Black Teachers and the Bottom Line: Expect More with a CDA
Earning a CDA empowers Black early childhood teachers by promoting equity and inclusion. I know firsthand the impact that a CDA can make from looking back on the course of my life. As an assistant teacher at Head Start, I completed my CDA over 30 years ago, and the knowledge I gained ignited my career. I wanted to know everything about how to serve young learners, so I advanced my education and ultimately earned a Ph.D. in early childhood education. I went on to hold several high-profile government jobs before assuming my current position. I am the first Council CEO to hold a CDA, and that’s a testament to how far a CDA can take you. It gave me wings to soar where I never expected to go.
Now I’m working to give all early childhood teachers the tools to also take them as far as they can go, whatever their culture, creed or race. The Council is committed to inclusion, so we strive to help all our CDA holders gain the kudos that they deserve throughout the year. As we honor Black History Month, I want to put a spotlight on our Black CDAs and show how earning the credential has changed the course of their lives.
Take Jarrell Harris, a young man whose prospects seemed dim as he grew up in a poor part of Steger, Illinois. He spent years adrift, working everywhere from Cracker Barrel to Chipotle and Kmart before a friend helped him get a job at a day care, where he showed a gift for working with little folks. The warm response he received from his class inspired him to boost his competence in ECE by earning a CDA. Then he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in special ed, become a lead teacher and even found his own early childhood program, Empowering Young Lives. Jarrell believes that children can exceed what people expect of them because that’s exactly what he achieved.
So did Jerry Graham, once a 19-year-old man who didn’t know what to do with his life. He went into child care for a paycheck. Yet it became a passion that led him to earn his CDA and realize that having an education is important for serving young children. While earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree, he also moved up in his career until becoming the director of two Florida child care centers. Now he has his own business, Early Learning Consulting, and provides child care programs with opportunities for training and professional growth, like the CDA. His commitment to the credential has inspired him to serve on our CDA Advisory Committee and work as a Professional Development Specialist who guides rising teachers in earning their CDA.
The CDA is a great beginning, according toTameka Donaldson, who dropped out of college as a young mom to take care of her children. One day she wanted to do something new with her life, so she went to a day care near her home and found her first job in our profession. After earning her CDA, she went on to become a lead teacher and earned her doctorate in education. Now she’s the director of the KinderCare Learning Center in Grove City, Ohio, where she has succeeded in getting most of her staff members to earn their CDAs. When they do, she celebrates their achievement since she knows that it means they are professional teachers. And, like Jerry, she has lent her expertise as a PD Specialist by assessing over 100 candidates for the credential.
PD Specialists, like Tameka and Jerry, play a key role for educators like Crystal Barksdale, who runs Ms. Crystal’s Little Rugrats, a family child care home in a Baltimore, Maryland, suburb. After ten years in the business, she learned about the CDA and how it could expand her knowledge. It turned out that it also expanded Crystal’s peer network and made her think about how she could contribute to the early childhood profession. For a time, she served as vice president of the child care division at her local branch of the Service Employees International Union, where she helped providers complete the paperwork for the CDA, write their professional statements and put their CDA portfolios together. Then she served on the Maryland Office of Child Care Advisory Council, where she supported the idea of helping folks earn their CDA as part of Maryland’s “Blueprint for the Future.”
Funding from the Maryland State Department of Education has allowed state educators to earn their CDA at almost no cost for the past few years. Aid for classes, fees and books only sweetens the deal for a credential that’s already cost effective. This makes the CDA a great way to expand the pipeline of Black early childhood teachers and smooth the financial roadblocks that can stop many talented people from entering our profession.
“There are a lot of potentially great Black educators who aren’t making it to the classroom,” said Tara Kilbride, lead author of “Tracking Progress Through Michigan’s Teacher Pipeline,” a study conducted at Michigan State University last year. A major obstacle to recruiting Black students into the early learning profession is that they tend to graduate with double the college debt of their white peers due to lower family incomes. As a result, they often dismiss teaching as a career in favor of better-paying fields, like business and engineering, technology and the law. The bottom line is that many hopeful Black teachers feel compelled to choose jobs that will make them more financially sound.
In addition, “there’s a time cost,” Kilbride said. “Some college education programs require a fifth year for students to complete apprenticeships and student teaching. So that’s an extra year that they’re spending on their education and not earning a wage”—a double whammy that can deter Black students from going into the teaching profession. So how can they carry out their dreams of teaching young children without being crushed by debt?
The CDA provides an alternative route for these aspiring teachers. It costs much less than a college degree. CDA students can complete their credential in a couple of years. And the Council has designed the credentialing process to make it convenient, even for people who already hold full-time jobs. These advantages can encourage more Black students to enter the early childhood field. Once there, CDA holders tend to make higher pay and earn more promotions than their uncredentialed peers. So, earning a CDA makes a difference in their careers.
It also helps Black teachers to make a difference for children. Research has shown that young Black students are less likely to be suspended and more likely to attend gifted classes if they have Black teachers. Seeing a teacher of their own race helps Black children believe they can succeed, too. So, we need more people like Jerry, Tameka, Crystal and Jarrell, whose life histories I’ve briefly summed up. Black teachers like these are building the future for children in ways that Jarrell aptly described.
“I’m committed to being a role model for the young Black boys I serve,” he told me. “I want the boys to know that I’ll never stop rooting for them and that they have the power in them to rock the world. I’m convinced you shouldn’t put limits on children, even when they seem to have problems. Kids can achieve much more than you think”—and so can our Black early childhood teachers. They should expect even more when they earn a CDA.
