About Us
What Is the EarlyEdU Alliance®?
The EarlyEdU Alliance brings together higher education faculty and policymakers to expand high-quality early learning opportunities for young children by transforming teacher preparation and professional development.
The patchwork-nature of early childhood education degree and certificate programs is a bottleneck to increasing access to high-quality early learning. The Alliance breaks down barriers to create accessible and equitable pathways for early learning educators to learn and grow in their careers. We offer courses that transform theory into practice, an innovative technology platform that enables competency-based learning, and technical assistance to design early childhood education workforce systems that promote high-quality instruction and continuous improvement.
Since 2015, we have partnered with a wide range of institutions of higher education, including tribal colleges and universities, and Hispanic-serving institutions. Our collaborative, flexible approach helps Alliance members meet the needs of today’s diverse early childhood workforce so that they can improve outcomes for young children.
What Do We Offer?
We provide relevant, competency-based higher education courses that prepare working and prospective early childhood teachers to succeed in the classroom. Our innovative model puts early childhood theory and evidence-based strategies into action.
Alliance members affiliated with an institution of higher education have a choice of engaging, media-rich online and in-person courses. The courses are regularly updated with the latest research in early childhood education. Alliance faculty will contribute to making our courses more relevant and responsive to institutional and student needs.
The Coaching Companion is integrated into all online courses. With this video sharing and coaching feedback tool, students take the lessons they learn in the college classroom into their own early childhood classrooms.
A Collaboration with the Office of Head Start
The EarlyEdU Alliance® began as part of the National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning (NCQTL), which was funded by a grant from the Office of Head Start (OHS). Led by the University of Washington’s College of Education, NCQTL brought together leading early childhood education experts from across the country to improve teaching practices in Head Start programs.
Learn more about the Office of Head Start's role with the EarlyEdU Alliance in the Early Childhood Workforce Supports info sheet.
Working Together Across the Nation
The EarlyEdU Alliance represents a diverse, high-quality early learning professional community and actively seeks additional partnerships with tribal colleges, historically black colleges and universities, and Hispanic-serving institutions. Led by Cultivate Learning, at the University of Washington, meet our team here.