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• To meet all of the requirements for licensing, USDA, rating scales, quality rating systems, and accreditation.

• To be leaders, accountants, managers, cooks, teachers, bus drivers, a shoulder to cry on, and a rock to depend on.

• To produce excellent quality programs with insufficient funds, and families unable to pay.

• To handle the fears and tears, and hope and joy, and smiles that stay with you forever.

• To appreciate what it really takes to do this job, and that absolutely �" no kidding �" just ‘anybody’ can’t do it!

Slowly, Holly sat forward then softly said, “There’s so much to learn, so much to do!”

Holly was in the first course of a six-course credential on child care administration at the University of Wisconsin�"Milwaukee. Like more than 75% of her colleagues, Holly started out as a teacher. She has an AA degree in Early Childhood Education and taught in a three-year-old classroom for four years before she was asked to be the director. Her degree program included an overview course on administration with few specifics, and she wasn’t planning on being a director when shetook that course. She used the knowledge she had built as a teacher to guide her in her transition to director. She has learned a lot on the job in the eight years she has been a director, but often wishes that she didn’t have to always make it up as she goes along.

Holly is not alone. Despite the importance of the position, most child care directors have had no formal education in administration.

Directors as ‘Gatekeepers to Quality’

Child care administrators are important. Paula Jorde Bloom (1992) refers to the director as the ‘gatekeeper to quality’ and Gwen Morgan (2000) writes of the director as the ‘key to quality.’ The child care director is responsible for every aspect of the early care and education program. What emerges is the picture of a complex job with an overlay of day-to-day detail, and a need to communicate and collaborate at every level with clarity and precision. The role is multi-faceted, ranging from basic sanitation to educational, fiscal, and legal responsibilities with far-reaching implications. It requires skill in communication, decision making, resource management, and leadership.

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