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Elisa Shepherd is the Vice President of Strategic Alliances at the Council, where she leads initiatives to advance the Council’s mission and strategic plan through designing, managing, and executing a comprehensive stakeholder relationship strategy.
With over 25 years of experience in early childhood education (ECE), Elisa has dedicated her career to developing impactful programs, professional development opportunities, and public policies that support working families, young children, and ECE staff. Before joining the Council, Elisa held numerous roles within the childcare industry. Most recently, she served as Associate Vice President at The Learning Experience and as Senior Manager at KinderCare Education, where she influenced government affairs and public policies across 40 states.
Elisa’s commitment to leadership is reflected in her external roles on the Early Care and Education Consortium Board of Directors, the Florida Chamber Foundation Board of Trustees, and as the DEI Caucus Leader for KinderCare Education. She has been recognized as an Emerging Leader in Early Childhood by Childcare Exchange’s Leadership Initiative.
Elisa earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a focus on child development from Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA.
Andrew Davis
Chief Operations Officer (COO)
Andrew Davis serves as Chief Operating Officer at the Council. In this role, Andrew oversees the Programs Division, which includes the following operational functions: credentialing, growth and business development, marketing and communications, public policy and advocacy, research, innovation, and customer relations.
Andrew has over 20 years of experience in the early care and education field. Most recently, Andrew served as Senior Vice President of Partnership and Engagement with Acelero Learning and Shine Early Learning, where he led the expansion of state and community-based partnerships to produce more equitable systems of service delivery, improved programmatic quality, and greater outcomes for communities, children and families. Prior to that, he served as Director of Early Learning at Follett School Solutions.
Andrew earned his MBA from the University of Baltimore and Towson University and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland – University College.
Janice Bigelow
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Jan Bigelow serves as Chief Financial Officer at the Council and has been with the organization since February of 2022.
Jan has more than 30 years in accounting and finance experience, including public accounting, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. She has held management-level positions with BDO Seidman, Kiplinger Washington Editors, Pew Center for Global Climate Change, Communities In Schools, B’nai B’rith Youth Organization and American Humane. Since 2003, Jan has worked exclusively in the non-profit sector where she has been a passionate advocate in improving business operations in order to further the mission of her employers.
Jan holds a CPA from the State of Virginia and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lycoming College. She resides in Alexandria VA with her husband and dog.
Janie Payne
Vice President of People and Culture
Janie Payne is the Vice President of People and Culture for the Council for Professional Recognition. Janie is responsible for envisioning, developing, and executing initiatives that strategically manage talent and culture to align people strategies with the overarching business vision of the Council. Janie is responsible for driving organizational excellence through strategic talent practices, orchestrating workforce planning, talent acquisition, performance management as well as a myriad of other Human Resources Programs. She is accountable for driving effectiveness by shaping organizational structure for optimal efficiency. Janie oversees strategies that foster a healthy culture to include embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of the organization.
In Janie’s prior role, she was the Vice President of Administration at Equal Justice Works, where she was responsible for leading human resources, financial operations, facilities management, and information technology. She was also accountable for developing and implementing Equal Justice Works Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy focused on attracting diverse, mission-oriented talent and creating an inclusive and equitable workplace environment. With more than fifteen years of private, federal, and not-for-profit experience, Janie is known for her intuitive skill in administration management, human resources management, designing and leading complex system change, diversity and inclusion, and social justice reform efforts.
Before joining Equal Justice Works, Janie was the Vice President of Human Resources and Chief Diversity Officer for Global Communities, where she was responsible for the design, implementation, and management of integrated HR and diversity strategies. Her work impacted employees in over twenty-two countries. She was responsible for the effective management of different cultural, legal, regulatory, and economic systems for both domestic and international employees. Prior to Global Communities, Janie enjoyed a ten-year career with the federal government. As a member of the Senior Executive Service, she held key strategic human resources positions with multiple cabinet-level agencies and served as an advisor and senior coach to leaders across the federal sector. In these roles, she received recognition from management, industry publications, peers, and staff for driving the creation and execution of programs that created an engaged and productive workforce.
Janie began her career with Verizon Communications (formerly Bell Atlantic), where she held numerous roles of increasing responsibility, where she directed a diversity program that resulted in significant improvement in diversity profile measures. Janie was also a faculty member for the company’s Black Managers Workshop, a training program designed to provide managers of color with the skills needed to overcome barriers to their success that were encountered because of race. She initiated a company-wide effort to establish team-based systems and structures to impact corporate bottom line results which was recognized by the Department of Labor. Janie was one of the first African American women to be featured on the cover of Human Resources Executive magazine.
Janie received her M.A. in Organization Development from American University. She holds numerous professional development certificates in Human Capital Management and Change Management, including a Diversity and Inclusion in Human Resources certificate from Cornell University. She completed the year-long Maryland Equity and Inclusion Leadership Program sponsored by The Schaefer Center for Public Policy and The Maryland Commission on Civil Rights. She is a trained mediator and Certified Professional Coach. She is a graduate of Leadership America, former board chair of the NTL Institute and currently co-steward of the organization’s social justice community of practice, and a member of The Society for Human Resource Management. Additionally, Janie is the Board Chairperson for the Special Education Citizens Advisory Council for Prince Georges County where she is active in developing partnerships that facilitate discussion between parents, families, educators, community leaders, and the PG County school administration to enhance services for students with disabilities which is her passion. She and her husband Randolph reside in Fort Washington Maryland.
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