PDOs develop partnerships with Pennsylvania-based institutions of higher education (IHE) and community-based partners to provide credit-bearing professional preparation for ECE professionals working to provide high-quality early learning services to children and families. Credit-bearing coursework must align with Pennsylvania’s Early Childhood Education Career Pathway. The pathway is best realized through a sequence of stackable, portable credentials that reflect developmentally and culturally appropriate content supporting ECE professionals in teaching practice, need to advance their individual career, and education attainment. PDOs address the broad needs of their regions while supporting the individual needs of professionals through partnerships that demonstrate a strong relationship between IHE and community-based organizations.

Four goals of the PDO:

• Goal 1 - Increase overall participation rates of BAs, AAs and CDAs in the ECE workforce of assigned region.  
• Goal 2 - Increase overall completion in BA, AA and CDA programs for the ECE workforce of an assigned region.  
• Goal 3 - Increase transfers of CDA completers to AA programs, AA completers to BA programs, and increase the number of CDA completers who become AA completers and subsequently become BA completers. 
• Goal 4 - Address equity-based gaps in the credentialing system of the region 

Interested in continuing to partner or becoming a partner with the Professional Development Organization in your region?

To partner with the Professional Development Organizations an email announcing the RFP will be sent in February 2023. Please directly reach out to your PDO to be placed on their mailing list.

A pre-application webinar will be held prior to application submission by each PDO. Please consult with your Professional Development Organization with any questions regarding the RFP process.

Are you looking for a way to provide real life experiences reflecting the PA PSCECE’s (PA Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators) in your coursework?

Seeking Faculty Requests for Pennsylvania Family Voices in Early Childhood Courses

When families share their stories and unique perspectives as members of underrepresented communities, prospective practitioners gain a greater appreciation of the day-to-day challenges and joys of family life, the unique cultural aspects of each family, and the impact of an array of institutional barriers that many families face. This perspective is integrated into their professional practice so that children achieve enhanced learning outcomes and a greater sense of belonging and families are treated with greater understanding resulting in strong family/professional partnerships.

Increasing educator’s abilities to authentically engage with diverse children and families has systems leaders, faculty, and researchers, considering how to nurture this practice through curriculum. This unique partnership between Parents as Partners in Professional Development (P3D) and Pennsylvania Early Childhood Professional Development Organizations (PDO) illustrates how cross-sector stakeholders ensure families, children, faculty, and practitioners contributed to and benefited from a collaborative family partnership model.

Pennsylvania Institute of Higher Education (IHE) faculty partners are invited to request family voices to include in their early childhood coursework. Research shows early childhood teachers benefit from hearing family perspectives on how programs such as childcare, Pre‐K Counts, and Head Start partner with families. This is an opportunity to support the development of strong and effective family/professional partnerships while uplifting Standard 2 of the PA PSCECE Family-Teacher Partnerships and Community Connections in your coursework.

You are invited to request a family for partnership if you meet this criterion:

• PA IHE faculty who are currently involved in PASSHE or PHMC Early Childhood Professional Development Organization (PDO), and who will be teaching early childhood content in the Spring 2023 semester.
• Interested in supporting authentic family voice within your coursework.
• Agree to view recording of a 1-hour webinar “Best Practices in Supporting Authentic Family Voice in Early Childhood Coursework” | View on Zoom (bit.ly/3kMrg8s) - Use Passcode: Szk7P+i0
• Commit to engage in at least one activity to support authentic family partnership in the Spring 23 semester. Activities include use of recorded family videos, partner with a family to review course materials, partner with a family to provide a family interview experience to students, host a family panel or guest lecture etc.

Faculty Process for partnering with Pennsylvania Families of Young Children

1. Identify your goal, timeframe, and what family perspectives you want to target.
2. Complete the Faculty Request Form to be partnered with a family.
3. EITA/OCDEL Project Staff will make a 'match' to a participating family and email you and the family to initiate contact.
4. Discuss the opportunity with the family - consider the family's needs (technology, parking, etc.)
5. Support family in completing activity with your class.
6. Confirm the family's participation by responding to EITA/OCDEL Project Staff's request

Questions? Contact Mary Minkus ([email protected]) or Toni Miguel ([email protected]).

This initiative is supported by Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning, through the Parents as Partners in Professional Development (P3D) initiative and the Early Childhood Education Professional Development Organizations (ECE PDO).

Here are two organizations that have connected with ECE work in Pennsylvania:

PAC-TE is a nonprofit professional association for all those in Pennsylvania who are engaged in the preparation and development of professional educators. PAC-TE is dedicated to providing strong advocacy for professional education preparation within the commonwealth. 

The purpose of PAC-TE as the voice for professional educator preparation in Pennsylvania is to promote quality professional educator preparation programs and to provide opportunity for individual professional growth for all persons in Pennsylvania engaged in professional educator preparation. PAC-TE welcomes individual, institutional, student, and retired members. Each year more than 75 Pennsylvania institutions of higher education join PAC-TE, appointing over 300 member representatives. In addition to those members, over 80 individuals join PAC-TE annually - - faculty, administrators, students, retirees, and basic education partners who want to connect to their professional colleagues. Consequently PAC-TE is the unified voice of professional educator preparation in Pennsylvania. Visit pac-te.org for more information.

