ECE Credential Level 1
An entry level credential for those just entering the field
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Gateways Scholarship
Need money to further your education in child development or early childhood education? Apply for a Gateways Scholarship!
Great START Wage Supplement Program
Do you want extra money for completing college coursework and staying employed at the same place? Great START does just that! Get more information about how you can participate!
Gateways Credentials
Are you considering applying for a Gateways Credential? Gateways Credentials are symbols of professional achievement that validate knowledge, skills and experience. They are an individual achievement that you can be proud of.
Gateways Credentials are awarded and recognized by the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) Bureau of Child Care and Development. They are required for some Circles of Quality in ExceleRate Illinois and can be used to help with employment decisions in early learning programs.
Below are the Credentials offered by Gateways. You can click each Credential title to see information about applying, specific requirements, and the forms you will need.
ECE Credential Levels 2-6
For ECE professionals who have education beyond high school and experience with children birth to age 8
Infant Toddler Credential
For child care professionals working with children from birth to age 3
Illinois Director Credential
For administrators of ECE and School-Age Programs
SAYD Credential
For professionals working with children and youth ages 5-18
Technical Assistance Credential
For professionals who offer relationship-based professional development
Family Child Care Credential
For a professional working in their home as a family child care provider for children ages birth through 12 years
Family Specialist Credential
For professionals who provide direct services to children and families, such as Parent Educators, Family Advocates and Case Workers
Higher Education Directory
Search for colleges and universities in your area that offer courses in child development and child care related topics
Entitled Institutions
For colleges and universities interested in becoming entitled for one or more Gateways Credentials
Professional Development
- FCC: Family Child Care
- Family Child Care (FCC) Credential: A voluntary credential awarded at multiple levels that identifies what individuals working as a family child care provider should know and be able to demonstrate at various levels of training, education, and experience.
- FCCERS: Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale
- Family Specialist Credential (FSC): A voluntary credential awarded at multiple levels that identifies what individuals working with families in a strength-based model should know and be able to demonstrate at various levels of training, education, and experience.
- Four-Year School: An institution legally authorized to award a student a baccalaureate degree. In Illinois four-year colleges and universities award baccalaureate degrees.
- Degree: A rank that is achieved through completion of requirements at a college or university.
- Director: Administrator of a center-based program, similar to the principal of an elementary school. Responsible for planning & supervising child development programs and overseeing staff.
- Directory of College and Universities’ Early Childhood Degree and Certificate Programs in Illinois (2003): Published by the Ounce of Prevention Fund, this directory describes basic information about various community colleges, colleges, and universities that offer coursework and degree opportunities in early childhood.
- Disciplines: Areas or fields of study.
- Dispositions: Dispositions are strong tendencies of how one would act in certain specific ways, even in unknown situations. Those tendencies have the capacity to mold one's actions to suit different and new situations, and have a predictive nature. Dispositions are guided by beliefs and attitudes related to values such as caring, fairness, honesty, responsibility and social justice.
- Career development advising: Process of informing individuals about entry and continuing education requirements for professional roles in the early care and education field and supporting the individual to assess current qualifications, identify education resources and plan his or her own career advancement.
- Career Lattice: A framework for the early care and education professional development system that identifies the core knowledge, skills, dispositions, & student learning outcomes for all roles in early care and education and for the levels within roles. A career lattice identifies levels of credentials, showing how each level builds on and deepens skills & knowledge in core competency areas; lays out pathways and options for professional preparation & movement; and describes how individuals can move (horizontally, vertically and diagonally) within a single system or across systems.
- Career Pathways: Career pathways are road maps, jointly produced by a variety of stakeholders, including but not limited to practitioners, educators, and employers, showing the connections between education and training programs and jobs in a given sector at different levels. These “maps” also include the specific competencies required.
- A career pathway is a set of connected courses and programs that often enables students to combine school and work to advance over time to higher paying jobs and higher levels of education and training, including degrees and credentials.
- Caregiver: Person responsible for the care of a child. May be a parent, relative, neighbor, or unrelated professional.
- Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Learning: A five-year project housed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign designed to strengthen the capacity of Head Start and child care programs to improve the social and emotional outcomes of young children. Will develop training and technical assistance materials and work with professional organizations, Head Start and child care training and technical assistance providers to ensure the use of the evidence-based practices in local demonstration sites.
- Certification: Professional credential issued and required by the Illinois State Board of Education for everyone who teaches in the public schools or a community-based program contracted to provide an ISBE Pre-K program. Type O4 early childhood certification requires a bachelor’s degree in education, specialized coursework in early childhood education, and successful completion of the Basic Skills Test.
