Press

“What we see in the data is an opportunity to intentionally create meaningful learning opportunities and career pathways that support educators and enable them to flourish,” said Teaching Strategies CEO John Olsen. “When we support educators where they are, we support children, families, and society at large.”

Access to professional development is key to early childhood educators job satisfaction. “The findings confirm what we have suspected: If we are to retain passionate educators, we must not only fairly compensate them for their critical work but we must make high-quality, flexible opportunities for professional growth more accessible,” said Teaching Strategies CEO John Olsen in a statement.

In a new survey of over 2,300 early childhood educators, conducted by Teaching Strategies, educators who have access to high-quality professional development are less likely to say they plan to leave the field.

Teaching Strategies has released a free toolkit of resources to support early childhood educators prepare for the 2022-2023 school year. The toolkit is designed for all teachers, despite their level of experience, but will prove especially helpful for teachers entering the profession.

NAEYC’s updated “Developmentally Appropriate Practice” position statement emphasizes the importance of engaged, joyful learning. In this piece, Nicol Russel, Vice President of Implementation at Teaching Strategies and mother to a 5-year-old daughter, shares an example from her own life that demonstrates what engaged, joyful learning looks like during a time when many early learning programs around the country are struggling, and educators, families, and children are navigating virtual school and social distancing.

Children born in the COVID era could be talking, walking and interacting later and less frequently. Experts like Nicol Russell, vice president of implementation research at Teaching Strategies, tell USA Today that early intervention is critical and provide tips on what to do if you think a child isn’t hitting recommended developmental milestones.

Young children who have known little other than a pandemic world are struggling to socialize and regulate their emotions, writes reporter Alia Wong for USA Today. Nicol Russell, vice president of implementation research for Teaching Strategies, is among the early childhood experts to weigh in on what to do about challenging behaviors and how to acclimate children to a post-pandemic society.

The Creative Curriculum® Cloud has been named “Enhanced Curriculum Solution of the Year” by EdTech Breakthrough. The annual EdTech Breakthrough Awards honor excellence and recognize innovation across educational technology.

Teaching Strategies has launched a first-of-its-kind membership program that will enable early childhood educators to access live and on-demand online courses, including all required training to earn key credentials; a community to exchange best practices with peers; a dashboard to personalize and track individual professional learning journeys and certificates; and expert advice. By creating self-paced pathways to upward career mobility and providing teachers with resources along the way, the new membership aims to elevate the early childhood education profession and to combat teacher burnout and turnover, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

At ASU+GSV, the largest global education technology conference, Teaching Strategies CEO John Olsen speaks with Education Week about the importance of celebrating positive classroom moments: “We’re just trying to put tools and content in place to remind the teachers that what they’re doing is really important, and they’re doing it… Sometimes it’s very simple things like that.”

In this Newsweek column, author Kevin Chavous highlights why it’s important for preschool teachers to recognize and address children who have experienced trauma—and how to care for themselves along the way. He chats with Kai-lee Berke, an author of many of Teaching Strategies' curriculum and assessment resources and co-founder of Noni Educational Solutions and its Noni for Teachers app.