Search

Our look at the well-being of California's early educators points to the need to consider work environments in early care and education (ECE) policy development. The learning environments of young children are also the work environments of the ECE workforce. Supportive and safe work environments that foster a respectful workplace climate can enhance educators' practice, professional esteem, and job satisfaction. This is the second of three reports, drawn from our statewide survey of nearly 1,800 early educators. Our findings show that: (1) Though the majority of early educators find satisfaction and reward from their work with children, many feel their work is not respected; (2) Despite their dedication to their profession, many educators encounter inadequate work environments: more than two thirds of center teachers are given duties no one else wants, and nearly a tenth have been the target of racial slurs at work; and (3) Working with children with challenging behaviors, finding planning time and spending time with individual children are common classroom challenges.

Despite the crucial role early educators play in young children's development, the field has always struggled with poor compensation and inadequate support (McLean et al., 2021). The persistent undervaluation of the ECE sector and the labor provided by the nearly all-female workforce can be traced back to its racist roots, when enslaved Black women were forced to care for White children (Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, 2022a; Lloyd et al., 2021). This report shows how racism continues to affect the ECE workforce. Racial disparities take many forms, from inequities in racial and ethnic representation across provider types and job roles to disparities in compensation. Black and Latina educators, for example, routinely experience lower wages than their peers. Asian and Black educators tend to hold higher levels of educational degrees compared to other groups, but their credentials do not necessarily lead to job advancement or higher pay. Systemic racism is most often understood as a form of racism that is "pervasively and deeply embedded in systems, laws, written or unwritten policies, and entrenched practices and beliefs that produce, condone, and perpetuate widespread unfair treatment and oppression of people of color" (Braveman et al., 2022, p. 171). Yet, systemic racism also fosters an absence of systems or processes that provide recourse for discrimination or protection from inequities. A transformed system could begin to repair the current injustices. (1) For example, if early care and education were treated as a public good, programs would be funded to reflect the true cost of care; (2) A salary scale driven by a combination of years of experience and education would reduce the vast pay gaps, especially between Black educators and their peers of other races and ethnicities with similar education and experience; (3) Professional pathway programs and mentorship initiatives could be designed specifically to expand access to leadership roles for underrepresented communities. Efforts like apprenticeships, degree-completion programs, and fellowships have proven incredibly successful (Copeman Petig et al., 2019; Kipnis et al., 2012; Smith et al., 2023). However, such opportunities are not built into ECE systems, but are often pilots, demonstration projects, or very limited in reach (Malone et al., 2021); and (3) Data to pinpoint disparities could track how or if they are reduced over time. North Carolina, for example, routinely funds robust data collection, but it is unclear if and how identified disparities are acted on (Child Care Services Association, 2020). [Additional funding for this report was provided by the Blue Shield of California Foundation.]

Early care and education (ECE) programs are central to a thriving community: they support the well-being of children as well as their families. In Contra Costa County, approximately 260 child care centers serve children from birth through age five, along with 765 family child care providers operating in their own homes. These nurturing and vibrant learning environments reflect the ECE workforce, a highly skilled yet undervalued professional group of nearly 4,000 individuals. Building on the "California Early Care and Education Workforce Study," this report provides a snapshot of the state of the licensed ECE workforce in Contra Costa County. Chapter 1 offers a profile of its core members: family child care providers and center-based educators (directors, teachers, and assistants). Chapter 2 describes the state of educator well-being, and Chapter 3 explores stability for center- and home-based programs and for professionals in the field. [This report was funded by First 5 Contra Costa, the Contra Costa County Office of Education/Local Planning Council, the Contra Costa County Employment Human Services Department's Community Services Bureau, and CoCoKids.]

Working with young children is intellectually, emotionally, and physically demanding. These challenges are compounded by the inadequate compensation that characterizes the early care and education (ECE) sector and lack of workplace support such as access to health benefits, retirement plans, and time off (Montoya et al., 2022). The cumulative strain can intensify the stress experienced by early educators, adversely affecting both their emotional and physical well-being (Cumming, 2017). The California Early Care and Education Workforce Study is an ongoing longitudinal study that provides comprehensive statewide and regional information on the center- and home-based ECE workforce. The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) launched the current workforce study in 2020 to provide an update on the status of the workforce since the previous study in 2006 (Whitebook et al., 2006). Phase 2 of the present study was conducted during 2023, collecting information predominantly from educators who had participated in 2020. This report focuses on the emotional and physical well-being of California's ECE workforce who work with children birth to age five. It is the first in a series on early educator well-being, highlighting findings from Phase 2 of the California Early Care and Education Workforce Study. [Also acknowledged was funding by Blue Shield of California Foundation.]

