The CDA Prep Guide, Fourth Edition: The Complete Review Manual

Introduction

EARNING A CHILD DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE (CDA) CREDENTIAL is a valuable way to begin or continue your journey in lifelong learning. You may be just starting out as an Early Childhood educator or you may have years of experience in the field. Either way, the process you are about to begin will enrich your work with young children.

Becoming an Early Childhood professional takes commitment and a desire to do one’s best to meet the quality standards that define membership in a particular profession. What you don’t need is a feeling of frustration or confusion. The step-by-step instruction in this book will help make the entire CDA process easier and less stressful.

About the Fourth Edition

In the interest of providing CDA candidates with the most up-to-date help and information possible, this fourth edition of The CDA Prep Guide reflects recent changes to the Council for Professional Recognition’s CDA National Credentialing Program.

The entire new process is integrated, with each part interwoven with the others in some way, requiring a good deal of reflection—about what has been included in the Professional Portfolio and about the candidate’s own philosophy of teaching young children.

Candidates will create a Professional Portfolio. The Resource Collection is again arranged to align with each of the Competency Standards.

The CDA Professional Portfolio is now a resource you can actually use in your work with young children and families. Feel free to continue to add resources to the portfolio after earning your credential.

Candidates will locate resources, such as translation services and agencies that work with children who have special needs. These resources are grouped together into one section of the Professional Portfolio designated as the Family Resource Guide.

The CDA candidate is expected to take on more personal responsibility in the credentialing process. Locating a Professional Development Specialist (also called the PD Specialist) and scheduling the CDA Exam and verification visit are now tasks for the candidate to complete. The candidate will also review the Family Questionnaires that she has collected and will interpret the feedback as it applies to her practices. At the verification visit, it will be the candidate who reflects on her professional strengths and areas for future growth in order to set personal goals and then strategies for meeting them. This personal responsibility gives the candidate an opportunity to demonstrate the characteristics of a professional in the field—making decisions, reflecting and evaluating, and taking steps to improve practices.

This fourth edition of The CDA Prep Guide will help you navigate the new CDA process and become comfortable with it, so you can accurately complete the requirements and be fully ready for a successful verification visit.

Pursuing a CDA Credential

CDA candidates have had varying amounts of child care training, through college classes, in-service trainings, or attendance at a variety of workshops. Many are working on a degree or have already earned a degree in a related area of study. Those who are new to the field may have just begun learning about child development and educating young children through their CDA training hours.

The reasons early child care and education providers are interested in pursuing a CDA Credential are as varied as their backgrounds. Some who are already working in the field may need to earn their CDA to retain their positions, advance into lead teaching positions, or become directors. Others who are just entering the field may need a CDA to be considered for a position.

New research, which continues to show the importance of the early years in terms of children’s development, offers strong motivation to provide quality care and education in early childhood programs. The only way to accomplish this is to ensure that care providers meet nationally recognized standards in their work with young children.

The CDA program provides the means to assess and credential child care providers on the basis of their work with young children, in their particular workplace setting, with the age group of children they teach.

Aside from meeting mandates or enhancing personal marketability, going through the CDA process will reward you with confidence and new insight into working with young children. In the process, you will likely gain a sense of personal satisfaction in knowing you have the knowledge and tools to do your professional best in your career as an early childhood educator. Completing the CDA Credential is also a great first step in your journey toward continued professional development and lifelong learning.

Regardless of your point of origin—center-based caregiver, family child care provider, center director, or potential early childhood professional—this book will help you understand and complete the CDA process.

You may be in a formal CDA preparatory program or you may be working on your own. Whichever the case, you will be sure to appreciate the easy-to-understand answers, suggestions, and support.

You are embarking on a journey through a series of steps required to earn your CDA Credential. To do this, you will need to complete the 120 clock hours of training, gather documentation, submit the application, take an exam, and participate in the verification visit with a PD Specialist. When this process is completed, your abilities as a primary care and education provider for young children will be substantiated by this professional, nationally recognized credential, suitable for framing. Be prepared to work hard, learn much, and be extremely proud of your accomplishments.

How to Use This Guide

The information in this book is intended to supplement the materials you have received from the Council for Professional Recognition in The Child Development Associate National Credentialing Program and CDA Competency Standards book. It is not intended as a substitute, nor is it simply another version of it. If you have not, as yet, ordered the Competency Standards book, you will want to do so before beginning to use The CDA Prep Guide. The Competency Standards book will be blue, yellow, or green, depending on your particular setting and age-level endorsement. At the back of each Competency Standards book are perforated pages including an Application Form, the Family Questionnaire for duplicating, and the documents needed for the verification visit.

It is assumed that you have completed the required 120 clock hours of formal child care training and are ready to begin the next stages of CDA assessment.

