Early Childhood Educator CDA Membership
Strengthening the Fairfax County Early Childhood Educator Workforce Pipeline through the Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential Mentoring Program
- Developing a multi-year program designed to improve the quality of early childhood education in Fairfax County, VA set to begin in 2021, running through 2023
- Partnering with Fairfax Futures and Fairfax County’s Office For Children
- New pilot program will support the professional learning and development of the early childhood educator workforce and thus further improve the success of children in kindergarten and beyond
- The mentoring program will look to identify CDA candidates and then help guide these cohorts to successfully attain the credential
- Program is directly linked to the Fairfax County Equitable School Readiness Strategic Plan and to the J2W Foundation Strategic Plan IMPACT.2023
“I am very excited and happy to start my CDA. This is life-changing for me. I feel so blessed that I am surrounded by wonderful people who are working on doing great things and supporting early childhood educators so we can provide the best care to our young children and future leaders. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!” – Aspiring CDA educator, June 2021
Measures of Performance
For more information, please see Data Analysis section at the bottom of the page
Data Analysis
- Goal: To pilot a new early childhood educator program to support the professional learning and development of the ECE workforce, with the intent to further improve the success of children in kindergarten and beyond. The mentoring program will look to identify CDA candidates and then help guide these cohorts with a professional consulting team to successfully attain the credential.
- The CDA Mentoring Program is being implemented by the Fairfax County-based Fairfax Futures non-profit organization, in partnership with Fairfax County’s Office for Children.
- In the middle of its last year, the program is currently measuring several output measures:
- The year-end target was to maintain a cohort of approximately 45 educators, with a mix of both home-based and center-based participants. By the end of 2023, the cohort maintained a total of 34 educators (21 from home-based programs and 13 from centers. The program did graduate 14 participants who earned their CDA, and lost a few educators over the course of the program for a variety of reasons. We will continue to bring in new applicants, with a balanced ratio of those that need intensive support and those that need more targeted guidance. This metric scored a “yellow.”
- The year-end target was to bring in a mix of 50% Spanish-speaking educators. The cohort currently has 53%, earning a “green” score. Overall, the program has 79% educators from the English Language Learner population.
- The year-end target was to bring in at least 50% of the educators from Opportunity Neighborhoods (considered areas of greater poverty). The initial currently has 65% of the cohort drawn from ONs, earning a “green” score.
- We saw a rise in the number of participants completing the critical CDA portfolio piece (35%). Our year-end goal was 20%, which we did not achieve, earning a “green” score.
- We developed and launched two outcome metric surveys at the end of 2022 to our CDA population with Fairfax County to assess how the educators feel the CDA has helped both their own professional development as well as how the credential may impact student performance.
- Baseline data on how educators perceive the CDA helps, or greatly helps, developing their career goals scored a 95%. We will assess again at the end of the program in the summer 2024.
- Baseline data on how educators perceive the CDA positively impacts, or greatly impacts, the lives of the children taught scored a 94%. We will also assess again at the end of the program in the summer 2024.