Growing through Leadership Connections™

Marie Masterson, Ph.D. • March 15, 2022

This document may be printed, photocopied, and disseminated freely with attribution. All content is the property of the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership.

Overcoming Challenge with Courage


The McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership equips leaders with key strategies for success and empowers the profession as a catalyst for positive change. As part of this mission, our founder, Paula Jorde Bloom, established the enduring legacy of the Leadership Connections Conference. For 21 years, this vital gathering of decision-makers, leaders, policymakers, and partners has provided a forum for renewal, meaningful learning, inspiration, and professional growth.


The April 25-29, 2022 Leadership Connections, Overcoming Challenge with Courage, offers timely resources to strengthen the collective impact of the profession. Multiple keynote speakers, breakout sessions, the Public Policy Forum, Leadership Colloquium, and celebration of the Visionary Leadership Awardees add to the dynamic exchange of ideas with the goal of increasing the effectiveness of early childhood leaders and strengthening the policies and systems that anchor the field.


Increasing personal and collective impact


During the pandemic and especially during challenging times, Leadership Connections offers support, information, strategies for success, and networking to sustain and energize early childhood leaders. The conference provides opportunities to explore the latest trends and issues in the field and engage with other leaders to tackle issues and generate solutions. Participants express how much the conference has expanded their professional vision, revitalized their personal mission, and fueled practical planning. Below are just a few examples:


  • “I believe this is the best conference for leaders in early childhood who are looking for inspiration, new ideas, networking opportunities, and a complete professional experience. Everyone who attends feels a sense of belonging and respect.”
  • “I am always delighted and amazed how much I continue to learn and enjoy this conference after 11 years.”
  • “This was my second year attending Leadership Connections. I always leave feeling inspired and ready to apply the skills I have learned.”
  • “As always, this conference was outstanding. The presenters were knowledgeable and passionate about the work we do and left me feeling very positive about the field of early childhood leadership. I left with ideas to take back and implement in my program.”
  • “The content of the workshops and guest speakers reaffirmed my ideas about being in a supervisory position, with strategies to use in improving my leadership skills as well as leaving with a feeling of support.”
  • “Through this conference, I gathered at least ten big ideas and tools that I can use in my work and to share with others in the field through my work, in addition to a few life-changing ideas. The over-reaching ideas are empowerment, supporting the growth of staff, creating environments for growth, and taking care of yourself in the process of supporting others.”
  • “The keynotes were inspiring, and the sessions were topical and engaging. I will be watching recordings of the sessions that I was not able to attend. This is an exciting benefit of the virtual format. In making choices about how to spend my budget for conferences, Leadership Connections is always at the top of the list.”


The Paula Jorde Bloom Scholarship Fund


Paula’s vision included supporting the competencies of program leaders and bringing credibility to the importance of their roles as gatekeepers to quality. A foundational goal of the conference is to support new and emerging leaders in achieving their professional goals through the Paula Jorde Bloom Scholarship Fund. Recipients demonstrate commitment to advocacy for young children and their families and are active in creating positive change in the field. They are dedicated to providing the highest quality care and education for children and families and use the Whole Leadership Framework to guide program success. We extend congratulations to the following leaders, who are the recipients of the 2022 Paula Jorde Bloom Scholarships:

A woman wearing glasses and a suit is smiling in front of a flag.

Sim Loh is a family partnership coordinator at Children’s Village, a nationally-accredited Keystone 4 STARS early learning and school-age enrichment program in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, serving about 350 children. She supports children and families, including non-English speaking families of immigrant status, by ensuring equitable access to education, health, employment, and legal information and resources on a day-to-day basis. She is a member of the Children First Racial Equity Early Childhood Education Provider Council, a community member representative of Philadelphia School District Multilingual Advisory Council, and a board member of Historic Philadelphia.


Sim explains, “I ensure families know their rights and educate them on ways to speak up for themselves and request for interpretation/translation services. I share families’ stories and experiences with legislators and decision-makers so that their needs are understood. Attending Leadership Connections will help me strengthen and grow my skills in all domains by interacting with and hearing from experienced leaders in different positions. With newly acquired skills, I seek to learn about the systems level while paying close attention to the accessibility and barriers of different systems and resources and their impacts on young children and their families.”

