Scalability of Leadership Development Program in a State Professional Development System

Cultivating leadership within the early care and education (ECE) workforce is crucial for driving quality improvement and systems change. However, there is limited understanding of how to develop and scale leadership development programs for early educators. To address this need, Leading for Change (LFC) was intentionally designed to provide scalable, affordable, and accessible leadership development opportunities for early educators from diverse racial, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds. The present study examined whether the scaled version of LFC (delivered by locally trained facilitators) could achieve outcomes comparable to the pilot version (delivered by the original LFC developers). The results showed similar improvements in participants’ entrepreneurial leadership mindset and knowledge across both versions. Also, interviews with facilitators revealed key factors, strengths, and challenges that could influence the success of scaling efforts. These findings offer valuable insights into how leadership development models can be effectively developed and scaled to ensure equitable and widespread access for the ECE workforce.