Not every Child Development Associate (CDA) candidate is working in the same setting or with children of the same ages. For this reason, not every CDA candidate will be using every section of this book—only the sections that pertain to her particular situation. Some of the information is of a general nature and is important for all CDA candidates to understand; however, other information is specific to center-based preschool, center-based infant/toddler, or family child care providers.

The purpose of this book is to simplify the required tasks of CDA documentation and assessment into a step-by-step process, whether you are in a formal CDA preparatory class or working through this process on your own. You will appreciate the user-friendly format, helpful suggestions, and accurate information that will enable you to be successful.

Easy-to-understand assistance is provided as you take the following steps:

•  Assemble the Resource Collection for the Professional Portfolio

•  Compose the six Reflective Statements of Competence

•  Distribute and collect the Family Questionnaires

•  Select a Professional Development Specialist

•  Prepare yourself and your setting for the observation

•  Complete the application

•  Prepare for the CDA Exam

•  Prepare for the verification visit

After earning your CDA Credential, you can continue to use this book to renew your CDA credential, to get a CDA for a different setting, and to decide how to continue your professional development.

What Is a CDA?

CDA stands for Child Development Associate. This is a person who has successfully completed the CDA assessment process and has been awarded the CDA Credential. She has demonstrated the ability to meet the specific needs of children, work with parents and other adults, and promote and nurture children’s social, emotional, physical, and intellectual growth in a child development program. The CDA has shown competence in her ability to meet the CDA Competency Standards through her work in a center-based, home visitor, family child care, bilingual, or special education setting (Council for Professional Recognition 2006, 2013).

When and How Did It All Begin?

The Child Development Associate (CDA) National Credentialing Program began in 1971, through the cooperative efforts of the federal government and the early childhood care and education profession, as a result of concern about the quality of child care in this country. Throughout the 1960s, a dramatic increase occurred in the number of children in care programs as many mothers entered the workforce, but there was no deliberate and organized effort to keep track of the quality of care these children were receiving. This became increasingly important, as major research studies at the time continued to indicate how critical the care that a child received in the early years was to the child’s subsequent development. The purpose of the program was to assess and credential early childhood care and education professionals on the basis of performance. The program was funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families.

For the first ten years, the CDA program was directed by a coalition of early childhood professional associations, including Bank Street College of Education. In 1979, the program added bilingual Competency Standards and assessment requirements to the system, so candidates in bilingual programs could also be assessed.

At first, the program only assessed workers in center-based preschool programs that served children ages three to five. Between 1985 and 1989, the CDA assessment system was expanded to include caregivers in home visitor and family child care programs.

In the spring of 1985, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) began managing the CDA program and set up a separate entity of the organization to administer the program nationally. It was called the Council for Professional Recognition. The Council took on complete responsibility for the program in the fall of 1985. As the result of three years of study and review, the procedures for assessment and national standards for the delivery of CDA training were developed. The Council continues to conduct research on the effectiveness, relevance, and affordability of the credentialing program, periodically making revisions (Council for Professional Recognition 2006, 2013).

Beginning in 2011, the Council expanded its scope as not only an assessment organization, but also as an organization promoting professional development, with the CDA Credential as the first step in this process.

In 2013 the Council introduced CDA 2.0. The original Competency Standards and the accompanying thirteen Functional Areas have remained the same, but the procedures and process of assessment have changed significantly.

This new process is much more integrated, with each part relating to the others. It also provides opportunity for the CDA candidate to reflect upon her training, her experience, and feedback from others about her work with young children. Instead of just being a means toward an end, a credential, the CDA process itself has become a valuable professional development experience. In a way, it has become more developmentally appropriate for early childhood professionals—valuing process over product!

This credentialing process has also shifted more responsibility to the candidate, who will need to meet specific deadlines, locate a Professional Development Specialist (called the PD Specialist), and schedule her own verification visit and CDA Exam. By allowing the candidate to take charge of her own CDA, the Council is encouraging her to be a responsible and goal-directed professional.

Today candidates can earn a CDA in over twenty-five languages, including American Sign Language.

How Many People Have a CDA Credential?

Since 1975 the total number of caregivers who have achieved a CDA Credential is well over 800,000. As a result of an increased demand for trained and qualified staff by employers in both the public and private sectors, more than 20,000 child care providers apply for the CDA Credential each year. In addition, all fifty states plus the District of Columbia, the US territories of Guam, the Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico include the CDA Credential as part of their child care licensing regulations. The CDA is required for all educators working in military-based early education settings.

Who Earns a CDA?

More than half of CDAs are between the ages of twenty-six and forty, with a continued increase in the number of CDAs over the age of forty. Of those people who have earned a CDA, 98 percent are female. However, more men are becoming part of the early childhood workforce and are pursuing a CDA. For example, Encuentros Teacher Academy at California State University San Marcos invited male high school students to learn about becoming early childhood educators. During the first year, in 2017, only eleven students participated, but the program has more than tripled due to favorable recommendations from previous participants (Warth 2017).