A woman wearing glasses and a plaid jacket is smiling for the camera.

LaDoris Lee is from Chicago, Illinois, where she has spent the past 16 years working as a teacher, director, assistant, and nanny in home, center-based, corporate, and non-profit settings. She is an Erikson graduate student, a 2021-2022 Early Childhood Education Teach Plus Fellow, and is expanding her impact through consulting. LaDoris explains, “Each experience has added to my skill set and allowed me to witness inequitable experiences of early learners in these various settings. Seeing the various practices has challenged me to develop age-appropriate methods to successfully manage my classrooms with acceptance, diversity, inclusivity, and equality at the foundation. As I embark on the next steps of my journey in early care and education, I want to be sure that I can lead successfully. Leadership Connections will help me grow and strengthen my leadership skills by providing me with leadership essentials that will increase my ability to lead.”

Your opportunity to contribute


Your donation to the Paula Jorde Bloom Scholarship Fund can help support emerging leaders and strengthen their circle of influence. Perhaps you have benefited from attending Leadership Connections in the past or plan to attend in the future and want to make a contribution. The combined donations of caring supporters make it possible for deserving leaders to discover new levels of professional growth and effectiveness. If you would like to help further the vision and legacy of Paula Jorde Bloom, please scroll to the bottom of the donation page. Please indicate “Paula Jorde Bloom Scholarship” when making your gift. If you are an emerging or growing leader, we invite you to apply to be a recipient of the 2023 scholarship.


Leaders as gatekeepers to quality


How does attending Leadership Connections become a springboard for positive change? “Everything early childhood administrators do in their leadership roles directly or indirectly influences their programs’ trajectories toward excellence.” Program leaders with specialized training are more likely to support the professional development of their teaching staff, secure and maintain program funding, and achieve center accreditation. They are more effective in creating positive change.


Importantly, participation in specialized training strengthens the effectiveness of leaders in their capacity to improve program quality. Leaders are more confident, have greater clarity about their leadership roles, and are more effective in pedagogical leadership tasks. They develop skills to stabilize the programs and systems essential for children and families. They contribute to equity in the early childhood workforce and improve child and community outcomes.


Additional opportunities


As you explore opportunities for professional growth, consider contacting your state quality rating and improvement system to identify professional development funding opportunities. In Illinois, connect with your local resource and referral agency to locate available scholarships. Outside of Illinois, check out the Child Care Aware search page and enter your zip code. You may want to look for additional professional development funds unique to your state, such as the Illinois Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity Scholarship Program. Ask about early childhood leadership scholarships at your local community college, university, and city workforce initiative. Finally, remember that Leadership Connections and other conferences offer discounted early bird and group rates. Be sure to subscribe to our mailing list to receive early notifications.


We invite you to join us for the virtual 2022 Leadership Connections conference, April 25-29. We know you will come away with innovative strategies to strengthen program capacity, embed equity and excellence, and become more effective advocates on behalf of children and families. We look forward to joining with you as we expand our legacy and impact.

Marie Masterson, Ph.D., is the director of quality assessment at the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership. She holds a doctorate in early childhood education, is a licensed teacher, and is a national speaker and author of many books and articles that address research-based, practical skills for high-quality teaching, behavior guidance, quality improvement in early childhood programs, and leadership. She is a contributing author and editor of the book, Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children Birth Through Age Eight, Fourth Edition.

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Supporting Family Child Care Providers: The Role of Technical Assistance in Managing Mixed-Age Groups

