You should now have a better understanding of early childhood professional development systems. Let’s use that knowledge to identify how a professional development system can assist you in your own career.

For this assignment:

1. Review your state’s professional development system (North Carolina).
2. Identify the process and requirements for joining the professional development registry if available; join if possible/practical.
3. Explore what being part of a professional development system and registry means for your career.
4. Identify strengths and weaknesses of the professional development system from your perspective as an early childhood professional in the system.
5. Write a 2-3 page paper sharing your findings and thoughts as well as your experience joining the registry, if applicable.

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Minnesota Center for Professional Development

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Minnesota Center for Professional Development

Minnesota Center for Professional Development

Rasmussen College

Minnesota Center for Professional Development is being submitted on December 17, 2017 for Jamie Wendt’s EEC4485 Sec. 01 Early Childhood Education Advocacy, Research and Policy – Online Plus – 2017 Fall Mid-Quarter

Achieve Minnesota Center for Professional Development (MNCPD) partners with Parent Aware. Parent Aware is Minnesota’s QRIS organization. Together these two programs are ensuring the state’s learning system is getting stronger by the day. Both of these programs want to ensure educational programs are providing the highest-quality education by making sure programs are providing professional development to their educators. This program is made possible by Minnesota’s Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge Grant.

MNCPD works in several ways. To begin with, it provides training opportunities. Educators who have become members of the organization are able to access these trainings. The benefit of these trainings is they are free or have a very small cost to attend. MNCPD believes there are key area trainings should be categorized in. Some examples of this are: “Child Development and Learning, Promoting Social and Emotional Development, Professionalism, and Establishing Healthy Practices” (develop, 2014) To view a complete list of their categories of training visit developtoolmn.org.

To become a member of the Minnesota Center for Professional Development it is free. All an educator needs to do is fill out their information. The information being entered is all about the individual ECE member. The individual starts by entering their personal information, then entering his or her education information, and then finally trainings they have attended. MNCPD will request you submit official transcripts and they will then place you on their lattice.

The career lattice for Minnesota Center for Professional Development is created on a lattice of 1-12, with 1 being the lowest. An educator is able to advance on the career lattice depending on their education degrees. The higher you are on the career lattice increases your chances of becoming a certified trainer for MNCPD. To have trainings count with MNCPD, a person who has been approved through MNCPD must complete them.

There are several benefits of becoming a member of the Minnesota Center for Professional Development. The first is you are able to get a certificate that informs others where you are on the career lattice. It is the one-stop shop for looking up your learning record. As a member you are able to look online for trainings and then have the ability to register for the trainings at the same time. MNCPD makes it very easy to register the training to your account by giving members a card with a barcode so trainers are able to scan your card and then enter it to directly to your online professional development account.

Individual membership is valid for one year. It is up to the member to go in and update their information every year to keep their account active. The best way to describe a person’s online MNCPD account is, it is an educator’s ECE resume. Minnesota State licensing will be able to login to a person’s account and view their education and trainings to ensure they are still up to date in regards to licensing. This makes it easier for licensors to view the information at the touch of his or her fingertips. Membership to MNCPD is required to work in the ECE field if you work at a Parent Aware rated program. By becoming a member it helps educators keep track of their trainings, education, place of work, and even wages. Employers are then able to communicate whether a person is employed at their program and if they are what room they are currently working in.

The one weakness of MNCPD is an educator may attend a training that MNCPD rejects. The training may be very beneficial and evenfall into one of their categories. However, if it isn’t completed my an approved MNCPD trainer, the training is not able to be entered into a person’s MNCPD account.

In summary, MNCPD is to work on individual professional development. It does this by providing online self-assessment tools. These tools will then help educators identify where they could grow on. It is used to track and verify employment and keeps track of your licensing requirements. Every year it will send you a certificate and let individual members know where they are on the career lattice. As far as programs go, it works on quality improvement. It keeps track of the staff’s professional development, tracks accreditation, and makes it easier to supply documentation for licensing.

References

Develop Minnesota Department of Human Services. (2014). Fast Facts. Retrieved December 17, 2017, from http://www.developtoolmn.org/fast-facts