NLU Alumni Magazine
LEADING THE LEADERS By Pam DeFiglio
When Paula Jorde Bloom, Ph.D., fell in love with early childhood education around 1970, people who wanted to work in the field needed very little education and training. Center directors, who manage the responsibilities of budgets, staff, parent relationships and small children, didn’t even need a B.A. As Bloom retires this fall and also celebrates 30 years of teaching at National Louis University, many early childhood center directors and teachers around the nation are credentialed, many receive abundant professional development, and many states have quality standards for early childhood education. Much of the credit for these developments over the decades goes to Bloom, whose books, teaching, mentoring and leadership in national associations have been a driving force in efforts to professionalize the field. “Paula took charge of change and created the highest quality early childhood education leadership and management practices in the country,” said Sue Bredekamp, early childhood education consultant and former Director of Professional Development and Accreditation at National Association for the Education of Young Children in Washington, D.C. Similarly, Kathy Hardy, director of the Winnetka Community Nursery School, who took Bloom’s Taking Charge of Change year- long program in the 1990s,
Michael W. Louis Endowed Chair of the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership at NLU. She’s not going too far, however. She plans to set up a home office and be available to the McCormick Center for advisement, as well as continue to serve on national boards. “I’m officially giving up my office but will be available to (the McCormick) center for advisement,” she said. She will also continue to serve on national association boards. She’ll be able to share her expertise in the professional running of early childhood centers that started in 1974, when she got a grant to design and construct a center in Alamo, Calif., and then operate it. “I designed a beautiful early childhood center, but had no clue about administration and had had no courses in program management,” Bloom said. “There basically weren’t any courses. I didn’t know the difference between a debit and a credit.” That predicament is true for many early childhood administrators, she maintained. The typical way people become administrators is that someone identifies a superstar teacher and coaxes him or her into an administrative position. Seventy- five percent of administrators say they were unprepared for becoming a director, according to research, and Bloom said
From Paula Jorde Bloom, The McCormick Center
Paula Jorde Bloom has spent decades
professionalizing the role of early childhood administrators—and in turn improving learning for countless children
said, “Paula was my hero, my mentor. I wanted to be Paula.”
“I can’t think of a person who encounters Paula who doesn’t walk away thinking, ‘that’s a really impressive, passionate person.’ She has been such a source of strength and inspiration for me.”
Retiring, but not going far
Bloom is retiring from her two official roles as professor in National Louis’ Department of Early Childhood Education and
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