A Brief History

The Association was formed by the merging of two organizations, each founded to promote better educational opportunities for young children. In 1930 the International Kindergarten Union, organized in 1892, adopted a new constitution and the new name of Association for Childhood Education (ACE) to provide for the closest possible integration of nursery school, kindergarten, and primary education.

The following year the National Council of Primary Education, organized in 1915, adopted the same constitution and name. In 1946 the ACE Constitution was amended to include the intermediate level in the objectives and services of the organization and to add International to its name becoming the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI).

Significant Accomplishments

· ACEI led the way toward Equal Rights for all teachers, well before Civil Rights laws were enacted, through two resolutions: 1) In 1949, it refused a request that the organization recognize separate state associations for Black and White teachers; 2) In 1950, it resolved that an invitation to host the Annual Conference must include a statement giving assurance that Black members and members from other countries would have equal access to the hotel facilities in the host city.

· The first issue of Childhood Education was published in 1924.

· In the early 1960s, ACEI was one of three education organizations that helped establish a nationwide program for the training, assessment, and credentialing of Child Development Associate (CDA) candidates. ACEI played a pivotal role to ensure that the CDA competencies, assessments, and credentialing contributed to a quality professional program for young children.

· ACEI, as a nongovernmental organization (NGO), is represented at the United Nations and has been granted consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and UNICEF. ACEI actively supports the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is the most highly ratified human rights agreement in history.

· The Journal of Research in Childhood Education was launched in 1986.

· Responding to member requests for materials that focus on specific developmental groups, ACEI launched three newsletters, Infants & Toddlers, Pre-K & K, and Later Childhood. In subsequent years two additional newsletters were added, and the titles changed to Focus on Infants & Toddlers, Focus on Pre-K & K, Focus on Elementary, Focus on Middle School, and Focus on Teacher Education.

· In 1987, ACEI signed an archival deposit arrangement with the University of Maryland at College Park and transferred its extensive archival collection, along with 700 volumes of children's books and seminal works relating to childhood education, to the University. The Archives contain approximately 120 linear shelf feet of office files, personal papers, photographs, artifacts, and memorabilia. The collection is a major resource for research on childhood education.

· ACEI conducts training sessions on the program review process for universities and colleges seeking national accreditation in elementary education. ACEI is a constituent member of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), and since 1989 has worked with NCATE to raise the standard of preparation for educators.

· 1992 marked the Centennial year for ACEI. Celebrations were held in Chicago during the Annual International Conference and in Saratoga Springs, NY during October. Under the direction of the Centennial Committee, ACEI published Childhood 1892-1992, Profiles in Childhood Education, and a reprint of Kindergarten.

· The first E-mail communications from and to ACEI were sent in 1995.

· In 1996 ACEI launched a series of informational brochures, ACEI Speaks, to help teachers address parental questions about issues in education. Three of the brochures have been translated into Spanish.

· ACEI developed its first web site and went online at www.acei.org in 1996.

· For more than a decade, ACEI has been one of only 14 organizations involved in selecting the National Teacher of the Year.

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