Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/center-directors-are-doing-more-than-running-a-business/5023938/
Weekdays are hectic for Jennifer Ladner, a center director in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Educare center that she runs provides early childhood education to 160 children from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. She’s in and out of meetings most days, making time for weekly one-on-ones with each of the people she supervises to reflect on their work and address questions or frustrations they may have. She also sits in on interdisciplinary team meetings in which staff sets and discusses goals for each child and his or her family. The rest of her day is usually spent completing paperwork, managing the budget, and making sure the center is in compliance with the various sets of regulations to which it must adhere. She also plans professional learning for staff, which she tries to incorporate into everything they do.
Ladner’s days are long but she knows that her job is important. “We have high expectations of eliminating the achievement gap. We can’t just be child care; we have to be more than that,” she says.
It’s a noble goal that all early educators should share, especially those serving the most vulnerable children. However, some might not realize what an important role Ladner and other ...