History: The Competencies Integration Project

Better prepared professionals provide more effective early childhood education (ECE) settings, leading to better prepared children.

The Competencies Integration Project (CIP) was funded by the Governor's State Advisory Council on Early Learning and Care, and the Early Education and Support Division of the California Department of Education. The project was led by a steering committee of twelve higher education faculty from the California State University and the California Community College systems. The CIP Steering Committee developed a web-based tool to link the California ECE Competencies to higher education courses and state-funded professional development trainings. The intent of the competences is to promote a stronger ECE workforce and improve early learning outcomes for children.

Beginning in January 2011, California’s early care and education faculty, stakeholders, statewide partners, and policy-makers joined together to develop rubrics, a tool, and procedures to reflect the essential characteristics of workforce preparation in the field of ECE. CIP has developed a sophisticated process and web-based tool for examining postsecondary ECE learning opportunities.

According to the California ECE Competencies, an ECE professional should have defined knowledge, skills and dispositions in order to be attain competency. These competencies have been organized into Competency Areas, Performance Areas, Topics, and Contexts and have been aligned with Preschool Learning Foundations and Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Foundations. The video provides a helpful overview of the competency integration process.

The CIP formula for determining learning opportunities provided in a course or training is based upon the components of the CA ECE Competencies. It is a combination of time spent for learning; amount of Competency Area included in the learning opportunity; amount of each Context included in the learning opportunity; and the amount of coverage for each Topic. Now is your opportunity to learn more about the ECE Competencies Mapping Tool.