Shortchanging Teachers, Shortchanging Children

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Shortchanging Teachers, Shortchanging Children

• Marcy Whitebook
• Center for the Study of Child Care Employment
• University of California, Berkeley

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Three major questions

• What do early care and education professionals
  need to know and do to meet the rising
  expectations for our youngest children?
• What is our current capacity to meet teachers
  needs?
• How can we build our capacity to support early
  care and education professionals?

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What do early care and education professionals
need to know and do to meet the rising
expectations for our youngest children?

• Paradigm shift in how we think about the
  importance of early years resulting from
• Brain research
• Child Care quality research
• Importance of relationships, teacher knowledge
  and stability

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What do early care and education professionals
need to know and do to meet the rising
expectations for our youngest children?

• Changing characteristics of children/families/work
  force
• Working parents in dual parent and single parent
  families
• Immigration, changing child populations
• Diagnosis of special needs, particularly mental
  health problems

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What do early care and education professionals
need to know and do to meet the rising
expectations for our youngest children?

• Half of the children in CA are either immigrants
  or the children of immigrants
• Three quarters of the Head Start children in LA
  County are English Learners or dual language
  learners (DLL)

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What do early care and education professionals
need to know and do to meet the rising
expectations for our youngest children?

• Knows how to construct an environment and present
  activities that enhance and build upon childs
  learning
• Knowledgeable about culture and traditions of
  children and able to communicate with children
  and families
• Provides ample verbal and cognitive stimulation
• Interacts sensitively and responsively
• Gives generous amounts of attention and support

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What do early care and education professionals
need to know and do to meet the rising
expectations for our youngest children?

• Observes and assesses skills based on child
  development knowledge
• Constructs developmentally appropriate
  environment and activities
• Practices age appropriate classroom management
• Understands adult communication and learning
• Knows inclusion strategies
• Aware of family support resources
• Familiar with cultural tradition and practices of
  children in program
• Understands needs of children for whom English is
  a second language
• Understands the whole child

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What do early care and education professionals
need to know and do to meet the rising
expectations for our youngest children?

• Shifting teacher qualifications

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What is our current capacity to meet teachers
needs?

• There has been a decline in the percentages of
  center-based teachers with college degrees
• Younger people entering the field are less likely
  to have college degrees
• More teachers have completed high school
• Among family providers, the percentage with some
  college and BAs has risen

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Ethnicity of early childhood education students
by educational goal
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Mean percentage by institution of language
capacity of undergraduate and graduate students
At the undergraduate level, data for the
University of California (n1), and the two-year
private (n1) and other public programs (n5) are
excluded because of their small sample size. At
the graduate level, data for the University of
California are excluded because only one program
is represented in this group.
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Mean percentage by institution of language
capacity of undergraduate and graduate students
At the undergraduate level, data for the
University of California (n1), and the two-year
private (n1) and other public programs (n5) are
excluded because of their small sample size. At
the graduate level, data for the University of
California are excluded because only one program
is represented in this group.
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What is our current capacity to meet teachers
needs?

• Wage trends
• Wages have dropped relatively, lowering the
  incentives for those with more education to
  pursue careers with young children

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What is our current capacity to meet teachers
needs?

• Highlights from the study of early childhood
  teacher preparation programs
• 136 Institutions of higher education are engaged
  in preparing teachers to work with children prior
  to kindergarten
• Most of these programs are at the community
  college level

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What is our current capacity to meet teachers
needs?

• Opportunities for upper-division and
  graduate-level work in early childhood are very
  limited
• Californias population of students studying to
  work with young children is very diverse in terms
  of language and ethnicity

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Number of colleges overall and number of colleges
providing early childhood education by type of
institution
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A closer look at the four year institutions
offering ece options
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What is our current capacity to meet teachers
needs?

• Faculty in Early Childhood Teacher Preparation
  Programs are predominately white and adjunct.
• Most of the faculty in the upper division
  programs do not have a background in early
  childhood education or experience working with
  children prior to Kindergarten
• Many of Californias degree programs in ECE do
  not require a full course in a variety of topics
  widely identified as relevant to the profession

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Ethnicity of faculty
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Educational background of part-time and full-time
faculty (in percentages)
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Early childhood program faculty, as compared to
faculty in institutions as a whole Mean
percentage of part-time faculty, and mean number
of students per faculty member
Standard errors are not presented for
institutions as wholes because these values are
population statistics. The sample sizes are lower
than reported elsewhere due to non-response on
some items.
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Recommendation 1

• A concerted effort to build public awareness of
• The value and skill involved in working with
  young children which is sensitive to the existing
  workforce as well as encouraging to newcomers to
  the field
• The need for advanced levels of education and
• The need for increased compensation to increase
  teacher retention.

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Recommendation 2

• A statewide process, such as a Blue Ribbon
  Committee, to
• Create a blueprint for a well-articulated higher
  education and certification system
• Develop a comprehensive set of ECE teacher skills
  and competencies
• Design a relevant ECE teacher certification
  system
• Promote improved teacher compensation in early
  care and education.

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Recommendation 3

• Increased resources to California institutions of
  higher education to update what we teach, how it
  is taught and by whom
• Expand lower-division programs and practicum
  opportunities
• Develop more upper-division and graduate
  programs with preschool child development focus

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Recommendation 3, cont.

• Hire more full-time ECE faculty
• Attract a more culturally and linguistically
  diverse faculty establish Masters program as
  one strategy and
• Update and revamp the courses of study that
  higher education programs offer to prepare early
  childhood teachers

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Recommendation 4

• Improve access to higher education for diverse
  students through
• Tuition support
• Cohorts and community classes
• Academic and linguistic supports and
• Enhanced career and academic counseling.

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Recommendation 4

• Improve compensation in early care and education
  jobs
• Create new incentives to encourage students to
  pursue degrees in early childhood education
• Explore benefit pools and mechanisms for ongoing
  wage increases.

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Recommendation 5

• Support research that
• Tracks pathways of successful students
• Clarifies best practices for training effective
  early care and education professionals who are
  culturally competent and
• Clarifies best practices for working with
  children who are dual language learners.

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You all are in positions to make these changes!