Five Reasons to Earn Your CDA
SPONSORED BLOG Whether you’re just starting out in the early childhood field, or you’ve been teaching for years, chances are you’ve heard the term CDA at least a few times. The Child Development Associate® (CDA)...
The end of the year is always a good time for reflection – and we at the Council look back on 2015 as another banner year in our service to you – the early care and education community.
And, 2015 was not just any year. It was our 30th anniversary! Yes! Thirty years of serving early educators is a milestone that belongs to all of us. Hundreds of thousands of early childhood educators have earned their CDA – the best first step for early educators. We do this work because we love it – and we have a deep commitment to support you as you support young children and families.
Santa recently joined us at the Council as our staff, once again, generously donated gifts for the Toys for Tots program.
As always, Santa asks: “Naughty or Nice?” we checked our list and told Santa a few things that we have accomplished in 2015:
- We listened to the CDA community and as a result we launched a newer streamlined CDA 2.0 renewal process in October. The new system is a dramatic improvement to the past renewal system as it facilitates an easier application process and a faster decision for candidates. More “Renewal 2.0” is the perfect partner to the innovative and well received “CDA 2.0” that was launched in 2013.
- We held our second major national retreat and conference for early educators. It sold out again and 95% of participants gave it a very positive review. We welcomed early childhood education leaders from all over the country who came together to learn, and share with others their ideas to advance and promote the professional development of the early care and education workforce.
- We strengthened our communication with the CDA community in many ways. You can call us, chat with us, send us an e-mail, or check your application status through our automated features. We started a blog and participate in Twitter storms (worthy wages, yes!) We redesigned our website with a bold new homepage and enhanced the navigation experience; we added much more content in Spanish. Even our telephone system had a major upgrade!
- We continue to expand our national and international partnerships program that began in 2011. A few 2015 highlights: we joined Bright Horizons as they honored their 2,000th CDA recipient and recognized all of the credential holders in their community. We entered a five-year contract with the military child care program. We collaborated with state registry systems, and, we are growing more CDA’s in the Middle East.
After hearing about our 30th anniversary year, Santa declared that we are NICE. And the better news is, we hope to be a GIFT to the early childhood community for the next thirty years!
Let me end this year by once again thanking YOU our partners, trainers, credential earners and friends! We predict wonderful days ahead for the early childhood community!
Wishing you a Happy and Safe Holiday Season!
Sincerely,
Valora Washington, Ph.D.
CEO
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