Reimagining Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Starts Here

Feeling Hopeful About
the Future of Early Childhood Teacher Preparation

Over the last year, our Center has had the incredible opportunity to partner with the Early Childhood Institute at San Jose State University to explore the potential of our Anchor Competencies Framework and professional learning offerings for early childhood teacher educators and teachers. Together, we assembled and facilitated an expert workgroup of early childhood teacher educators and teachers – unpacking and exploring the Framework from an early childhood education (ECE) lens, crosswalking it with California’s PK-3 Teacher Performance Expectations, and discussing the additional supports and resources needed to make a Framework like this come to life for PK-3 teachers. Over the past year, we learned that our Framework is not only supportive of educators working within these ECE spaces, but it is foundational and essential. PK-3 educators need a Framework like this to:

Center a focus on their own social, emotional, and cultural lens
To then create classroom environments that can support the development of social and emotional skills in the youngest children whom they serve

One member of our workgroup shared: “As an early childhood educator, I consider the Anchor Competencies Framework as an invaluable instrument that enhances my teaching and fosters collaboration with colleagues and families. The framework emphasizes the whole child, suggesting a focus beyond academics to include social-emotional growth, equity, and relationships—essential components of early childhood education. It conforms to developmentally appropriate practice by offering explicit, research-supported competences that direct purposeful planning and reflection.”

As PK-3 credential programs expand across states like California and Transitional Kindergarten proliferates across the United States, more efforts are needed to ensure teachers are leaving their programs ready to support the social and emotional development of our youngest learners and that they are equipped to help learners across the PK-3 developmental continuum. Our Framework is doing just that and the impact is being recognized. Last week, we were awarded another grant from the Morgan Charitable Foundation to continue the initiative that we began with this workgroup, and earlier this year we were awarded a grant from the Summit League to develop resources, trainings, and other professional learning offerings for early childhood teacher educators and teachers. This generous support helps us advance this work and inform the way PK-3 credential programs across the state of California and beyond are preparing our next generation of PK-3 teachers. We are excited about the potential to reimagine teacher preparation and development for early childhood educators, and this workgroup has just been the beginning. Read more about our final meeting with the workgroup below!

Insights & Resources

The 2026 Children’s Data Book from Kids in Common highlights trends in youth well-being across Santa Clara County, including health, education, basic needs, and social-emotional development. We appreciate this resource for its strong focus on equity and whole-child development. It reinforces the importance of SEL and that students’ social, emotional, and academic outcomes are connected to the systems and supports around them.

Visit our Blog Archive for more updates!

Read: 2026 Children’s Data Book

We equally appreciated a featured resource from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child that explores how stress affects early childhood development and the protective role of supportive adult relationships. It underscores a central principle of SEL: strong relationships and emotionally safe environments are essential for learning, resilience, and healthy development.

Read: Finding the Balance

CRTWC in Action:

Now & Next

Our final workgroup meeting with early childhood teacher educators and teachers at San Jose State University took place last week and we left so moved and inspired by the hearts and minds in that room! We heard from various voices and roles dedicated to early childhood education and gained valuable insights on how our Anchor Competencies Framework is useful – identifying ways to support its integration within PK-3 teacher preparation programs and ECE learning environments. Some common themes we heard regarding The Framework:

It should not be an add-on, but rather a foundation
It works best when applied consistently across courses and roles, and connects across home and school life
Its implementation benefits from taking account of the instructor or supervisor experiences, the teacher candidate or teacher experiences, and the student/family experiences
The anchor competencies/teacher moves outlined in the Framework can be especially supportive when taking into consideration the different stages of a child’s development.
It can serve as a tool for promoting family engagement and collaboration, ensuring that the adults in a child’s life are speaking a similar language to support their social and emotional development.

If you are someone you know is interested in supporting our work in the early childhood space in the upcoming year, please reach out to us at: info.crtwc@gmail.com

We ended our day with a share-out to close with personal reflections and heard some powerful statements: “[I feel validated] because SEL is a passion point for me … because of personal experience. I knew I needed something different for my kids and all kids, and knew intentionally leading with SEL has an impact. The Framework and workgroup validated that I have been doing good work, and we all have. “This group has been so energizing; in a way that not all my work always feels. It also feels exciting, like this [Framework] is something that can make an impact in the field.” And our day ended with a compelling speech from the new Dean of the Connie L. Lurie College of Education at San José State University who expressed gratitude for and excitement about the efforts initiated by this workgroup: “Children do not arrive in our classrooms as academic, social, emotional, and cultural categories. They come to us as whole. And if our children arrive whole, then our preparation systems must respond to the whole child as well … And that is why your work matters. This group has pushed us to think differently, not simply about what teachers should know, but about who educators should be, and how preparation programs should support them.” “As the Dean of Connie L. Lurie School of Education, I want to say clearly that we do not want this work to end. Lurie College is here to help ensure that the freedom dreaming and visioning that emerged from this workgroup continues to shape our strategic path moving forward, not as a one year initiative, not as a completed project, but as an ongoing commitment – a commitment to asking challenging questions and a commitment to preparing educators who understand culture, belonging, and relationships, as central to teaching.”