The purpose of this article is to describe promising practices from a Child and Family Development (CFD) Program within the College of Education at a large, urban university. The authors' goal is to detail their attempts to build a core curriculum and program of study that supports the development of knowledgeable, and skilled, early childhood educators. They propose a conceptual model that is built around three key constructs: knowledge, reflection, and practice and describe their approach to preparing early childhood educators. The CFD program has worked towards creating a stronger, more coherent model for early childhood teacher education. In this model, field experiences are closely integrated with coursework, faculty pedagogies link theory and practice, and faculty and field experience supervisors build close mentoring relationships with preservice teachers to model good teaching.