The Faces of ECE series is designed to raise awareness of the many early care and education professionals who are supporting one of the most important fields in America today. From the people on the front lines working with children to those working behind the scenes to prop the system up from within, everybody has a role to play and a story to tell. Child Care Matters is committed to sharing those stories.

The early childhood education workforce has long fought to be recognized and treated as professionals. Public misconceptions about the role of early educators and the impact of high-quality care and education from birth-to-five have led to high turnover, widespread supply shortages, and a field that often struggles to recruit talent. But amidst all that turbulence, one thing has remained consistent: the Child Development Associate® (CDA) credential has been the most widely recognized credential in early childhood education for 50 years. Not only does the CDA open doors for those seeking employment and/or promotion, it also leads to greater job security and directly prepares early educators for the classroom in a way that nothing else can.

For this installment of Faces of ECE, I had the privilege of speaking with Andrew Davis, Chief Operating Officer at The Council for Professional Recognition, which serves as the administering agency for the CDA and celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. We talked about the history of the CDA, the various pathways educators can pursue, and all the work that goes into ensuring the CDA remains a credible indicator of educators who understand child brain development, classroom management, professional conduct, and all the other baseline skills needed to “create a safe, nurturing, and stimulating environment for young children.”

We also discussed the Council’s ongoing priorities and the (very exciting) recent announcement of the forthcoming Child Development Professional™ (CDP) credential, an initiative that is still in its conceptual phase, but promises to provide a “scalable, inclusive credential that validates real-world experience and creates accessible career advancement options.”

Enjoy!

Background and the CDA

John Jennings: Hello and welcome this installment of Faces of ECE from Child Care Matters. Andrew, would you mind letting us know a little bit about who you are, what you do at the Council, and maybe give us a little background about your experience in the early care and education space?

Andrew Davis: Yes, thank you for having me, John. It's an honor to be here and talk a little bit about my role and what we do here at The Council for Professional Recognition. I currently serve as the chief operating officer for the Council. In that role, I oversee what we call our programs division. That includes all of our credentialing teams, our research and psychometrics team, our quality assurance innovations, and then all of our outreach teams. So that's our marketing and branding teams, all the way through to our public policy teams as well. I've been here since June of 2022.

Prior to that, I worked with an organization where we operated Head Start programs and also worked in a consultancy designing Head Start programs and starting them up from scratch, which is a unique thing, because Head Start programs typically operating in our communities have been there for decades. So that was incredibly enriching. All in all, I have had a career in the early childhood education space for just over 20 years in various roles, but mostly in supporting roles.

I'd say my last organization was the closest I got into direct service. But the beauty of that is it gave me the opportunity to see the ins and outs of all of the funding streams and the different players and segments of this space and how they all fit together. And it's an interesting quilt and tapestry that those of us within the field often don't get a chance to see.

John: Can you give us a brief overview of the Council? What is it, how did it come to be, how has it evolved over time, and what are you doing to support the ECE ecosystem?

Andrew: The Council is the credentialing body for the early childhood education field. We were created 40 years ago to administer the CDA credential. Our main role is to serve as that credentialing body through high-quality, competency-based credentialing. And there is an incredible discipline that goes with the role of a credentialing body.

Where we see ourselves today is being responsive to the field, not just in administering the CDA, because the CDA itself has evolved. In principle, it's the same as it was 50 years ago, but in operation it is very different. The main thing we try to do is make sure that it's delivering on the promise of what we say it is. We want to make sure that when an educator has a CDA that they can demonstrate their understanding of the national competency standards and they can operate in the setting where we have verified that they are proficient in doing so. So we go through the process of making sure that there's an incredible high degree of integrity and certainty around what we're verifying for that educator.

We are always participating in conversations with work groups, with advocacy groups, helping to recommend policy through which the interpretation of the CDA is accurate and appropriate. We believe that through credentialing, there's the opportunity to add so much clarity to the field. We see in many cases where other pathways have become proxies for the role that credentials should play. One example of that is the role of professional development. It's incredibly necessary and it's a great part of the continuum of an early childhood educator. The idea is that you can bring someone in that just cares about children but might not know anything about being an educator, and you can coach them up, train them up. You can develop them into being this great educator. A lot of that is true, but how do you establish benchmarks to know when they've arrived?