- Child care: Non-parental care of children by another adult which may take place in a variety of settings including the child’s home, another person’s home or in a center. Child care programs are either licensed in Illinois by the Department of Children and Family Services under the Child Care Act of 1969 or, if they met certain qualifications, may be exempt from licensure.
- Child Care Apprenticeship Program: Administered by INCCRRA and funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, the goal of this program is to move entry-level child care professionals along a career lattice that uses the National Apprenticeship System as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce turnover, increase salaries and improve program quality for young children and families statewide.
- Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP): Administered by the Illinois Department of Human Services, the program pays child care providers who care for approximately 200,000 children of qualified low-income parents in order to defray the cost of child care. Parents participating in the CCAP qualify based on family size, income and number of children in care. All participating families must pay a co-payment toward the cost of their care.
- Child Care Professional Credential (CCP): An entry-level early childhood development credential awarded by the National Child Care Association. A national credential awarded to early childhood practitioners exhibiting expertise in fifteen professional ability areas.
- Child care resource and referral agencies (CCR&R): Community organizations that track child care supply and demand; provide training and technical assistance to early childhood practitioners; work with communities to assess community needs; and recruit new child care providers.
- Child care subsidy: A certificate, voucher, or waiver made on behalf of parents or to assist parents in the cost of early childhood programs that charge tuition or parent fees. The Illinois Department of Human Services makes payments to child care programs for tuition/parent fees to assist low-income families who need child care while they work or pursue training. Employers, colleges and universities, faith-based, and human service organizations also may offer child care subsidies to low-income families, employees, staff, students, or members.
- Child Development Associate Credential (CDA): An entry-level early childhood development credential awarded by the National Council for Early Child Professional Recognition. The mission of the CDA National Credentialing Program is to enhance the quality of early care and education for young children by establishing standards which define, evaluate, and recognize the competence of early childhood teachers and home visitors.
- CHOICES / EARLY CHOICES: Support for school districts, from Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and federal sources, to provide services to children with special needs in community settings. EARLY CHOICES is targeted to efforts toward including children ages 3-5 with their nontraditional peers in typical preschool settings. Services include technical assistance for school districts about inclusion, in-service training, observations/consultations, meeting facilitation, resource sharing and team building.
- Clock hour/contact hour of training:
- Coaching: A relationship-based process led by an expert with specialized and adult learning knowledge and skills, who often serves in a different professional role than the recipient(s).
- College Level Examination Program (CLEP): A series of exams administered by the College Board. Exams are of two types: General and Course Specific.
- College: An institution of higher education that grants degrees. Maybe a stand-alone institution or a part of a university.
- Community College: An associate degree-granting institution that is established by local communities and governed by a locally elected Board. Also, primarily funded through public tax dollars.
- Community College Certificate Programs:
- Compensation & Retention Initiatives: Strategies for increasing compensation to retain qualified personnel and linking increases in qualifications to increases in compensation.
- Consultation: A collaborative, problem-solving process between an external consultant with specific expertise and adult learning knowledge and skills and an individual or group from one program or organization.
- Content: A specific topic or area of study. The knowledge and skills a student should have in particular subjects at specific grade levels.
- Continuing education requirements: Ongoing training that an individual is required to obtain to remain in his or her specific position.
- Core competencies: Measurable statements of knowledge, dispositions, and observable skills that practitioners working with young children need to facilitate child learning and development, linked to early learning guidelines or standards
- Credential: Evidence or certification of attainment and/or demonstration of defined knowledge, skills, and other professional requirements; a document certifying that an individual has met a defined set of requirements set forth by the grantor of the credential, usually related to skills and knowledge and may include demonstrations of competence.
- Credit for prior learning: systems used by most higher education institutions for granting credit for learning acquired through life and/or work experiences.
- Credit Hours: A measure of value of individual courses expressed according to the type of calendar under which the school operates - e.g. semesters, quarters, or other.
- Criteria: Qualitative factors that are used to judge the level of performance.
Critical Thinking: The ability to reason, to use logic, to analyze or synthesize information. - Curricula (plural) or Curriculum (singular): A program of study offered at a college or university; a set of topic specific information created for a defined group.
- Baccalaureate or Bachelor's Degree: A type of undergraduate degree. Bachelor's degrees require a minimum of 120 semester credits. Some specific degrees are: Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), and Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.). A student attending full time each semester (a minimum of 15 semester credit hours) could complete a bachelor's degree in eight semesters or four years.
- BAS: Business Administration Scale for family child care providers
- BUILD Initiative (Building Early Learning Systems in the States): A multi-state partnership promoting positive development of young children from birth to five years of age by providing incentives for states to develop comprehensive early learning systems available to all families.
ExceleRate Illinois helps you prepare children for success in school and in life.
It also provides standards, guidelines, resources and supports to help you make sensible changes that lead to better quality outcomes for children.