Getting Educators Set for Success: The CDA® at Metropolitan Community College

One of the greatest challenges across the early learning field is the lack of accessible, supported pathways for professional growth. Early childhood educators often begin the process of earning a Child Development Associate® (CDA) Credential™ but face barriers that hold them back. Lack of time, funds and academic support deters many educators from completing their CDA®. So does the need to steer through the credentialing process on their own. These roadblocks also prevent educators from gaining a credential that proves they can provide children with skilled, competent care. So, the early childhood education department at Metropolitan Community College (MCC) in Omaha, Nebraska, has come up with an answer to the issues educators face in earning a CDA.

MCC offers a structured, fully supported and interactive pathway that aligns with the rigorous standards of the CDA. The college’s CDA model provides online, self-paced coursework, along with embedded mentoring and coaching from the start to the end of the credentialing process. After earning a CDA, educators have the option to work on an associate degree in early childhood education at the college and receive 19.5 credits toward their degree. The result is a program that advances workforce development by launching educators on a personal journey that leads to continuing education and career success.

The program owes much of its success to teamwork and collaboration. MCC faculty and staff, including adjunct instructor Jane Pirnat, have made noteworthy contributions. So have community partners, like T.E.A.C.H. Nebraska and Kids Can Community Center, that have provided scholarships for early learning professionals to complete the CDA coursework. As educators proceed through the CDA process, they can also count on support from three education leaders who stand out for their commitment to offer a CDA program that fits the lifestyle and needs of the people they serve.

“We’re in the people business,” Deanna Peterson says, and she’s made it her business to find out how to help people succeed in the early learning field. The best stepping stone to success is the CDA, as Deanna learned while working as a master teacher for Educare in Omaha, Nebraska. “As part of my job, I talked to child care directors in the city and surrounding counties,” Deanna recalls, “and they all wanted me to work with their staff on the CDA.” That’s been Deanna’s goal since joining MCC as an early childhood education instructor in 2014.

By 2017, Deanna had launched a plan to knock down the roadblocks that stopped many Nebraska educators from completing their credential. “Some needed support completing their CDA portfolio,” Deanna says. “Others had been out of school for a long time and weren’t accustomed to taking college courses.” So, she wrote a grant to set up a one-stop shop that included everything educators needed to earn a CDA. Then she teamed up with Katherine Sicheneder, another early childhood instructor at MCC, and Diana Molina, a coordinator at Kids Can Community Center who also serves as the bilingual early childhood pathway coordinator at the college.

Together, this committed team of three gets educators set for success from the moment they register for the CDA program. “We give educators everything they need,” Deanna explains, “beginning with the basics: the CDA textbook, Essentials for Working with Young Children, the CDA® Competency Standards books, dividers and sheet protectors for the CDA portfolio, and a flash drive for saving their work.” Even more important, the educators have a mentor coach who helps them plan how they’re going to proceed through the CDA.

“The mentor coaches are like the educators’ own personal cheerleaders,” Katherine says. “They are there to help and their support is one of the big pluses of our CDA program. So long as the educators do the work and remain in contact, the mentor coaches are going to get them through the program,” Katherine says. “And the educators discover new things about themselves when they find that they can succeed in earning a CDA.”

It’s an achievement that benefits both educators and the children they serve, Deanna points out as she talks about the CDA’s role in advancing workforce development and child development, too. “I love the CDA because it’s very comprehensive and very applicable to what happens in a real-life classroom,” she says. “Candidates can relate right away to every step of the CDA process, and when they build a portfolio, they are so proud of it because they start to realize what they know about early childhood education.”

The educators also have fun while going through the CDA coursework, Deanna explains. “We don’t just hand out books and make educators come at night to a lecture hall. Instead, we worked with an IT specialist to make taking the CDA coursework convenient and interactive. Together, we wrote scripts and created videos that follow the different subjects covered in Essentials.” The videos, as Diana points out, “begin by letting you know what you’re going to learn and reading the material aloud. Then there’s a quiz about what the video covered. For example, a video on safety in the classroom might include drag-and-drop pictures that portray the different components of a first-aid kit. And if you put all the right things in the kit, the screen will fill up with confetti when you complete the chapter.”

This interactive feature of the college’s CDA program allows educators to do their coursework at home on weekends or when their children have gone to bed. The ability to work at their own pace builds success rates among the many educators who are enrolled in the program while also holding a full-time job. Yet one-on-one interaction with an actual person still matters, so Diana and the mentor coaches work closely with educators at every step of the CDA process. “If I’m coaching a candidate,” Diana says, “I begin by meeting them face to face, then go on to build a relationship with them and do regular follow-ups to find out how they’re feeling about the program.”

Diana’s services to the educators go even further, as Deanna explains. “She helps them make sure their CDA portfolios are ready when they apply for the credential. She helps them do their online application and she helps them apply for a grant from the Nebraska Department of Education to cover the cost of the CDA exam. She helps the educators find a Professional Development Specialist and makes sure they have a verification visit,” Deanna says. “When educators obtain their CDA, Diana goes to the college’s records department to make sure they receive the 19.5 college credits toward an associate degree in education.” When you look at this long list of contributions, it’s clear that “Diana goes above and beyond the requirements of her job,” as Katherine agrees.

“I do as much as I can for the educators I serve,” Diana explains, “because the educators become almost like family members for me. They need my support because most of them are single moms who work full time and don’t have anyone else to give them support. So, I meet the educators at coffee shops to answer any questions they might have, and I hold weekly workshops where the educators can show up with their kids. I provide activities for the children while the moms do their CDA homework or work with me on any roadblocks they might face in getting through their CDA courses. I do everything I can to help them because getting them through the program is what matters most to me.” And Diana’s support doesn’t end when candidates finish their CDA.

“I had an educator named Veronica who finished her CDA with us about two years ago,” Diana says. “Then she received a scholarship from T.E.A.C.H. Nebraska to earn her associate degree. T.E.A.C.H. reached out to me to ask if I would continue coaching Veronica in college and she’s in the second year of her degree at MCC. Veronica is attending some of Katherine and Deanna’s classes, so we all work together to answer any questions Veronica may have about her courses,” Diana says.

The team of three is also joining to support Jane, an educator at Kids Can Community Center, where Diana serves as coordinator for the infant/toddler teachers. “Jane completed her CDA in Spanish and then decided to enroll in the associate degree program at MCC,” Diana recalls. “The program posed a bit of a challenge since it’s in English and Jane’s first language is Spanish. But Jane was determined to try, and she has bloomed since beginning the program. Like Veronica, Jane is taking courses with Deanna and Katherine,” Diana says, “and I act as the go-between to make sure Jane has all the support that she needs to earn her degree.”

Teamwork and relationships are the keys to building pathways for educators at MCC. “The relationships between educators and mentor coaches are a big part of the program, so we make sure to pair educators with someone who can help them stay the course to completion,” Diana explains. “We also depend on each other to give candidates all the support they need,” Deanna adds. “We work together to make educators feel valued, heard and confident that they can go as far as they’d like. We want to open possibilities for people.”