Dear Colleagues,
Teachers are like candles that consume themselves to light the way for others. Chronic job stress and burnout are common among teachers, especially the early childhood teachers who work with the most vulnerable young learners. And that’s been even more true in recent years. The constant changes and health concerns brought on by COVID have taken a toll. Now teachers are catching up on learning losses, besides giving their students added social and emotional support. The pressure on teachers has only ramped up, so they merited special thanks as we marked Teacher Appreciation Week this month.
After all teachers have been through, they deserve more than the candy, cards and cookies they tend to get that week from parents and kids, as Dr. Calvin Moore pleads in his blog. Teachers want us to appreciate them all year long by paying them what they’re worth, including their voices in decisions, giving them a realistic workload and providing them with the resources they need. Our failure to do so has led teachers to feel there’s a lack of respect for what they do, and that makes it harder to do the job. Many teachers have left the field, leading to a severe staffing shortage and an even heavier workload for the teachers who remain. They’re often burning the candle at both ends as they struggle to keep up.
There isn’t a magic cure to combat teacher burnout, but there are places to go for handy tips on how to cope. Tune into a recent Teachstone podcast to hear one educator’s tactics for recognizing and dealing with her own feelings of burnout. Join a coffee break at the new Council Alumni Network, where you can take a load off by chatting with folks who understand. Go to the Early Educators Leadership Conference this fall, where we’ll feature a wealth of sessions on wellness and self-care.
The conference will also offer sessions on the big issues facing our field, including how to make the pipeline of qualified teachers broader and more diverse. We’ll talk about community-based workforce efforts and ways to build new career paths for Spanish-speaking teachers. We’ll also discuss how high school career and technical education (CTE) programs can encourage students to enter the ECE field. And this month, we profile some of the people who’ve taken vigorous steps to promote the high school CDA®.
Read about how Kelly Maupin and Julia Lynch work with the Tennessee Early Childhood Training Alliance (TECTA) to help high schoolers take their first steps into the ECE profession. The funding and support they provide students led Weakley County, Tennessee, to recently boast the largest group of high schoolers earning a TECTA Orientation Completion Certificate, the first step toward a CDA.
High schoolers like these are an answer to the staffing shortage in our field, according to Dr. Bisa Batten Lewis, a best-selling writer and president of the Black Child Development Institute in Atlanta. Dr. Bisa, as she’s fondly known, is also a consultant for our field, a popular speaker at Council meetings and key author of the CDA Handbook for High School. This comprehensive guide to advocacy and implementation reflects Dr. Bisa’s first-hand experience bringing the credential to Gwinnett County, Georgia, where she once served as a high school CTE instructor.
Dr. Bisa believes that bringing more qualified, committed young people into our profession is essential to build equity in education. And they play a key role for children like Dasani Coates, a homeless girl you’ll learn about in our review of Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City. Andrea Elliott’s compelling book is a call for answers to the crushing problems that hold many promising children back. And it should inspire teachers to keep striving to make a difference in the lives of underserved children like Dasani. You can bring them out of the shadows, ignite a love of learning in their hearts and give them hope that brighter days are ahead. You can be the torch that lights up their lives.
With our appreciation all year long,
The Council for Professional Recognition
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Chief Operations Officer
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.
Chief Financial Officer
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.
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