is wrestling with the entangled issues of preparation and education, compensation and status, and workforce diversity and inclusivity. Over the past several decades, these issues have become ever more intertwined and competitive, creating a thorny knot increasingly difficult to disentangle.

To tackle how the early childhood education’s thorny knot might be disentangled, New America engaged early childhood education leaders, researchers, educators, and policy advocates to assess the field’s dilemma and propose new possibilities. In 2018, we launched Moving Beyond False Choices for Early Childhood Educators, a blog series that delved into the complexities, frictions, and mistrust embedded in the interplay of those issues. The series catalyzed a fieldwide conversation, prompting the opportunity for an expanded conversation and the launch of Moving Beyond False Choices for Early Childhood Educators—A Compendium, which will be released at the event.

Speakers Include:

Maria Isabel Ballivian, Executive Director ACCA Child Development Center

Laura Bornfreund, New America

Linda Hassan Anderson, NIA & Associates, Inc. Center for Equity and Inclusion

Ariel Ford, City of Chattanooga

Amaya Garcia, New America

Stacie G. Goffin, Goffin Strategy Group

Safiyah Jackson, North Carolina Partnership for Children

Rebecca Kantor, University of Colorado Denver

Kristie Kauerz, University of Colorado Denver

Marjorie Kostelnik, University of Nebraska Lincoln

Esteban Morales, CentroNia

Albert Wat, Alliance for Early Success