The Illinois Early Childhood Higher Education Resources Online (HERO) website was a project of The Center: Early Childhood Professional Learning and was funded by the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grant, the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development (OECD), and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). The website was developed to provide a virtual space where faculty of two and four-year Early Childhood teacher preparation programs could connect with and learn from their peers around the state. Early Childhood Higher Education faculty could discuss the latest research and best practices in forums and submit resources that supported their work in preparing early childhood educators.

While the website forums are no longer active, the more than 500 resources that were collected have been saved for use by all early childhood educators. The resources are organized by content areas:

• Curriculum & Program Design
• Family & Community Relationships
• Health Safety & Well-Being
• Human Growth & Development
• Interactions, Relationships & Environments
• Observation & Assessment
• Professionalism

Resources can be searched by selecting keyword, content area, or by type using the search function.