Welcome to the…
Professional Standards & Competencies Resource Library
The Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators outline the essential knowledge, skills, and practices that are foundational to high-quality early childhood education. These standards define what early childhood educators should know and be able to do in order to support the learning and development of young children from birth through age 8. They serve as a guiding framework for professional development, practice, and evaluation within the field of early childhood education.
Understanding and implementing these standards is crucial for educators as they help ensure the delivery of equitable, inclusive, and high-quality education that promotes the well-being and success of all children. By adhering to these standards, educators also contribute to the profession's commitment to continuous improvement and accountability.
Please note that while the collection of resources has been organized and tagged according to the Professional Standards and Competencies, only the most applicable competencies have been prioritized for searching and tagging purposes.
For NAEYC resources in the library, you can find policies related to reproducing, distributing, or otherwise using content here. For all other resources, please follow appropriate practices for using/citing sources.
Directions for Using the Professional Standards and Competencies Resource Library
Check out the resource library tutorial here!
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The PS&Cs Resource Library allows you to peruse ALL of the many resources available (by default) or you can utilize the provided filter and narrow down your search to target specific resources.
Check out the resource library tutorial for more info.
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By using the filtering categories, you are able to narrow your search to particular professional standards, one or more of the 22 key competencies, various ECE topics, a variety of age ranges, specific types of resources such as articles or videos or even find resources available in languages other than English.
The robust filters even allow you to choose multiple choices across categories or within the same category to further narrow your search!
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Once you have opened the various filter categories provided in the filter tool, you will notice that “all” is highlighted and checked in each category by default. This means the filter tool will not filter out any of those options within that category. If you wish to narrow your search, you simply click on one or more of the other options within the various filtering categories. Clicking will check that option. Checked options will be utilized for your search!
To remove an option, simply click it again to remove the check from the checkbox.
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The search feature is similar to any other search engine on a website. It can be used for a specific key word or phrase. Although the search may be helpful and is provided, the more robust filter tool may ultimately be more helpful in focusing and narrowing your search for resources.
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Naturally, broken links will occur. Sometimes the resource has been moved to a new web address and other times it has been temporarily or permanently removed. We welcome you to report any broken links you find here. We will do our best to replace the link when possible or remove the resource if it is no longer available.
**As of Feb. 2025, certain webpages and resources, particularly from agencies/organizations/projects that receive federal funds, have been at least temporarily removed in order to comply with federal mandates related to the Trump Administration’s Executive Orders. We will continue to monitor these resource links and update them if and when new links are available.
Start Your Search--Resource Library
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Start Your Search--Resource Library *
Sort quickly through the hundreds of available resources by using the filter tool on the left to populate the specific resources you need!
Closing the Opportunity Gap for Young Children
https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26743/closing-the-opportunity-gap-for-young-children
Many young children in the United States are thriving and have access to the conditions and resources they need to grow up healthy. However, a substantial number of young children face more challenging conditions such as: poverty; food insecurity; exposure to violence; and inadequate access to health care, well-funded quality schools, and mental health care. In many cases, the historical origins of unequal access to crucial supports for children's physical, emotional, and cognitive development are rooted in policies that intentionally segregated and limited various populations' access to resources and create opportunity gaps that intertwine and compound to affect academic, health, and economic outcomes over an individual's life course and across generations.
Organization/Author: LaRue Allen and Rebekah Hutton, Editors; Various Contributors; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Type of Resource: Book
Publication Date: 2023
Building Bipartisan Support for Child Care Toolkit: 2023 Update
Building Bipartisan Support for Child Care Toolkit: 2023 Update | Bipartisan Policy Center
A toolkit designed to help all, despite political leanings, understand the child care landscape, establish new relationships, and build bipartisan solutions for the profession.
Organization/Author: Bipartisan Policy Center
Type of Resource: Toolkit
Publication Date: 2023
Commission for Professional Excellence in Early Childhood Education
Commission for Professional Excellence in Early Childhood Education
The goal of Commission for Professional Excellence in Early Childhood Education is to advancing a unified, diverse, equitable, effective and well-compensated ECE profession. This website includes resources and useful information about the Commission.
Organization/Author: Commission for Professional Excellence in Early Childhood Education
Type of Resource: Website
Publication Date: unknown
Build Your Advocacy Skills
NAEYC has a section on their website dedicated to building advocacy skills. Various resources are linked.
Organization/Author: NAEYC
Type of Resource: Website
Publication Date: unknown
Build Your Public Policy Knowledge
Build Your Public Policy Knowledge
NAEYC has a section on their website dedicated to public policy. Various resources are linked.
Organization/Author: NAEYC
Type of Resource: Website
Publication Date: unknown
Early Childhood Policy Case Studies
Early Childhood Policy Case Studies
Early childhood policy case studies provide concrete examples of policy efforts, success factors, and ongoing implementation challenges in the field of early childhood. Cases can be used to enhance discussion in early childhood policy courses in higher education and to provide lessons for current policymakers in the field of early childhood. The ECP case studies explore topics including policy goals and outcomes, ECE funding, unintended consequences, implementation challenges, organizational dynamics, and tensions. These cases are based on articles and reports and interviews with diverse stakeholders including researchers, policymakers, implementers, and the beneficiaries of the policies.
Organization/Author: Early EdU Alliance
Type of Resource: Multimedia Case Studies with Instructor Guides
Publication Date: 2022
Additional Resources
