Early Childhood Leadership and Policy Network (ECLPN)
The Early Childhood Leadership and Policy Network was developed out of collaboration between early childhood faculty at University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University (NC A&T), University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC), and Wake Technical Community College (Wake Tech).
Our vision is to create a network of university and community leaders that work together to facilitate leadership development and affect policies that promote high quality early childhood education for all children.
The collaboration between NC A&T, UNCG, UNCC, and Wake Tech as the originators of the Network represents one of our fundamental principles, which is to promote informed, effective, diverse leadership that is representative of the children and families served by the early childhood system. The current disproportion between the culture and ethnicity of traditional leadership in the field and the children served has limited the representation of the needs and strengths of children of color.
We are intentionally connecting policy and leadership in order to create the maximum potential for early childhood policies that are informed by both research and the expertise of professionals. In our view, this necessarily means increasing the strength and capacity of a diverse, multi-level group of professionals to shape public policy and promote effective early childhood educational practices.
