Early Education Leaders, an Institute at UMass Boston

Congratulations to Strategies for Children for Children on 25 years of advocating for Massachusetts' youngest learners! 🎉

For a quarter century, Strategies for Children has done the patient, persistent work that systems change requires — connecting people to people, to policy, and to power on behalf of young children across the Commonwealth.

We're grateful to founder Margaret Blood, Executive Director Amy O'Leary, and the whole Strategies for Children team for 25 years of showing what it looks like to build power alongside the early education field.

The celebration continues this fall with a free reception and dance party on Wednesday, Oct. 14 at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, and a Nov. 12 reception at the State House honoring 25 years of legislative advocacy.

Here's to the next 25! 👏🏾

Learn more ➡️ https://bit.ly/3TtvC5H

You are Invited: Celebrating 25 Years of Strategies for Children Strategies for Children leads the way towards meaningful change in early childhood systems across Massachusetts by connecting people to people, […]

Infants, toddlers, and twos are often the least-covered age group in early childhood training — and the most rapidly changing.

Early Childhood Investigations Webinars is hosting a free session this Wednesday, August 5 with Tracy Patton, M.S. in Child Development, focused entirely on the 0–2 years. Participants will:

✔️ Understand the educator's role in shaping development from infancy through age two
✔️ Identify major developmental milestones — and use observation and documentation to support early intervention referrals
✔️ Adapt activities and environments as children grow, using developmentally appropriate practice

📅 Wednesday, August 5 | 2:00–3:30 p.m. ET
💻 Free | Live attendees receive a personalized certificate

Learn more ➡️ https://bit.ly/4wenaoE

Infants, Toddlers & Twos, Oh My! by Tracy Patton, M.S. | Early Childhood Webinars Free, expert-led early childhood education webinars offering practical strategies and inspiring insights. Serving over 3 million early education professionals, join to learn and receive certificates.

Happening today! 🪄 Free webinar at 2:00 PM ET.

Dr. Stephanie Goloway explores how children's imaginative storytelling builds language, literacy, and resilience — and shares oral storytelling techniques you can bring back to your classroom tomorrow.

Stay for the full session and you'll get a certificate by email. Not too late to register!

Learn more ➡️ https://bit.ly/4x0oYSF

Storytelling’s Magic Wand: Developmental Fairydust for Literacy, Make-Believe, and Representational Thinking by Stephanie Goloway, EdD | Early Childhood Webinars Free, expert-led early childhood education webinars offering practical strategies and inspiring insights. Serving over 3 million early education professionals, join to learn and receive certificates.

What does it actually take to improve quality in early childhood education and care — and what role does leadership play in getting there? 🤔

It's a question the field still doesn't have enough evidence to answer well. Now there's an opportunity to help fill that gap.

Education Sciences* has issued a call for papers for a special issue on **Leading and Enhancing Quality Improvement in Early Childhood Education and Care** — guest edited by our own Dr. Anne Douglass and Dr. Yujin Lee, alongside Dr. Tamara Halle and Dr. Kathryn Tout of Child Trends.

Leadership in early education isn't a title or a hierarchy. It's a highly relational, collaborative process — and this issue invites research examining how that process drives improvement at every level of the ECEC system.

The editors welcome original empirical studies (qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods), systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and theory-driven contributions focused on children up to age five.

🗓️ Submission deadline: January 20, 2027

Researchers, practitioner-scholars, doctoral students — we'd love to see your work. And please pass this along to colleagues who should know about it.

Learn more ➡️ https://www.mdpi.com/journal/education/special_issues/TQ2NQ8O3PG

Join Dr. Stephanie Goloway — Professor Emerita, author, and self-described "Fairy Godteacher" — for Storytelling's Magic Wand: Developmental Fairydust for Literacy, Make-Believe, and Representational Thinking.

📅 Thursday, July 30 | 2:00–3:30 PM ET | Free

This session explores how children's imaginative storytelling lays the groundwork for language, literacy, and resilience. Dr. Goloway draws on neuroscience and developmental theory to unpack representational thinking — a child's ability to build and work with symbols — and connects it to symbolic play and emergent literacy.

Educators will come away with practical oral storytelling techniques, ideas for weaving varied storytelling into daily practice, and a look at how folk and fairy tales support thinking, play, and resilience.

Attend the full live session and you'll receive a personalized certificate by email.

