A revised Core Body of Knowledge will be released in 2025. Professional development providers, coaches, trainers and higher education leaders in early childhood will adopt the revised Core Body of Knowledge beginning in 2026 to inform professional learning for early childhood professionals.
Over the next few months, we’ll be providing you with a sneak peek of what you can expect from the fourth edition of the Core Body of Knowledge, which was developed to complement and be compatible with current research and state and national standards that align with our best understanding of learning and development in early childhood, including the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators.
What is the Core Body of Knowledge?
The Core Body of Knowledge: New York State’s Core Competencies for Early Childhood Educators provides a base of shared knowledge and skills meant to unify New York State’s early childhood workforce. It recognizes what all adults who work with young children need to know and be able to do to support children’s development and learning and provide high-quality early education.
New York uses the Core Body of Knowledge to align professional learning experiences for early childhood educators and quality improvement initiatives for early childhood programs.
The Core Body of Knowledge can be used to:
- Inform and align the content of higher education programs and ongoing professional learning.
- Guide program leaders in identifying areas for staff professional learning and creating and reviewing job descriptions.
- Aid training organizations in developing and aligning professional learning strategies and opportunities.
- Support local and state agencies in their quest to develop policy and initiatives and make funding decisions that promote the competency of early childhood professionals.
- Support public and private investments, incentives, and initiatives that encourage and facilitate professional competency.
The Core Body of Knowledge was last revised and updated in 2012 by the New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute in collaboration with the New York State Early Childhood Advisory Council.
Who will benefit from adopting the revised Core Body of Knowledge?
Directors and program leaders are encouraged to reflect on the competencies and consider how policies and practices within their program support educators’ increasing competence. The competencies will help program leaders avoid a “one-size-fits-all” approach to professional learning. Each educator needs a developmental approach, individualized learning, and consistent reflective supervision.
Higher education faculty will want to use the Core Body of Knowledge to inform coursework and programming, including fieldwork and evaluation of student competence. Courses that have already been developed can be aligned to the Core Body of Knowledge. Early childhood education departments might consider the full landscape of their offerings and identify which areas of the Core Body of Knowledge are not addressed. Such a survey might prove useful for future course development. As an assignment, early childhood education students might put together a portfolio that demonstrates their understanding of essential competencies. Faculty advisors are encouraged to use the Core Body of Knowledge to guide their observations and discussions with student teachers.
Providers of professional development will want to use the Core Body of Knowledge to reflect on their knowledge and skills and to plan for their own professional learning. They will want to consider the core competencies and related expectations, knowledge, skills, and dispositions when identifying outcomes, planning learning objectives, and organizing content for professional learning. Coaches will find core competencies a helpful starting point for assessing coachees’ general areas of competency and to provide clear direction for relationship-based professional development that targets specific practices and strategies.
