Posts from 2026

Newsletters

New Toolkit and Field Insights From The Collaborative

This spring has brought new opportunities to learn, reflect, and build momentum for change. In this issue, we’re sharing a new organizing toolkit designed to support narrative change efforts, reflections on investing in the early childhood workforce from a longtime field leader, and updates from partners advancing innovative strategies across the country.   Continued

Insights

Make a Smart, Big Bet on Workforce

By Michael Burke   Looking for the biggest “return” on your philanthropic investment? Invest in early childhood. Want to make a game-changing investment within early childhood? Invest in the early childhood workforce.   It’s for these reasons that I’ve been proud to be a part of the Early Educator Investment Collaborative (The Collaborative), a group… Continued

Newsletters

Milestones and Momentum: The Latest from The Collaborative

In this issue, you’ll find insights from Dr. Ola J. Friday, Executive Director of The Early Educator Investment Collaborative, key takeaways from our In Our Hands campaign, highlights from recent convenings, and examples of continued state-level momentum to advance compensation for early educators. Read on to see how this work is taking shape across the field.   Continued

Insights

The Future of the Early Education Workforce: Looking Back to Look Forward

In 2015, a landmark report by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council opened a new lane on the road towards providing all of our children with high-quality early learning experiences. The report, Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation, tied together the science showing that the early… Continued

Newsletters

Progress through Partnership

Last week, the Compensation Capacity-Building Community of Practice  (CoP) officially kicked off its 2026 convenings. Since its launch in 2023, this initiative has grown into a $11.4 million effort to help state and local teams build the infrastructure needed for sustained ECE wages and benefits. Led by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC… Continued

Newsletters

The Work Continues: Lessons from A Decade of Change

Last fall, The Collaborative commissioned reflection papers and hosted webinars exploring the past decade in the early childhood education workforce since the release of Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation and its companion piece, Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education. In this email, hear directly from the leaders who shared… Continued