11.3 Standards Currently Defining Professional Performance
11.3 Standards Currently Defining Professional Performance
Brenda Boyd Brown, Ph.D.
The work of the Power to the Profession Task Force is impressive. Adopting the Unifying Framework across the country would dramatically change the face of ECE. This audacious vision would address many, perhaps even all, of the defining issues the field has grappled with, especially in recent years. However, the aspirational nature of the Unifying Framework should not lead one to believe that ECE as we know it today has no established standards that could nudge it toward professionalizing. Such standards do exist. This section of the chapter will introduce systems of standards that currently define and regulate the work of early childhood educators in the United States and specifically in Washington State.
Washington Administrative Code
Early childhood education is not made up only of licensed childcare. However, it represents a large portion of early childhood education programs across the country and in Washington State. The term licensed childcare should suggest that a state agency regulates these programs (licensed to operate). Each state has its administrative agency that oversees childcare. In Washington State, it is the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). After the legislature passes laws, they become part of the Revised Code of Washington (RCW), a compilation of all permanent laws now in force. However, in the case of something as complicated as childcare, the laws cannot be specific enough to guide practice. Thus, an administrative agency, in this case DCYF, writes administrative codes or regulations that specify what is allowed in the operation of a licensed childcare program. One chapter of the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) addresses the requirements for the operation of licensed childcare programs (Wash. Admin. Code § 110-300, 2018). Note that these regulations reflect foundational (or base) quality (sometimes called minimal quality) and that licensed programs are called early learning programs, not early childhood education, as NAEYC recommended (Power to the Profession Taskforce, 2020). The chapter in the Washington Administrative Code § 110-300 (2018) comprises several sections:
- Intent and Authority
- Child Outcomes
- Family Engagement and Partnership
- Professional Development, Training, and Requirements
- Environment
- Interactions and Curriculum
- Program Administration and Oversight
Three of these seven sections of the Washington Administrative Code § 110-300 (2018) have multiple subsections, making more than 100 subsections of regulations, many of which are broken down into additional subsections. This is a complicated document!
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