McCormick Institute for Early Childhood

BY McCormick Center | April 15, 2020

A woman is holding a laptop with a speech bubble that says aim4excellence 2.0 is available now.

At the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership, we know that leadership matters . Enhanced leadership competencies and increased leadership capacity within the early childhood workforce yield sustainable improvements in program quality, which will in turn improve outcomes for the children and families that our field serves. We support early childhood education leaders in a number of ways to enhance competencies and grow capacity, but at no time in our history has Aim4Excellence™– our fully online National Director Credential – been so vital to our field.

 

 

What is Aim4Excellence?

Our Aim4Excellence National Director Credential focuses on the essential competencies needed to deliver high-quality programming for young children and their families. Aim4Excellence empowers program and site leaders to be change agents, ready to support the ongoing development of children, families, and staff. Aim4Excellence builds administrative competence in center operations, talent development, financial management, strategic planning, family engagement, support of teaching and learning, and using data for continuous quality improvement. The content is specific to the responsibilities of early childhood program and site leaders and is designed around their unique needs as adult learners.

Aim4Excellence was first introduced more than a decade ago – long before distance learning was common practice. At that time, early childhood administrators had varying levels of technology skills and Internet connectivity was spotty. However, there was a significant need for high-quality, accessible, and affordable leadership development. In 2008, Barbara Willer, who was then a director of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), asked the McCormick Center if we had the capacity to develop a fully online administrator credential to meet the needs of program and site leaders across the nation. The McCormick Center answered this call. To date, more than 2,000 early childhood educators have earned their Aim4Excellence National Director Credential.

Administrators today are much more tech-savvy and high-speed internet access is becoming the norm. Since its launch, Aim4Excellence has been updated several times, but with Aim4Excellence 2.0, it has been completely revamped. Aim4Excellence 2.0 now provides a state-of-the-art distance learning experience while maintaining its steadfast commitment to quality content and easy access at an excellent value.

 

What’s new in Aim4Excellence 2.0?

Aim4Excellence 2.0 is competency-based and aligned to the McCormick Center’s Whole Leadership Framework . Whole Leadership is the inter-dependent relationship that exists between three leadership domains: Administrative Leadership, Pedagogical Leadership, and Leadership Essentials ( View the resource Aim4Excellence National Director Credential – The Whole Leadership Approach to Online Leadership Development for the Whole Leadership Framework and its alignment to all nine Aim4Excellence 2.0 modules ). Now participants have more choice. They may complete all nine modules and earn the Aim4Excellence National Director Credential, or they may choose to focus on strengthening their competencies in one domain of Whole Leadership based on their interests or scopes of work.

The new Aim4Excellence 2.0 is designed using best practices for engagement and interaction. Throughout the nine modules, content is provided in a variety of interactive mediums and provides authentic and applicable scenarios. Information throughout each module builds on previous sections, scaffolding the learner to increased engagement, retention, and content application.

 

What’s included in the modules?

Aim4Excellence 2.0 includes nine self-paced modules and all of the learning materials needed to complete the modules. Each module embeds multiple assessments of learning to demonstrate mastery of competencies. Participants may choose to take all nine modules to earn the Aim4Excellence National Director Credential, take only one module to achieve competence in a specific area, or take several modules to build competence in one of the three Whole Leadership domains. Modules may be taken for college credit or for clock-hour credit. NAEYC recognizes Aim4Excellence as an alternative pathway for meeting Administrator qualifications for NAEYC Program Accreditation.

Connect to Aim4Excellence anytime from anywhere with Internet access. Learn at your own pace through an easy online delivery model simple enough for a first-time distance learner. Register and get started!

 

 

Have questions? Contact Lorena Rodriguez, Aim4Excellence Manager, at 847.947.5054 or lorena.rodriguez@nl.edu.

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The AI-Enabled Administrator: Reclaim Valuable Time

By Dr. Neal Green • February 8, 2026
Tools: Gemini Gems, NotebookLM, Perplexity Spaces Overview The evidence is clear that early childhood professionals' most significant challenge is a lack of time. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, when used strategically, can give administrators some of the time they desperately need, allowing them to focus more on their staff and the children and families in their care. This approach aligns with the foundational goal of strengthening leadership effectiveness and program impact (Abel, Talan, & Masterson, 2023). When I scan the AI landscape of available products and platforms, it becomes overwhelming. There are so many options that it is impossible to keep up with every new development. Focusing on a limited number of AI tools backed by organizations with strong infrastructure and fiscal stability is a wise place to start your AI journey. McCormick Institute for Early Childhood’s (MIEC’s) upcoming professional development sessions will focus on three AI tools. These include Gemini Gems, NotebookLM, and Perplexity Spaces. Think of Gemini Gems as your customized AI assistant that you "train" to follow your rules and meet your goals. Gemini Gems are the right tool to tackle Internal Operations . NotebookLM is perfect for creating Family Support resources that stick. NotebookLM is a powerful AI tool that uses only the documents or other resources you add to generate specific, focused output. Perplexity Spaces is a fantastic choice to address Marketing demands. Like many AI tools, you can toggle back and forth between open web searches and focused documents that are specific to your work. Gemini Gems: The “Specialist Teammate” Gemini Gems allow you to create templates you can use repeatedly for agendas, HR policies, and more. If you have used AI in the past, you know that writing an effective prompt takes time, and they can easily get "lost" if you use AI often. Gems removes that challenge and lets you save your most effective prompts without having to rewrite them every time you use Gemini. It is up to you to decide if you want to create several smaller Gems to tackle common challenges you face or create larger Gems that encompass large swaths of your work. For our purposes, we will focus our Gem work on Internal Operations, addressing Program Administration Scale (PAS) Item 9: Internal Communications (Talan & Bloom, 2011). Imagine using a Gem to turn messy staff meeting notes into professional minutes with clear action plans in minutes or less! NotebookLM: The "Walled Garden" NotebookLM is an excellent tool for Family Support for your center, addressing PAS Item 17: Family Support and Involvement (Talan & Bloom, 2011). After uploading documents and resources, such as your parent handbook or community referral lists, to your Notebook, you can create several resources that parents/guardians of your center students will love. Just a few of the impressive features available with NotebookLM include audio (podcast) summaries, video summaries, and reporting functions with templates or the option to create your own report with metrics that matter most to you. Perplexity Spaces: The "Research Librarian" Perplexity Spaces is a perfect AI partner for Marketing your early childhood education (ECE) program, addressing PAS Item 18: External Communications (Talan & Bloom, 2011). You can build your own centralized repository, with control over branding to ensure consistency and present a professional, current image. Adding specific instructions to your space eliminates the need to format documents constantly and saves valuable time. The consistency that a Perplexity Space offers in this regard allows you to upload messages that are the "voice” of your brand. Your marketing efforts are not only more aesthetically pleasing but also enable you to track trends at similar centers in your area, helping you assess the competition. Strategies for Success: Audit your Internal Communications: Identify one repetitive task, such as creating staff meeting agendas (PAS Item 9), and automate it with a Gemini Gem. Curate your Family Resources: Gather three to five existing documents to "feed" a NotebookLM project for more responsive family support (PAS Item 17). Standardize your Brand: Use a Perplexity Space to ensure all public relations tools project a consistent, professional image (PAS Item 18). Reflection Questions: Which administrative task takes the most time away from your interactions with staff and families? How might centralizing marketing materials (branding) impact the professional image to prospective families? Table 1: AI Tools for ECE Professionals
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