TY - JOUR TI - Child care center directors DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3M3306J PY - 2018 AB - The problem in early care and education is that Directors’ work experiences, education, applied training, pedagogical knowledge, leadership skills, and communication competencies in the early education context are unequal. The problem has created inequity among Child Care Directors as they strive to build high quality child care centers. Research establishes that high quality child care programs help children develop physical, social, emotional, and intellectual skills (Ruzek, et al., 2011, Setodji, et al., 2013). Conversely, substandard child care negatively contributes to the achievement gap (Herbst, & Tekin, 2012) and has serious, damaging long-term effects on young children (Marshall, 2011). Given that Directors’ leadership abilities play an important role in determining the quality of an early child care center, the purpose of the study was to identify 1) Directors, 2) current issues that contribute to their problems as leaders, 3) trends and leadership practices in early child care centers, and 4) from the findings, recommend quality improvement strategies for professional development that fosters high quality child care. The research sample was composed of 516 early child care center Directors from across the State of New Jersey. A subset of twenty-nine Directors comprised the four focus groups. The qualitative research design contains data compiled from a multiple response survey and from responses of the Focus Groups that added narrative detail to the survey responses. Conclusions resulted from the combined results of the survey and focus groups responses. From the analysis, emergent themes show that additional research may help determine how to develop Directors’ leadership identity to maximize the Directors’ ability to achieve a high quality center. Additional information about Directors is necessary to understand the values and qualities that influence leadership styles. Furthermore, the broad policy in New Jersey of accepting any post high school degree for Director Certification is inadequate. The researcher concluded that progressive professional development that concentrates on early child care pedagogy and methodology could benefit early child care Directors. KW - Teacher Leadership KW - Day care centers LA - eng ER -