I spent last Thursday nearly nose-to-nose with an epic dinosaur skeleton in the UW’s Burke Museum. No, I wasn’t taking a day off to soak up history. I was crammed into a meeting of Representatives from the House Higher Education and Early Learning/Children’s Services Committees to discuss preparation programs for early learning professionals and options for legislation in the 2009 session.

Here’s what I found out:

-Early Learning Preparation Programs in Washington are pretty patchwork. Some programs exist as a mishmash of interdisciplinary AA requirements. Some exist as an added emphasis to an education degree. Some exist completely outside of colleges of ed. And frankly, those are just the few I remember from the four-hour meeting. In any case, the most promising program was launched this year by the UW as an undergraduate degree in early childhood education. This degree was separate from the College of Education and added elements of pediatrics and development psychology, which I found impressive.

The UW is also exploring creating a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education Leadership as the next step for individuals who complete their undergrad degrees. However, the UW’s representative added that this was contingent on (you guessed it) funding.

-We’re all still learning what “good” early learning professional preparation means. The meeting was a great chance for early learning professional preparation programs to share what they’re doing and the challenges their students face. What I found encouraging was the amount of emerging early childhood research many schools are incorporating into their programs. This keeps students/childcare providers aligned with cutting edge knowledge and researchers in touch with those in the field. Good all around.

-Coordination is going to be key moving forward. Early learning is such an emerging field, it seems like everyone’s taking the ball and running in different directions (one organization who complained of lack of student scholarships was astonished that another offered them). The legislature is going to really have to drill down and—in a manner similar to K-12—designate who is responsible for what and what bodies govern whom. They’ve done this to some degree with the creation of the Department of Early Learning and Thrive by 5. But no one disagrees that they’ve got a lot more work ahead of them.

Well, there you have it folks. To learn more about Early Learning initiatives throughout Washington state, visit the Early Learning section of our site.