Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: National/Federal Level

At least three national/federal organizations that appealed to me and why I chose them:

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).  NAEYC supports children from birth to 8 years old when their foundation of development is very critical.  They work with teachers, parents, community leaders, and anyone that has a desire to support the needs and rights of all children. 

At the current time they have a job opening for an Accreditation Coordinator, in which you would be required to assist program staff, NAEYC assessors and other stakeholders in understanding and interpreting the standards, the criteria and the system as a whole.

Requirements for this position would be to have a BA in Early Childhood Education/Child Development, 3-5 years experience and a sound understanding of its practice.  Experience with high quality programming.  Excellent oral and written communication, analytical, MS Office and database skills are required.  Must be able to stay on schedule in order to meet deadlines and some travel required.  Salary $38-41K with excellent benefits.  All positions are housed in NAEYC headquarters located in Washington, DC.

National Institute For Early Education Research (NIEER).  NIEER conducts research that is very important to support high quality effective early childhood education for all young children.  The importance of this high quality education enhances children physical, cognitive, and social development, and consequent success in school and later life.

Current job opportunities available are: Project Coordinator- applicants should have a BA in social science, experience in early childhood research, curriculum development, and/or professional development is a must.  Classroom experience is required.

Summer Research Assistants- applicants should be enrolled in education, child development, psychology, economics, statistics, public policy or a related field.  Experience is desired.

Data Collectors- applicants should be graduate students, have a BA or be upperclassman undergraduate students with a focus on child development, early childhood, psychology or related field.  Experience in classroom settings and/or working with children highly preferred.

National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE).  Interest me because their purpose is to advocate for improvement in early childhood teacher education.  They cooperate with other national and international organizations concerned with the study and education of young children.

Current job opportunity available is: Teacher- Day Care located at Medstar Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.  Requirements for this job would be for the applicant to have an Associate’s degree in Early Childhood Development (Bachelor’s degree preferred).  Two years experience in a day care or preschool environment.  Excellent organizational and verbal/written communication skills.

References

National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators. (NAECTE). Retrieved from

     http://www.naecte.org/

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (NAEYC). Retrieved from

    

     http://www.naeyc.org/content/about-naeyc

National Institute For Early Education Research. (NIEER). Retrieved from

    

     http://nieer.org/about/jobs

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

After carefully reviewing agencies in the state of Georgia that operates by using communities of practice as a method of working interactively with other organizations that shares theirs same interest I chose the following three:

The Communities of Practice Program at CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention).   http://www.cdc.gov/phcommunities/copp/news_archive/copp-news.html

This organization appeals to me because it protects the health of everyone regardless of their economic status, but especially those least able to help themselves.  This organization works collectively with state and local practioners, academia, non-profits, federal agencies, and private sectors to learn together and jointly solve health problems.

Georgia Department of Community Affairs:  http://www.dca.state.ga.us/communities/regionalism/programs/co-op.asp

Work with large and small communities over the state of Georgia so that they can choose the ideal best practices to fit its local needs and resources.  The environment in which we live and the options that are available in providing resources for children and their families plays a major role in the developmental process for children.

Skyland Trial Organization:  http://www.skylandtrail.org/who-we-serve/?mm_campaign=0fa145cc61767a0f543f086b4200f0da&mm_replace=TRUE

Serve adults with mental illness through individualized treatment.  This organization appeals to me because I have family members and friends in the community that I know who suffers from such conditions as bipolar, depression, dual diagnosis, and schizophrenia.  Also, we have learned that there are many children who have emotional disorders that sometimes carry over into their adult lives.

There are no job opportunities currently available that would be of interest to me.  However, because of the nature of these jobs the positions would require highly skilled professionals and mastered degreed professionals trained in specialty areas.