In easy-to-understand and clear language, the author provides the practical guidance needed to successfully operate a child care and education center. Engagingly written, this handbook invites readers to examine the many duties and responsibilities inherent in managing staff, budgets, and a quality program that conforms to all legal and regulatory requirements. Each chapter carefully addresses one leadership or management task to provide concise, yet comprehensive coverage of every aspect of child care administration. Overall the book provides both practicing and future administrators a wealth of helpful support and resources, including forms, documents, recommended readings and websites, and reflective prompts, to flourish in their positions.

Comprehensive and authoritative, this forward-thinking book reviews the breadth of current knowledge about early education and identifies important priorities for practice and policy. Robert C. Pianta and his associates bring together foremost experts to examine what works in promoting all children's school readiness and social-emotional development in preschool and the primary grades. Exemplary programs, instructional practices, and professional development initiatives?and the systems needed to put them into place?are described. The volume presents cutting-edge findings on the family and social context of early education and explores ways to strengthen collaboration between professionals and parents.

Theory meets practical tips in this guide for leaders of early childhood programs

Provides practical and accessible guidance for program administrators in early childhood special education and includes tools, tips and knowledge to better manage the programs.

An Administrator's Guidebook To Early Care And Education Programs.

This book is a tour-de-force, deceptively simple and yet breathtaking in its scope. - Mary Eames Ucci, Educational Director, Wellesley College Child Study Center The first few months in the classroom are a combination of on-the-job training and rite of passage, a time when novice teachers need someone to show them the ropes and be there to answer the tough questions. But if you are a teacher's mentor or supervisor, your task isn't as simple as it seems. What is the best way for you and your teaching community to propel a new teacher into a joyful, engaging career in the classroom? In Mentoring Early Childhood Educators, Carol Hillman shares an innovative, collaborative supervisory model that gives preservice and novice teachers the opportunity to discover what real classrooms look and feel like while they develop the skills and thoughtfulness to work through both everyday issues and the more difficult problems of practice. From your first meeting with a new teacher to end-of-year goodbyes, Hillman's program supports quality teaching and offers proven strategies that show you: what to look for during classroom observations when to communicate suggestions, ideas, and strategies-and how to do so without criticizing how to handle difficulties between mentor and novice how to coordinate supervision to deepen and broaden the experience for the new teacher. In addition to carefully explaining her supervisory model, Hillman offers strategies for implementing it, sample observations and journal responses, and many useful forms for the cooperating teacher. Read Mentoring Early Childhood Educators - it will give you a rock-solid program for not only introducing new teachers into the profession, but also making the time a professional learning experience for you.

"Solutions for Early Childhood Directors "provides real-world answers for directors who work in the challenging and rewarding field of early childhood education. Kathy Lee's -extensive experience as a director and trainer -offers practical solutions to problems that arise every day for directors. She -addresses key issues, such as training staff, handling discipline, dealing with parents, and creating partnerships in the community. For anyone who is a director or wishes to someday become a director, this book is the -ultimate "can't-do-without-it" survival kit. As a former director and teacher, Kathy Lee now facilitates training of early childhood teachers, directors, administrators, and parents worldwide.

Leadership is an activity that not only manifests itself in formal positions, but also bubbles up in various places within an organization. Perhaps given the importance of leadership to any endeavor, the literature on this topic has burgeoned. Yet among these titles, Learning to Lead stands out as one of the best texts available on leadership for college and university administrators. Critical skills such as managing people, resolving conflict, and making rational (and legal) decisions are explored within the context of the campus. The book also addresses the needs of those who facilitate leadership workshops, serve as mentors to potential leaders, and teach courses on higher education leadership and administration. While presenting all sides of key issues, the author calls for the reader to define his or her own position through a series of provocative reflection questions in each chapter. Thus the book invites interaction and teaches administrators not what to think about leadership, but how to think about it.

Early childhood program administrators often have a global impression that things are going well or not so well at their centers, but lack specific feedback on the different policies and practices of the organization contribute to those impressions. This book will help you define more precisely how ten dimensions of organizational climate shape the quality of work life for staff. It will help you look at your program in terms of collegiality, opportunities for professional growth, supervisor support, clarity, reward system, decision making, goal consensus, task orientation, physical setting, and innovation. A Great Place to Work will help you learn how to gather data to measure and monitor your center's climate and implement strategies to guarantee bright and sunny days ahead.

Early childhood educators are keenly aware of the importance of a child’s transition to “real school.” This transition is occurring earlier in a child’s life now that school districts nationwide are moving to pre-kindergarten experiences for 3- and 4-year olds. Annually, more than one million children attend public school pre-k programs overseen by elementary school principals who, although veteran educational leaders, were not trained to oversee these programs. Although pre-k classrooms are rapidly growing and deserve special attention, school leaders must be reminded that early childhood means more than pre-kindergarten; it extends through third grade. School leadership needs to understand the principles of early childhood education to effectively support all children age three to grade three. Professional and Ethical Consideration for Early Childhood Leaders is a collection of innovative research that crafts an overall understanding of the importance of early childhood leadership in today’s schools. The book employs strategies to improve support for children in early childhood years, examines the different roles of early childhood leadership, analyzes best practices for implementation in early childhood contexts, and explores improvements for leadership preparation for schools with pre-k through third-grade children. While highlighting a wide range of topics including advocacy, cultural responses, and professional development, this publication is ideally designed for educators, administrators, principals, early childhood development teachers, daycare instructors, curriculum developers, advocates, researchers, academicians, and students.