College degrees are another proxy that gets talked about a lot, but even those are inconsistent and sometimes inaccessible for some of the people doing this work. So we feel like there's this role of clarifying what a credential can do that helps to anchor the conversations in some common language. If we can do that, we can clarify the role of ongoing training, education, higher education, etc… to really play an appropriate role and not be a proxy for other leveling pathways on the early childhood education workforce ladder.

John: You mentioned that the first CDA was awarded 50 years ago, and I saw that you just awarded your millionth credential in 2023. I can’t help but wonder—in a world (and a field) where it feels like we are in a constant state of flux, how has the CDA program been able to maintain that kind of staying power?

Andrew: Yeah, I wish I could say something really super profound about that. I would say that it's because there's nothing else like it. It solves the issue of what's a baseline for an educator, and so it fills a need and a gap that is consistent with its origins. The CDA itself was conceived because those who wanted to improve the workforce situation were trying to find a way to have paraprofessionals validate that they knew enough about child development, could work with young children and families, and be a professional. What did that look like as some accessible minimum standard? That was the goal then, and it still remains the goal today. And I think that resonates.

Where we end up being the strongest is not only where states have found ways to incorporate the CDA as an entry point on their career ladders, but where we've worked with states to make sure the credential is responsive to the needs of their communities. And that's something that we're eager to do even more.

The challenge with being around for 50 years is that you've got branches and myths and rumors, and the CDA has taken on a life of its own in various communities. Part of what we've been doing recently is really just trying to have a much more coherent and consistent communication about what it is, what it's not, and how it can be supportive of the needs of the early childhood education workforce in every state and every community.

What's Happening at the Council?

John: I noticed the Council recently received Great Place to Work certification. As someone who’s always been interested in workplace culture, I'm wondering how your internal culture supports and ultimately reflects the council's mission?

Andrew: Well, we can't do anything without the people. I think one of the things that we are really proud of is in our new strategic plan that we rolled out in 2024, the first two goals were internally focused, and that was a little different for us. Our number one goal was building a world-class team. Within that goal, was not only direction around how we evaluate performance, but how we invest in our people, how we invest in our staff, what we look for, and what we stand for.

Then, the second thing was establishing a culture of innovation. So those are examples of us very intentionally putting a focus on people who will buy into that. This is a unique time for the council because it's requiring a set of thinking that you might not typically associate with a 40-year-old organization. We’re at a transition point, much like the entire field is at a transition point right now. There are new ideas required. There is new thinking required. There are new ways for us to address old problems. So that need for us to be innovative is so critical.

We’ve tried to establish a culture where we invite and welcome new ideas, new ways of doing things, and celebrate the people who bring those things forward. Of course, there's a delicate balance, because that can also come at a pace where there is incredible chaos. There's a lot that's happening all at once and we have to be able to keep it all straight. You're also talking about an organization that, pre-COVID, everyone reported to one office. Now we're hiring from all across the country and working in a remote environment. So what does that do for our ability to collaborate and get things done with speed and clarity?

We are happy about the distinctions that we've earned thus far. We know that it's an ongoing work in progress, that we’ve never “arrived.” There's always an evolution. And even if we don't always get it quite right, we really are trying to make it consistently a great place to work, and a great place to be able to deliver on the promise to the entire workforce. There's a lot of work ahead, a big mission to accomplish. We need to be relentless and unapologetic about going after that, but also creating a space for people to work, and thrive, and feel a sense of balance and fulfillment in the process.

A Message to the Field

John: The Council has helped so many people break into the field of early childhood education. Do you have any advice for those who are considering entering the profession?

John: For our readers who now have a new or renewed interest in the Council and/or the CDA or the CDP—what’s the best way for them to learn more?

Andrew: Follow us on all social media platforms: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, we’re even on TikTok now. Follow our newsletter as well. We have the Council Alumni Network that’s a wonderful professional community, not only for folks who have earned their CDA, but all professionals within the ECE community to contribute and share ideas with each other. When we think about the constituency of a million strong CDAs, we’re always thinking about how we can help each other, especially when it comes to bridging the gap for entry level and new and aspiring early childhood educators.

Our website, cdacouncil.org, is a wonderful place. I hope you’ll also consider all of us on the leadership team accessible to you, to your feedback and perspectives about what we can do to better deliver on the promise of the CDA and credentials as a whole for the early childhood workforce.