Professional Development
Advisory Council

The Professional Development Advisory Council (PDAC) is making Illinois a better place for early care and education professionals

Who They Are

Gateways to Opportunity is the Illinois statewide professional development network for early care and education professionals. It was created by the Professional Development Advisory Council (PDAC), a group of highly qualified practitioners, educators, and advocates from around the state. PDAC’s overall strategy is to improve the stability of the early care and education workforce through increased professional development and improved opportunities for career advancement. PDAC members are accomplishing this goal through their dedicated efforts and involvement in the five PDAC committees.

What They Believe

The partners involved in this collaborative effort are committed to developing an integrated statewide professional development system. Additional goals are to promote professionalism within the early care and education field and provide opportunities and compensation for professionals to further their education and training. The network will be accessible and affordable to practitioners across Illinois—including those who are entering the field. PDAC partners recognize that these goals are achievable only through collaboration with statewide, regional, and local organizations and funding entities (private and public) committed to this common purpose.

Our Vision:

Illinois early care and education practitioners are well-qualified professionals who educate, nurture and meet the needs of children in partnership with their parents.

Our Mission:

To promote, support and recognize professional preparation and training for all current and future early care and education practitioners.

Our Values:

WE VALUE a professional development system that is inclusive of practitioners in all settings serving

• Children and Families
• Service providers/Program staff
• Educators/Trainers

WE VALUE a system that serves across all geographic areas, genders, ethnicity and ages

WE VALUE accessibility, affordability and diversity in professional development.

WE VALUE common core knowledge, skills and dispositions.

WE VALUE education, training and experience.

WE VALUE recognition and compensation for achievement of levels of competence.

WE VALUE compensation that is commensurate with competency.

WE BELIEVE in access to quality care and education for all children and their families regardless of setting

Learn more by reading the PDAC Strategic Plan 2007.

How They Are Helping

PDAC’s Gateways to Opportunity is designed to:

• Encourage professionals of diverse backgrounds to obtain more education and training
• Provide recognition to professionals with specialized training at different levels of education
• Unify the different aspects of the early care and education field by building consistency among settings
• Ensure that early care and education professionals have online access to a central resource for career opportunities and the education and training required to advance within the field
• Help ease barriers to completing college coursework
• Make it possible for transfer students to receive credit for their early childhood coursework
• Meet the growing demand for certified teachers
• Promote the most efficient use of professional development resources

Project Administration and Structure

Leadership

Professional Development Advisory Council (PDAC) develops recommendations related to the design and implementation of the professional development system and other professional development initiatives and activities. 

Steering Committee - Committee Members

• Goal: To create an organizational structure that will utilize the skills of its membership to develop and promote Gateways to Opportunity as the professional development network for early care and education professionals in Illinois.

Subcommittees

Core Knowledge Committee – Committee Members

• GOAL : To establish core knowledge, skills, and dispositions as the framework for professionals, preparation, training and development for all early care and education providers.
  Objectives:
  1. Formalize core knowledge, skills and dispositions
  2. Make core knowledge, skills, and dispositions available to all stakeholders
  3. Establish core knowledge, skills, and dispositions as “standards” for Illinois’ early care and education field
  4. Work with faculty, trainers, and other stakeholders to implement core knowledge, skills, and dispositions for each credential level
  5. Support the implementation of the AAT-ECE statewide so that it is available at most Community Colleges in Illinois and accepted for transfer at most 4-year Higher Education Institutions (HEI)
  6. Implement core content by ensuring that they meet the needs of early childhood programs and HEI’s
  7. Work on the state policy level and the individual HEI level to produce more Type 04 certi. ed teachers
  8. Develop smooth transitions between levels of education and training
  9. Develop early childhood non-certi. cation programs (e.g., family & consumer sciences, child development, child and family studies, etc.)

Funding Committee

• Goal: Provide sustainability of Gateways to Opportunity.
  Objectives:
  1. Identify funding sources/stakeholders
  2. Identify “fee(s)” for services
  3. Expand all services that Gateways to Opportunity offers
  4. Identify grant funding and programs/initiatives to expand Higher Ed capacity in early care and education, i.e., teacher preparation models and cohorts that meet the needs of working practitioners and bilingual practitioners

Qualifications and Credentials Committee – Committee Members

• Goal: To develop a system for recognizing professional achievements and work to embed identified pieces in state government.
  Objectives:
  1. Identify expectations for each credential level
  2. Initialize, pilot, and implement credentials by levels
  3. Develop a plan for specializations (i.e. School age specialization, Infant toddler specialization, and a bilingual/ESL specialization)
  4. Revise and implement Level 1 training and credentialing
  5. Evaluate the role of the CDA and its place in Gateways to Opportunity
  6. Develop system for assessment of prior learning
  7. Develop new program models and expand coursework offerings that meet the Illinois Director Credential standards
  8. Develop new program models that meet the proposed Infant Toddler Credential standards

Quality Assurance - Committee Members

• Goal: To create an early care and education career information system that includes a comprehensive registry of practitioners, approved trainers and approved trainings.
  Objectives:
  1. Develop a process for approving trainers
  2. Develop an approval system for training content or curriculum
  3. Create a comprehensive early care and education registry
  4. Develop recommendations and policies for data sharing and linkages
  5. Develop policies and procedures for the registry
  6. Decide what training will count for within the registry in relation to formal coursework, credentials, recognition levels, etc.

Access and Outreach - Committee Members

• Goal: To support and promote the implementation of Gateways to Opportunity through marketing, public relations, policy implementation and community awareness.
  Objectives:
  1. Work with early childhood stakeholders (direct service providers, higher ed faculty, early childhood training organizations, public policy organizations, and advocates) to promote Gateways to Opportunity
  2. Review and revise Gateways to Opportunity website so it is useful to all audiences and stakeholders
  3. Roll out phase II of the Gateways to Opportunity website
  4. Establish the core knowledge content as a “standard” within the early care and education field
  5. Disseminate core knowledge, skills, and dispositions to key stakeholder groups and develop a system to incorporate feedback
  6. Assist in establishing a full working professional development advisor and mentoring program
  7. Work with DCFS to include credentials as a part of licensing
  8. Add language of the credentials to the Great START scale, tiered reimbursement, and the Illinois School Code
  9. Review the ISBE School code (considering where Level 5 fits in relation to the Type 04 certification
  10. Work in the collaboration with ISBE, IDCFS, and IDHS, and the Illinois Early Learning Council to establish a credentialing entity
  11. Identify and develop new training leadership particularly among underserved populations
  12. Develop a recruitment process for the Training Registry
  13. Assist in establishing grant proposals to funding entities