Spotlight On: Professional Development Registries
By Phyllis Kalifeh, President and C.E.O. of the Children's Forum
Across the country, many states have created professional development
registries for early care and education practitioners to serve as a
central repository for information related to credentials and professional
development. According to the National Registry Alliance, there are
approximately 26 states that have a professional development registry.
Recognizing that data collection and maintenance is often a tedious
process for the early childhood workforce, a registry serves to simplify
recordkeeping for practitioners by recording and verifying credentials
and tracking ongoing professional development into one database record.
It serves, essentially, to provide a record of credentials and
professional development transcript accessible to the practitioner as
needed; thereby reducing the need for multiple pieces of paper to be
maintained.
Professional development registries also serve to inform policymakers
on the status and needs of the early childhood workforce through
aggregated data collection and reporting. Many registries contain
employment histories of practitioners which help to evaluate turnover
in the field - an issue that obviously impacts the quality of care for
young children. Real data can then be used to inform policy discussions
around issues such as compensation, training and education, and turnover
in early childhood to develop joint strategies for meeting the complex
needs of families and the early childhood workforce.
Understanding concerns of identity theft related to the collection of
social security numbers, most registries employ some alternative system
for identification of practitioners and ensure encryption of confidential
data. These are essential elements in any good system. Further, professional
development registries are voluntary in most states and participation is
not required.
Though Florida does not have a statewide comprehensive Professional
Development Registry, some counties have moved ahead to develop one. Palm
Beach is the first county in the state to launch a Registry and it serves
as an integral part of their overall professional development system.
Learning from their experiences, the Children's Forum created a Registry
in Miami-Dade County as a part of the Quality Counts initiative. Other
counties are expected to follow suit and provide this valuable resource
for practitioners in their communities.
For additional information on professional development registries,
visit the National Registry Alliance at
www.registryalliance.org/regmap.html.
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