Recognizing and Supporting Early Childhood Educators and Program Administrators as Agents of Change: An Exploration of Distributed Leadership in Early Care and Education

In this brief, we share a theory of change for distributed leadership developed within the Early Care and Education Leadership Study (ExCELS), which aims to define and measure leadership in center-based ECE settings. The brief also provides examples of distributed leadership in action by highlighting quotes from participants in the CCL project. We conclude with thoughts about how to incorporate distributed leadership into existing professional development and quality improvement systems to better support ECE settings across the country.