Marking a Decade of Growth and Development      

CCEI Team Members Celebrate 10 Years

We are honored by the opportunity to provide high-quality training to early childhood and afterschool professionals in high-quality programs nationwide. As the industry has matured, so have we. In the beginning, CCEI users numbered in the low hundreds and were concentrated in a handful of states. Now we have tens of thousands of loyal users across all 50 states. Part of the reason for this growth is that back in 2005, only a handful of states had such stringent, specific, comprehensive requirements and standards for training and quality in early care and education; that has grown with the increased focus on teacher and caregiver preparation.

It is hard to resist drawing comparisons between the processes of early childhood development and the processes through which the ECE industry has grown and improved in recent years. As an early childhood professional, you know that child development is a gradual but steady process, with each new experience and bit of knowledge contributing to the growth of the whole person. Developing and implementing research-based rules and practices for high-quality child care is a gradual but steady process, too, and as an industry, we are not finished.

Research yields a constant stream of breakthroughs in our understanding of what young children need, but such research is not the only force driving change in the ECE industry. Little by little, American society has come to understand what dedicated child advocates have been saying for a century: all young children deserve and can receive access to high-quality early care and education, but it requires serious investment and commitment, not only by care providers but also by parents, policymakers, business leaders, and the entire education community. "It takes a village..."

CCEI will continue to grow and evolve in years to come. We are committed to providing professional development and administrative solutions to the child care industry, which in turn require that we actively identify and analyze current and prospective challenges and opportunities. Change is constant, not only in human development but also in the business of early care and education. Today, there is serious talk of "universal preschool," which could undoubtedly bring tremendous changes in years to come. While we can only speculate as to what the ECE landscape will really look like ten years from now, we look forward to finding out alongside our customers and partners.