Early Childhood Equity

• Early Childhood Intervention Personnel Center for Equity ECIPCE – The ECIPCE at the University of Connecticut will develop an equity framework to enhance early childhood intervention personnel preparation programs of study to improve outcomes for all infants and young children with disabilities and increase the number of early childhood intervention personnel and faculty from racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
• AACTE’s Holmes Program – The Holmes Program supports scholars who self-identify as racially and ethnically diverse and are pursuing graduate degrees (master’s and doctoral) or post-doctoral fellowships in education at AACTE member institutions.

The goal is to work toward meeting the demand for more childhood leaders and practitioners with the requisite skills and knowledge to meet the needs of children ages birth to five. In order to meet this demand, there must be a sufficient number of early education and special education programs, and those programs must have recruiting and retaining systems to support these professionals. The two primary outcomes of this project that support its goal are:

• Providing and funding professional development to a cohort of twelve Doctoral candidates (Ed.D. or Ph.D.) Holmes Scholars whose program and research is specialized in early childhood special education or those in early childhood who plan to specialize on children with disabilities.
• Authoring a report, Landscape Analysis of Early Childhood and Special Education Degree Programs and Graduates that will analyze trends in the number of programs and graduates within early childhood and special education and compare them to the demand for professionals that can provide these services.

• Enhanced professional development experiences. In addition to professional development (PD) provided by the project partners, Holmes scholars will have access to funding to support their outside PD (i.e., conferences)
• Enhanced networking and support experiences. In addition to the support of their cohort of 12, the selected Holmes Scholars will receive special mentoring sessions from experts in the field. The cohort will commence in fall 2023 and continue through fall 2027.
• Opportunities to support research. Holmes scholars who are interested will have the option to participate in portions of the research and writing for the report, Landscape Analysis of Early Childhood and Special Education Degree Programs and Graduates.

• Participants must be an active participant of a Holmes Program
• Participants will include doctoral candidates in early childhood special education (Ed.D. and Ph.D.). Other individuals in doctoral programs in special education who plan to specialize in early childhood, or in early childhood programs who plan to specialize in children with disabilities may also apply.

Each scholar will receive $2,200 in financial support to attend conferences and events relevant to the Holmes Program and early childhood special education per year.