A critical issue facing the nation today stems from the fact that many classroom teachers in Early Childhood Education lack adequate training. This deficit in the professional education of teachers impacts outcomes for children every day. This article discusses the establishment of a training system that has impacted Early Childhood education in Tennessee. In 1991, when federal Child Care Development Block Grant funds became available to make quality improvements in the child care system, Tennessee allocated one-third of its funding to develop a training system called Tennessee Early Childhood Training Alliance (TECTA). The lattice concept of the TECTA system represented a new paradigm for the Early Childhood profession that communicates upward mobility with improved compensation at each step of professional development. Numbers and statistics are inadequate to describe the impact that the TECTA alliance has made on Early Childhood Education in the state of Tennessee. Real stories of people's authentic experiences are inspiring sources of information, especially for people in similar circumstances. (Contains 1 table and 3 resources.)