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)…

The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE), in partnership with the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), has produced a series of materials that explore state policy efforts to move toward compensation parity between pre-K and K-3 teachers. This report forms the third part of the series, examining a small set of…

Teaching in early care and education (ECE) programs is one of the lowest-paid occupations in the United States. Low wages for early educators are not a new challenge. Compensation has been low in this field since its inception, but only recently have the public, policymakers, and other stakeholders begun to appreciate the full ramifications of…

Most early educators are paid less than $15 per hour, and many of them report high levels of economic insecurity evidenced by their worry about meeting monthly family expenses or paying for bare necessities such as food and housing. Coupled with low wages, few early educators can expect to work in settings that provide basic professional supports…

This executive summary highlights results from the full report (published separately) which includes two studies that describe the local context for teacher employment decisions. The first examines the local labor market, and the second examines employment for teachers who left Austin Independent School District (AISD). A separate technical report…

This report includes two studies that describe the local context for teacher employment decisions. The first examines the local labor market, and the second examines employment for teachers who left Austin Independent School District (AISD). A separate executive summary and a technical report also were published. [For the executive summary, see…

In this article, the author discusses how kindergarten is close to being universal across the United States. More than half (56%) of the children who are attending kindergarten are in full-day programs. Whether they are in full-day programs or half-day programs, the kindergartners certainly do daily work in the areas of reading and language arts.…