By Yvonne Williams • October 7, 2025
by yvonne williams “The idea of mixed-age groups, the notion of a blended family that’s born out of a family childcare program where you are around people… you learn from the older [children], and you get to interact with younger” (Williams, 2023, pp. 75-76). Family Child Care (FCC) programs are unique in their ability to care for children of varied ages in the same learning environments. Research has noted that blending children of different ages, including siblings, and using a home-based child care supports the development of building social skills and the ability to self-regulate; together they are key for preparing for school (e.g., Porter et.al., 2010; Williams, 2023). These arrangements create environments where children naturally support and learn from one another throughout the day, enriching the overall learning atmosphere and building critical foundations for future learning. The ability to offer mixed-age group care and education offers families a number of advantages: siblings remain together in one familiar setting, parents and the provider are able to sustain a long-term partnership, and families gain a sense of extended support by developing rich relationships with other children and families in the program. Mixed-age environments naturally allow older children to take on leadership roles. Younger children benefit from this by observing and learning new skills. All children gain from interacting with peers at various developmental stages, while also experiencing continuity of care with the provider. Since the FCC provider remains both educator and caregiver for many years, they also experience important benefits: deeper relationships with children, less pressure to constantly enroll and onboard new families, and a stronger sense of community with families. The capacity to offer care to mixed age groups is anchored in the FCC environment, a cornerstone of quality in home-based care. I saw this firsthand in my own research, which identified three foundational pillars for effective FCC programs: the provider, the business, and the environment. (Williams, 2023). An intentionally structured environment that safely accommodates mixed ages is often foundational to high-quality family child care, not an afterthought. Although there are many benefits to mixed-age groups, managing mixed-age groups presents unique challenges for FCC providers. These include balancing the developmental needs of children at different stages, ensuring appropriate supervision, and creating an inclusive learning environment that caters to all age groups. Providers often report that the organizational structure of FCC settings, such as mixed-age groups and balancing multiple roles, can be perceived as challenges when implementing responsive feeding and other evidence-based practices. Technical Assistants (TA) play a vital role in supporting FCC providers by offering personalized strategies and resources to address the complexities of mixed-age group settings. The most helpful technical assistance comes when people ask many questions instead of being told what to do. This helps them learn, try things out, and grow independently. I recently returned from leading a Transformative Technical Assistance (TTA) institute in New York, where a colleague and I provided training to specialists who coach both family child care and center-based programs. At our TTA Institute , we emphasize that TAs should ask insightful questions instead of immediately giving answers. This approach nudges providers into deeper thinking and gives them ownership, allowing them to uncover strategies that truly matter to them and stick over time. Below are three broad topics related to mixed-age groups, reframed as open-ended questions to help providers think deeply, act with intention, and create solutions tailored to their own programs. When asking your questions, make sure to frame open-ended questions in ways that will help the provider reflect on their practice, explore possibilities, adapt what they do, and grow stronger rather than simply accept someone else’s fixed advice. Here are three areas that include questions that may be helpful when supporting family child care professionals: Implementing Developmentally Appropriate Practices To help a provider explore ways to support their routines and interactions to meet the diverse developmental stages of children in mixed-age groups, you might ask: In what parts of your daily schedule do you see infants’ developmental needs being limited by the group dynamics or materials used? This is especially helpful when working with a provider who cares for infants along with older children. How might you adapt daily transitions or caregiving routines (feeding, diapering/toileting, naps) so that infants’ developmental needs are better honored, while also supporting the older children in the same mixed-age group? Enhancing Classroom Management To brainstorm strategies to maintain a harmonious and productive environment that accommodates various age groups, you might ask: In what ways could you change your interactions, routines, or choice of materials so that infants experience less stress and fewer behavioral challenges, while older children remain engaged and valued every day? How might you design the physical layout or daily schedule so infants have freedom to explore safely, and older children can participate in age-appropriate activities without causing overload or disruption? Promoting Inclusive Practices To examine practices that ensure that all children, regardless of age or ability, have access to meaningful learning experiences, you might ask: How might you adapt your daily routines and caregiving interactions so that every infant, regardless of ability or background, feels included, valued, and has opportunities to explore and learn? What changes could you make to the materials, space, and interactions in your infant room so that infants at different developmental stages, with varied needs, or who speak other languages can all participate meaningfully? By embedding these strategies that lead to rich dialogue and discovery, Technical Assistants help providers create learning environments that are both engaging and responsive, ones that truly foster growth and development for all children. As the landscape of early childhood education continues to evolve, ongoing support through TA remains essential in promoting the success and sustainability of Family Child Care programs. References Porter, T., Paulsell, D., Del Grosso, P., Avellar, S., Haas, R., & Vuong, L. (2010). A review of the literature on home-based child care: Implications for future directions, Princeton, N.J.: Mathematica Policy Research Report . Williams, Y. S. (2023). Exploring attitudes of four groups of stakeholders toward family childcare and recommending best practices to promote positive experiences (Doctoral dissertation). National Louis University.
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