Early childhood education administrators' knowledge and skills of leadership practices and core competencies.

With limited knowledge surrounding the role of the ECE administrator, it is critical to understand what leadership skills and core competencies they use as a leader in their programs. Understanding the relationship between administrators who are currently enrolled in a statewide quality improvement program and their knowledge and practices of leadership skills identified by research and state resources to improve quality will help to further our understanding of the role of the ECE administrator and help to guide future programs and supports for administrators throughout the state-using a conceptual framework where school characteristics, state agencies, and administrators’ demographic influence their leadership skills. A self-administered survey was distributed, and a combination of quantitative analyses was used to understand the differences between groups and their knowledge of core competencies and practice of leadership. Additionally, logistic regression was used to understand how administrators' leadership skills and demographics influence their knowledge of core competencies.