Learn more ➡️

Storytelling’s Magic Wand: Developmental Fairydust for Literacy, Make-Believe, and Representational Thinking by Stephanie Goloway, EdD | Early Childhood Webinars Free, expert-led early childhood education webinars offering practical strategies and inspiring insights. Serving over 3 million early education professionals, join to learn and receive certificates.

"That first five years is just so critical … if kids don't have a solid attachment to some stable adult in their life in the first five years, there [are] major problems later on."

Education Week takes a look at "looping" — the practice of keeping children with the same teacher for two consecutive years — and why it matters so much in early childhood settings.

Currently used in about 12% of U.S. public schools, looping has been linked to gains in academic performance, behavior, and attendance. It also lightens the load on educators, who spend less time each fall re-establishing routines and getting to know a new group of children and families.

As one pre-K teacher put it: "When you have students who start with one teacher at the age of 3 and loop again with them as a 4-year-old, you really get to build deep relationships."

For early education leaders, it's a reminder of how program structure — not just curriculum — shapes the relationships children depend on.

Learn more ➡️

Why 'Looping' in Pre-K Helps Kids As states seek to expand pre-K and teachers report students' lack of readiness, looping may help.

"This is not just a recruitment issue — it is a systems problem."

Giane O'Connell was one of several presenters during the morning plenary session at our 13th Annual Early Educator Leadership Forum, where early childhood leaders shared change projects aimed at strengthening the field.

O'Connell, a family child care owner-director and Post-Master's Certificate fellow with Early Education Leaders, presented her change project: a plan to strengthen the family child care workforce through better preparation, ongoing support, and long-term sustainability.

Her theory of change rests on three elements — mentoring that builds skills through real, daily practice; shared leadership that recognizes educators as leaders, not just implementers; and relational infrastructure like peer networks that reduces isolation. "When those elements are in place," she said, "educators become more confident, more connected, and more committed" — and programs become more stable, so children and families receive more consistent, high-quality care.

"When we invest in educators, children and families benefit."

Learn more ➡️ https://bit.ly/4pCIClm

Early educators: do you have an idea that could create more equitable outcomes for young children and families — and the drive to make it happen?

Early Education Leaders is glad to share an opportunity from longtime partner Promise Venture Studio. Applications are now open for the Imagine Award from the Promise Fund, offering $20,000 in flexible funding plus a six-month, cohort-based learning experience for up to 10 early childhood leaders ready to pilot a transformative idea.

Recipients launch a real-world pilot, test their solutions alongside the communities they serve, and grow with a peer cohort — with structured support for building their impact model and partnerships for the long haul.

The award is looking for leaders who are deeply connected to the communities they serve, ready to test a clearly defined idea, and committed to equity, justice, and centering community voice. Is this you or someone you know?

Applications close August 28.

Learn more ➡️ https://bit.ly/4pvgPDg

Feeling stretched thin as an early educator? You don't have to figure it out alone. 🤝🏽

The Metro Boston Professional Development Center offers free, one-on-one coaching for early educators across the region. Our experienced coaches work alongside you, helping you develop and put into action your own solutions to the real challenges you face.

Ready to get started? Fill out our quick interest form to be matched with a Metro Boston PDC coach.

Learn more ➡️

Metro Boston PDC Needs Assessment Form for Coaching Support Please complete this form in its entirety and Adriana Batista-Guerra, our Interim Lead Coach, will contact you. Spanish: Por favor, complete este formulario en su totalidad y Adriana Batista-Guerra, nuestra entrenadora principal, se comunicará con usted. Portuguese: Por favor, preencha este formul....

After more than three decades running early care and education programs — and 31 years owning her own business — Mary Grimmer knew how to direct, lead, and give the answers. What she was still discovering was the power of the question.

In a plenary at the 13th Annual Early Educator Leadership Forum, the Founder and CEO of Little Treasures Schoolhouse and graduate of the Essential Leadership Model (ELM) program shared her journey from director to facilitative leader. The shift wasn't easy: stepping back, asking wondering questions, and letting teachers identify their own problems of practice — and their own solutions.

The result? Stronger relationships, less work, and more impact. "It's almost like a weight is taken off your shoulders," Grimmer said. "And not only is it honestly less work — it's more impactful."

Her challenge to the room: "If you have teachers who feel valued and heard, they're going to show up in their classroom. And they're going to reflect that in the care they give to their children and their families."

Learn more ➡️ https://bit.ly/44sU4pT