The Associate Degree Early Childhood Teacher Educators – ACCESS to Shared Knowledge and Practice, commonly known as ACCESS, is a national, non-profit association that supports and advocates for early childhood associate degree programs and the instructors who teach in those programs. The organization supports state affiliate chapters throughout the country (including Pennsylvania) as it builds state networks of ACCESS members, promotes the mission of ACCESS, and builds state and national leadership. Nationally, ACCESS hosts full day meetings, trainings, and events via NAEYC conferences, virtual opportunities, and state sponsored gatherings. Membership includes quarterly electronic newsletters, access to the Members Only section of the website with links to valuable resources, professional development sessions at NAEYC Annual Conference and Professional Learning Institute, professional networking and support through national meetings and state affiliates, ACCESS listserv, SKiP committee conference calls, one year e-subscription to Exchange magazine, and one year subscription to Ed.flicks. ACCESS members include full-time associate degree ECE faculty, adjuncts, and retirees. Visit accessece.org or contact Chris Lincoln ([email protected]).

Contributed by Sue Polojac

Rae Ann Hirsh passed away on September 30th, 2022, surrounded by loved ones after a courageous battle with cancer. Rae was an educator, gardener, flutist, and baker. She would describe herself as a patient gardener; one who understood the individuality of each seed and their needs, giving them room to grow. She published a book about early childhood education in 2004 and worked as a professor to help influence and guide new teachers. There are now hundreds of passionate teachers using her methods and changing the lives of children through kindness and patience. Rae worked at Carlow University for 12 years and established Pennsylvania’s first four-year apprenticeship program which continues to run successfully with the help of her beloved coworkers and team. Her work will continue to improve people’s lives and access to early childhood education nationwide.

Dr. Hirsh was committed to addressing the significant systems-building needs of the early childhood workforce in several ways: by assisting early childhood development centers to raise staff qualifications; by increasing focus on child outcomes; by increasing the needs of children and families experiencing trauma and challenges in their lives and communities; and by diversifying the early childhood workforce pipeline through opportunity and access to aspiring high school and adult teacher students. Thus, the conception of a two-year concept testing project, The Western Pennsylvania Early Childhood Apprenticeship Hub.

The Hub was intentionally designed to address the equity and diversity crisis by reducing workforce barriers to credential and degree attainment by coordinating the efforts of key stakeholders and providing strategic apprenticeship supports. Beginning with five partnering child development centers and 23 students, Carlow is proud to proclaim that in just two years’ time, the program has grown to encompass 133 students and 65 partnering centers located in 6 counties throughout the region.

Following the completion of its two-year hypothesis, Carlow’s apprenticeship program has now been recognized regionally and nationally as the state’s first, four-year apprenticeship model. Through a belief in Carlow’s mission and the generosity of an initial benefactor, the apprenticeship program has been awarded a $12M sunsetting grant to establish the program into perpetuity. Today, in honor and loving memory of our leader and architect, the Hub has been renamed, The Dr. Rae Ann Hirsh Apprenticeship Program to reflect Dr. Hirsh’s lifelong career of dedicated service to early childhood and her extraordinary commitment to children and families. Dr. Hirsh’s profound accomplishments are a result of her passion for early childhood. That passion, coupled with the remarkable generosity of state and local funders, has seen her vision come to fruition.

Carlow University is proud to carry on Dr. Hirsh’s legacy by creating positive change in early childhood education and affecting a meaningful impact across the region and nation where Carlow University will serve spiring educators for decades to come through The Dr. Rae Ann Hirsh Apprenticeship Program.

In early January, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) announced Schools-to-Work Program (STWP) grant awards totaling more than $2.5 million, created to develop and expand career pathways for high school students while also helping to eliminate barriers to employment.

With this grant funding, 11 registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs will enhance partnerships between schools, employers, organizations, and training centers across the commonwealth to prepare students for employment within targeted industries.

In this third round of STWP grant funding, workforce development programs and training centers received up to $250,000 to create career and post-secondary education opportunities for recent graduates through pre-apprenticeship programs. Specifically, these organizations will offer classroom training, workplace visits, internships, mentorships, job shadowing and externships for participating students.

The 2023 Schools-to-Work programs will operate from June 1, 2023, through May 30, 2025. The following STWP grant winners and the amounts they were awarded are detailed below.

Additional details about the Schools-to-Work Program can be found on L&I’s website.

Congratulations to all those completing their degrees and credentials in Fall of 2022. We commend you for your hard work, efforts, and persistence!

Of participants funded through the PDOs, 26 completed their CDA, 9 completed Associate degrees, 7 completed Bachelor degrees, and 2 completed Bachelor degrees with PreK-4 Certification.



22 T.E.A.C.H. Scholarship Graduates – 12 earned Associate degrees, 9 earned Bachelor degrees and 1 earned PreK-4 Teacher Certification.

• March 10: #SELday
• March 28-30: Save the Date: 2023 Annual Spring Conference, Growing to Amazing Heights: One Step at a Time, Champion, PA
• April 10-14: 37th National Child Nutrition Conference, San Diego, CA
• Nov. 15-18: NAEYC Annual Conference, Nashville, TN
• Nov. 28-Dec. 1: DEC's 38th Annual International Conference on Young Children with Special Needs and Their Families, Minneapolis, MN