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!
Watch Me! Celebrating Milestones and Sharing Concerns
Watch Me! Celebrating Milestones and Sharing Concerns
This FREE, online training course, Watch Me! Celebrating Milestones and Sharing Concerns, helps you fulfill this role by providing tools and best practices for monitoring the development of children in your care and talking about it with their parents.
This 1-hour, 4-module course focuses on:
Why monitoring children’s development is important
Why you have a unique and important role in developmental monitoring
How to easily monitor each child’s developmental milestones
How to talk with parents about their child’s development
Organization/Author: CDC
Type of Resource: Training
Publication Date: 2024
NAEYC’s Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) Position Statement- Focus: Observing, Documenting & Assessing
NAEYC’s Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) Position Statement
Observing, Documenting, and Assessing Children’s Development and Learning
This section of NAEYC’s DAP Position Statement outlines seven recommended practices for observation, documentation, and assessment that are developmentally appropriate for children from birth through the primary grades.
Organization/Author: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
Type of Resource: Position Statement
Publication Date: 2020
NAEYC’s Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education Position Statement- Focus: Observation, Documentation & Assessment
NAEYC’s Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education Position Statement
Recommendations for Early Childhood Educators: Observe, Document, and Assess Children’s Learning and Development
The Recommendations for Early Childhood Educators section of this Position Statement includes three practices related to observation, documentation, and assessment of children’s learning and development.
Organization/Author: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
Type of Resource: Position Statement
Publication Date: 2019
Early Childhood Assessment: Implementing Effective Practice: A Research-Based Guide to Inform Assessment Planning in the Early Grades
This paper will help readers understand the ‘big ideas’ early childhood thought leaders believe should guide assessment decisions for the youngest school-aged students (pre-kindergarten – 3rd Grade), discover what the research shows to be effective in terms of assessment in the early grades, and come away with a clear sense of next steps you can take to apply the research and best practices to your own assessment planning process.
Organization/Author: Northwest Evaluation Association
Type of Resource: Report
Publication Date: 2023
OER Textbook: Observation and Assessment in Early Childhood Education
OER Textbook: Observation and Assessment in Early Childhood Education
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost, and without needing to ask permission.
This OER textbook includes chapters about the following topics:
Observation and Documentation: The Key to Intentional Teaching
Quality Counts
Using Observation Methods, Tools and Techniques to Gather Evidence
The Purpose, Process and Practice of Monitoring, Screening and Evaluating
How to Plan Effective and Meaningful Curriculum
Using Documentation and Assessment to Communicate with Families
Click here to learn more about the OER Collection from College of the Canyons.
Organization/Author: Gina Peterson and Emily Elam, College of the Canyons OER Collection
Type of Resource: Book Chapter, Open Educational Resource (OER)
Publication Date: 2018
Additional Resources