Those who are CDAs tend to be more diverse with regard to race/ethnicity. Sixty percent of CDAs are earned for preschool, 27 percent for infant/toddler, and 12 percent for family child care. Ninety-two percent of those earning a CDA remained in the field, with nearly 78 percent working in full-time positions. Forty-three percent of CDAs reported earning a salary increase and 26 percent received a promotion. (Information Resources Management Association 2019).

Why Is Getting a CDA Important?

Working through the CDA process can be worthwhile and rewarding. In so doing, a candidate can benefit through these achievements:

•  earn a nationally recognized Credential

•  evaluate his or her own work as it compares to national standards and improve on skills

•  receive one-on-one advice, support, and feedback from early childhood professionals who have experience working with young children and knowledge of child development

•  improve upon existing skills to the benefit of young children, as well as the candidate

(Council for Professional Recognition 2006)

The field of early childhood education is a vibrant one, showing much potential for increased employment opportunity in the future. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that at least 27,000 additional child care workers will be needed in the next ten years. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2019).

Research indicates the critical importance of the first years in a child’s life and that investing in these years is important and beneficial, not only to children, but also to families, employers, and our nation. The demand for quality child care is increasing. Earning a CDA can put you into a good position for a promising career as a trained early childhood professional (NAEYC 2017).

The Council for Professional Recognition has partnered with high school career centers across the nation to enable students to graduate workforce-ready by earning their CDA credential while still in high school.

Most states now recognize the importance of raising their standards for early childhood education staff. For example, since assistant teachers typically spend as much time with children as lead teachers, they are required to have a CDA.

The CDA credentialing system aligns with the quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) for early care and education. Under this system, child care programs have the opportunity to earn progressively more stars as they reach higher standards in certain key areas, the most important of which is the professionalism of early childhood education staff.

For example, in Tennessee, in order to reach the three-star level, at least half of the educators in a program must have three years of early childhood experience and be enrolled in CDA training (Cannon et al. 2016).

In Alabama, in order to get a four-star rating, at least one teacher in every classroom needs a CDA (Alabama Department of Human Resources 2015).

The CDA credential enables centers to boost ratings and provide the opportunity for their teachers to improve their practice, and it serves as a starting point toward continued professional development.

Who Can Apply for a CDA?

Early childhood care and education workers who are in center-based, family child care, or home visitor programs can be evaluated by the Council. These persons need to have some education and experience in early child care and meet several requirements, specifically, these:

•  be eighteen years of age or older

•  hold a high school diploma or GED

•  be a high school junior or senior enrolled in a high school career/technical program in early childhood education

•  have 480 hours of experience working with young children in the same age group and setting as the CDA application

•  have 120 clock hours of formal child care education

(Council for Professional Recognition 2013)

What Kind of Formal Child Care Education Is Needed?

The 120 clock hours of formal child care education must include at least 10 hours in each of the following subject areas:

•  planning a safe, healthy environment (safety, first aid, health, nutrition, space planning, materials and equipment, play)

•  steps to enhance children’s physical and intellectual development (large- and small-muscle development, language, discovery, art, music, mathematics, social studies, science, technology, and dual-language learning)

•  positive ways to support children’s social and emotional development (self-esteem, independence, self-regulation, socialization, cultural identity, and conflict resolution)

•  strategies to establish productive relationships with families (parent involvement, home visits, conferences, referrals, and communication strategies)

•  strategies to manage an effective program operation (planning, record keeping, reporting, and community services)

•  maintaining a commitment to professionalism (advocacy, ethical practices, workforce issues, professional development, goal setting, and networking)

•  observing and recording children’s behavior (tools and strategies for objective information collection, assessment of children’s behavior, learning to plan curriculum, individualize teaching, developmental delays, intervention strategies, and individual education plans)

•  principles of child growth and development (developmental milestones from birth to age five, cultural influences on development, individual variation including children with special needs, and an understanding of early brain development)

The training can be for college credit or for no credit. Formal courses that cover the previously mentioned topics might have titles such as these:

•  Child Growth and Development

•  Health, Safety, and Nutrition in Early Childhood Programs

•  Guidance Techniques for Early Childhood

•  Introduction to the Early Childhood Education Profession

•  Emerging Literacy in Young Children

•  Early Childhood Curriculum

You may need to look at the catalog description for a specific course to see what topics it covers. These hours of training must be obtained from an organization or agency that has expertise in training early childhood teachers:

•  four-year colleges and universities

•  two-year junior and community colleges

•  technical and vocational schools

•  early childhood education or child care programs that provide training, such as Family Services, school districts, Head Start, or employer-sponsored in-service