Early educators are the best spokespeople about the conditions under which they work and what they need in order to thrive. Policy leaders have much to gain by actively engaging educators in identifying workable solutions to the child care crisis. The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) believes that educators have the right to…

In this brief, we set out to understand how unionization may or may not shape practices central to charter schools' ability to serve students. The study, an exploratory one, includes 29 interviews across eight schools that unionized four to six years ago. Our results point to areas of concern, optimism, and future research. We found: (1)…

In the United States, state-funded preschool is a critical component of both K-12 public education and the early childhood education and care system. In 2021, 44 states and the District of Columbia operated 63 school/center-based preschool programs serving over 1.3 million children. The vast majority of state-funded preschool programs require two…

One of the goals of pre-K programs funded by states is to support the learning and development of young children. Research finds that only high-quality programs can achieve positive, long-term outcomes in areas such as student achievement, educational attainment, personal and social behavior (e.g., reductions in crime), and adult health and…

The success of preschool programs is largely dependent upon a high-quality teaching workforce. Preschool educators are critical in supporting a child's socio-emotional development, motivation, school readiness, achievement, and overall learning. While expected to be professionally prepared similarly to their colleagues from elementary and…

Early childhood educators have a high risk of burnout, leading to a high turnover rate and, potentially, poor educational outcomes for young children. In this systematic review, we investigate the causes of burnout, and the effectiveness of interventions that seek to reduce burnout among educators. We searched "Web of Science" and…

To date, 29 public pre-K programs in 23 states and one U.S. territory have established salary or compensation parity policies to address low and disparate levels of workforce compensation in the early care and education (ECE) field (Friedman-Krauss & Kasmin, 2018). These policies aim to raise the pay or compensation of ECE teachers to the…

Teaching assistants are a common presence in pre-kindergarten programs, but their role and the dynamics between lead teachers and their assistants are understudied. The classroom behaviors of lead teachers and assistants from 80 public prekindergarten classrooms were examined for similarities and differences in their roles and to determine how…

Early care and education programs like Head Start provide a critical foundation for later achievement for children from vulnerable communities. Notably, recruiting and retaining bilingual teachers is an ongoing struggle for many Head Start agencies. Assistant teachers are more likely to be bilingual than their lead teacher counterparts (Jacoby, in…

Education, either formal or informal, plays an important role to help the masses. As such, educators, especially trainees, are entrusted to teach young generations all important elements, principles, or concepts in a wide range of disciplines. Surely, such an undertaking, especially for early childhood care and education, requires quality…

This article presents the main findings of a mixed-method study that explored ECEC teachers' views on the recently enacted STPD for Teacher Professional Development (STPD) in Chile. Relying on a mixed-method design, we gathered data from individual and group interviews and an online survey conducted with 268 ECEC teachers. Drawn from both "a…

To better understand the reasons underlying attrition and the teacher shortage, and to develop ways to attract and retain high-quality teachers in early childhood education, it is necessary to explore teacher motivation and commitment to teaching. Although previous research has investigated various aspects of teacher motivation and commitment to…

The pandemic hit the already vulnerable early childhood education (ECE) workforce especially hard, causing almost 40 percent of child care providers to shut their doors and many teachers to lose their jobs. In 2021, enrollment in state-funded preschool also dropped for the first time in 20 years--a nearly 20 percent decline that erased a decade of…

The study aimed to investigate factors influencing participation in pre-school education and its implications for quality-education. The descriptive survey research design was employed through stratified random sampling to collect pertinent information through questionnaires and observational checklists. The first finding was that 68.92% of the…

Unifying and strengthening the early childhood workforce may be the single most important step towards closing the opportunity/achievement gap. The Foundation for Child Development has committed its energies and resources towards professionalization of the early childhood field, improving the quality of professional practice, and enhancing early…