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…

There is broad consensus that high-quality environments for young children depend on teachers who are skilled at nurturing their development and learning, yet low pay and inadequate working conditions routinely hamper teachers in their efforts to apply their skills and knowledge. This condition exists among teachers in early education as well as…

Reflecting the growing momentum in support of quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs) as a key strategy to improve early care and education quality, significant amounts of public dollars have been devoted to their development and implementation. In this brief, the authors report on their investigation of both quality rating and improvement…

What are the financial rewards and job protection provisions currently being negotiated into superintendent employment contracts? This article presents the results of a study of superintendents' contracts in three states--South Carolina, Florida, and North Carolina. All 268 superintendents in the three states were surveyed and an analysis made for…

An examination of the collective bargaining guidelines developed in Florida's 1975 enabling legislation and of the personnel policies and procedures contained in institutional documents from eight Florida community colleges was conducted, and other pertinent literature was reviewed, in order to identify potential areas for assessing impact of the…

Perceptions of childcare center directors in for-profit and non-profit childcare centers were examined. Previous research indicates that childcare employees are poorly compensated, not properly trained, and dissatisfied with their work environment. This study explores further into the training, work environment, and job satisfactions of childcare…

Collective bargaining agreements between the boards of trustees and faculty associations of Broward Community College (BCC) and Indian River Community College (IRCC) in Florida are presented. The BCC contract period covers 1987 to 1989, while the IRCC contract period covers August 1989 to July 1990. With some variation between the agreements in…

Eight collective bargaining agreements between the boards of trustees of selected community colleges in Florida and their respective faculty associations are presented, representing contracts in effect in 1987. Contracts for the following colleges are provided: Brevard Community College, Broward Community College, Chipola Junior College, Edison…