Introduction to
Core Professional Knowledge

Core Content for Illinois’ Early Care And Education Career Lattice

A key component of Gateways to Opportunity, Illinois’ Professional Development System, is the identification of core content—what every early care and education practitioner should know and be able to do at various levels of training, education, and role responsibilities in the early care and education field. An Ad Hoc Task Force of the Professional Development Advisory Council (PDAC) was formed in 2003 to identify the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that ensure all practitioners are highly qualified to educate, nurture and meet the needs of children and families in Illinois. This work represents the combined efforts of early care and education professionals from a variety of settings within the field and reflects a review of current professional standards and program quality guidelines as well as work completed by other states. The work is intended to be comprehensive, inclusive, and descriptive, but also fluid and flexible to allow needed changes over time.

The field of early care and education in Illinois includes a broad range of individuals who work with children and families in a wide range of settings and/or who work with training and education programs. All attempts have been made to develop Core Content that is inclusive of the breadth and depth of the field in Illinois. The following definitions attempt to capture this intent and are only for clarification and reference purposes.

Children: Throughout the Core Content, the focus is on all aspects of development and learning for ALL children—children as individuals with different learning styles, strengths, and needs; children with developmental delays or disabilities; children whose families are culturally or linguistically diverse; children from diverse socioeconomic groups; children who are gifted and talented; and children with diverse backgrounds and experiences. While the scope of early care and education in the state of Illinois is birth through age 8, this core content is also appropriate for use by those working with children 5-12 in out-of-school settings.

Early Care and Education Practitioners: We recognize that while many individuals who work in the early care and education field have direct contact with children (birth through age 8) and families, many other individuals serve in indirect ways. Hereafter, early care and education practitioners will include: individuals who work directly with children and families in a variety of settings, individuals who provide training and/or education opportunities, and individuals who work in organizations or agencies that have a direct influence over programs for children, families, and practitioners. Additionally, practitioner refers to those individuals working with children ages 5-12 in out-of-school settings.

Standards

The Core Content for Gateways to Opportunity represents a review of multiple professional standards from various associations, agencies, and organizations that influence all levels of training, education and role responsibilities in Illinois. A guiding structure for the development of the Core Content was:

• Illinois Early Childhood Education Content-Area Standards
• Illinois Professional Teaching Standards (IPTS)
• Professional Standards for Teacher Preparation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Additional program quality guidelines, program outcomes, and professional standards include, but are not limited to:

• Illinois Director Credential
• Illinois Birth to Three Standards
• Head Start Program Outcomes
• Illinois’ Early Intervention Credential
• National Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential.
• Illinois Early Learning Standards
• Illinois Kindergarten Standards
• Illinois K-12 Learning Standards

Why Identifying Core Knowledge Is Important

Now that core knowledge has been identified, providers, including teachers and caregivers or other practitioners, as well as students studying early care and education, are able to:

• Evaluate current levels of knowledge, skills, and dispositions
• Identify areas of need for professional development
• Determine what training or courses meet specific needs

Directors or administrators are able to:

• Specify levels of training/education for individual jobs
• Assist staff in developing professional development plans
• Plan educational or training opportunities that will best serve the needs of staff 
• Establish a salary scale based upon levels of competency

Higher education faculty members or administrators are able to:

• Design courses to ensure that students completing programs can demonstrate mastery of the competencies
• Coordinate content of courses to facilitate transfer and articulation

Trainers or training organizations are able to:

• Understand the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for early care and education professionals
• Evaluate audiences to determine levels of knowledge, skills, and dispositions, and plan relevant training 
• Build an evaluative component into trainings so that participants are able to demonstrate their competency upon completion

Parents are able to:

• Understand and look for early care and education settings that meet the qualifications needed by caregivers, providers, teachers, and administrators to assure high-quality early care and education
• Let legislators know they understand and care about the quality of early care and education that their children receive

Advisors are able to:

• Assist in developing professional goals and objectives based on needed competency
• Assist in locating courses or trainings to meet various levels of competency
• Assist in keeping professionals up to date on current credentials and their requirements

These core content areas, as well as the Performance Areas and Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions identified for each, have been approved by Professional Development Advisory Council (PDAC). This work continues to be guided by an overall goal to develop a set of professional knowledge, skills, and disposition competencies that will be used as a framework for professional development at different levels of education, training, and role responsibilities in the early care and education field in Illinois. All early care and education professionals are encouraged to participate in this work as PDAC continues to move toward creating an Early Childhood Career Lattice and meet its goal of creating a highly qualified workforce in Illinois.

The intent of PDAC is that the core areas and the lattice structure be used to unify training requirements for the early care and education field by providing a basis for credentials and degrees, and by providing a basis for developing a coordinated system of training and personnel development.