Providing Equitable, Accessible Learning Experiences
WestEd is widely recognized for delivering high-quality, equitable, and accessible learning experiences for the early childhood workforce. Our offerings provide early childhood educators, in-home care providers, trainers, and administrators with tools and training to support a culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse population of young children and their families.
Our learning opportunities include the full range of birth-to-five content, which covers mental health, early learning, childcare, intervention, multilingual learning, and family engagement. Our resources to support learning are available in English, Spanish, and Chinese.
We invite you to work with us to strengthen equitable opportunities for your early childhood workforce and the children and families they serve.
- Infant/Toddler Programs
- Child Care Centers
- Preschool Programs
- Home-Based Care
- Transitional Kindergarten
Developing High-Quality Professional Development & Resources
Our approach to early learning and care resources, including assessment tools and strategies, supports the efforts of diverse early childhood educators and care providers and facilitates equitable, high-quality individualized learning and care for young children. We develop facilitator- and self-directed training and technical assistance held in-person and online with services that include coaching, live webinars, videos, and other engaging resources.
Our course materials are visually appealing, interactive, easy to navigate, and accessible to all early learning and care providers. We base our content and learning experiences on observing, documenting, and reflecting on play and learning to allow for respectful consideration of each child’s developing abilities, individual strengths and needs, and family culture and language.
We develop workforce development processes, resources, and strategies designed to:
- Facilitate equitable, high-quality individualized learning and care
- Support diversity in early learning and care environments
- Embrace observation, documentation, and reflection on play and learning
- Consider developing abilities, individual strengths and needs, and family culture and language
Our Work in Action
In 1985, the California Department of Education (CDE) initiated an effort to address the unique needs of infants and toddlers in collaboration with WestEd. From its inception, the Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) has been a collaborative effort of CDE, Early Learning and Care Division (ELCD), and WestEd. PITC has grown to become the major provider in the creation, distribution, and delivery of infant/toddler care materials (video and print) and training/professional learning (institutes, graduate events, conferences, outreach, and community-based training of care teachers). PITC has provided professional development institutes in 20 states as well as for Early Head Start.
