2017-2023
Identifying the competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics) essential to a given profession may help to provide a common language and lens for assessing job performance and provide a clear structure for professional growth and development. The Infant and Toddler Teacher and Caregiver Competencies (ITTCC) project is examining existing efforts — across states, institutes of higher education, professional organizations, and programs — related to competencies for teachers and caregivers serving infants and toddlers.
The ITTCC project is exploring approaches to the implementation of competency frameworks and assessment of competencies, building a conceptual foundation for measurement, research, and evaluation. This effort draws on knowledge and expertise in competency modeling from industrial-organizational psychology, as well as from relevant caregiving professions that have developed, implemented, and assessed competencies. The ITTCC project aims to support the Administration for Children and Families in its efforts to improve the quality of care for infants and toddlers in community-based child care and Early Head Start.
The project included several foundational tasks:
- A scan of existing competency frameworks, to examine approaches to implementation and assessment as well as alignment across various competency frameworks. Read Competency Frameworks for Infant and Toddler Teachers and Caregivers.
- A scan of measures aligned with competencies, to examine potential tools for assessing competencies for research or practice. Read Competencies of Infant and Toddler Teachers and Caregivers: A Compendium of Measures.
- A literature review, to examine and depict the associations between competencies and key program, teacher/caregiver, family, and child outcomes. Read Competencies of Infant and Toddler Teachers and Caregivers: A Review of the Literature.
- An examination of other fields that have successfully developed and implemented competency frameworks, to identify key lessons that can be applied to infant and toddler care and education.
Building on this foundational work, the project is developing several products that describe different approaches to the implementation of competency frameworks and identify promising practices and lessons learned related to the implementation of infant and toddler teacher and caregiver competency frameworks:
- A scan of online competency-based professional development (PD) systems that include infant and toddler teachers and caregivers as an audience. Read An Exploration of Online Professional Development Systems Supporting the Competencies of Infant and Toddler Teachers and Caregivers: Key Findings and Next Steps for Learning.
- An interactive map that provides information on state competency frameworks relevant to I/T teachers and caregivers. Explore State Frameworks for Infant and Toddler Teacher and Caregiver Competencies .
- A session at the National Research Conference of Early Childhood on State Efforts to Support the Competencies of the Infant and Toddler Workforce
- Profiles of five states that have developed and implemented competency frameworks focused on infant and toddler teachers. Read about competency frameworks for infant and toddler teachers and caregivers in California, Illinois, Maine, Oregon, and Texas.
- A multi-case study report that provides a comprehensive picture of competency framework implementation and presents overarching lessons learned across five states. Read Supporting Competencies of the Infant and Toddler Workforce: Case Studies of Competency Frameworks in Five States.
- A project synthesis that presents a conceptual model for the implementation of competency frameworks, describes key lessons from the project, and identifies future steps for research. Read The Infant and Toddler Teacher and Caregiver Competencies Project: A Conceptual Model, Key Lessons, and Areas for Future Research.
This project is conducted through a contract to Mathematica. The points of contact for this project are Kathleen Dwyer and Jenessa Malin.