First 5 Los Angeles County partnered with the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) to explore the state of child care centers and family child care (FCC) providers. As part of the California Early Care and Education Workforce Study, CSCCE conducted surveys in 2020 and 2023 to measure both individual- and site-level factors. In this report, we present highlights from longitudinal trends in each of the two levels (Chapters 1 and 2), as well as a portrait of current educator well-being (Chapter 3). [This report was funded by First 5 Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles County Office of Education.]

Early care and education (ECE) programs for children prior to kindergarten in California are provided through a mixed delivery system that includes licensed home- and center-based programs as well as school settings. The requirements, experience, and supports for educators vary widely across settings, depending more on funding sources and regulatory status and less on what educators and children may need. This situation is typical across the ECE system for children from infancy through preschool, though California has made substantial changes in providing preschool for four-year-olds. Transitional Kindergarten (TK) was introduced into this mix in the 2012-13 school year. As of the 2022-23 school year, TK became the only free, universal ECE program in California available for four-year-olds. This brief explores the experiences of ECE lead teachers across settings: TK classrooms, child care centers, and family child care (FCC) programs. It examines their demographics, classroom context, working conditions, compensation, and economic well-being. It identifies threads of continuity among lead teachers regardless of setting: for instance, virtually all these early educators are women, and many are age 40 or older. They teach similar numbers of dual-language learner students, and they face similar classroom challenges. By contrast, educators in centers and FCC providers are much more likely to be women of color and/or immigrant women. Teacher pay and benefits also diverge sharply, with TK educators earning at least twice the salary of other lead teachers with a bachelor's degree along with corresponding metrics of economic well-being. By exploring the experiences of teachers by setting, the authors aim to understand the state of equity in ECE employment. For the purposes of this analysis, they focus on educators who lead their respective classrooms in order to compare similar job roles and level of teaching responsibilities. They then explore the implications for sustaining an effective and equitable ECE system in California.

California is expanding transitional kindergarten (TK) to become a universal preschool program for all four-year-old children. Upwards of 300,000 children are expected to enroll in universal transitional kindergarten (UTK) by 2025, requiring thousands of additional lead teachers and classroom aides to meet lower student-to-teacher ratio requirements and new student demand. This report presents the first comprehensive data collected from California's transitional kindergarten teachers about their teaching experiences. In the fall of 2020, the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) surveyed almost 300 TK teachers in classrooms throughout California as part of the California Early Care and Education Workforce Study. This report provides an exploratory picture of the composition of the TK workforce, the characteristics of the TK job, and the experience of teaching TK. Recommendations for policymakers conclude the study.

The early care and education (ECE) system has been under-resourced and undervalued since well before the pandemic. Low pay and poor working environment have long plagued the ECE industry as key drivers of chronic high turnover rates and teacher staffing shortages in the field. Additional disparities within the system place providers on vastly different financial footing as a function of the type of program in which they operate, their access to public funding, and characteristics of the families they serve. The pandemic has exacerbated these pre-existing issues. Using data collected by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) through the 2020 California Early Care and Education Workforce Study, this report takes a closer look at the impact of COVID-19 on ECE programs in California, with a focus on program-level challenges, staffing shortages, and disparities based on program type and center funding type. While federal and state pandemic relief have played an important role in helping programs stay afloat, current job numbers suggest not enough has been done to stabilize child care as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

We present a novel computational model for the dynamics of alveolar recruitment/derecruitment (RD), which reproduces the underlying characteristics typically observed in injured lungs. The basic idea is a pressure- and time-dependent variation of the stress-free reference volume in reduced dimensional viscoelastic elements representing the acinar tissue. We choose a variable reference volume triggered by critical opening and closing pressures in a time-dependent manner from a straightforward mechanical point of view. In the case of (partially and progressively) collapsing alveolar structures, the volume available for expansion during breathing reduces and vice versa, eventually enabling consideration of alveolar collapse and reopening in our model. We further introduce a method for patient-specific determination of the underlying critical parameters of the new alveolar RD dynamics when integrated into the tissue elements, referred to as terminal units, of a spatially resolved physics-based lung model that simulates the human respiratory system in an anatomically correct manner. Relevant patient-specific parameters of the terminal units are herein determined based on medical image data and the macromechanical behavior of the lung during artificial ventilation. We test the whole modeling approach for a real-life scenario by applying it to the clinical data of a mechanically ventilated patient. The generated lung model is capable of reproducing clinical measurements such as tidal volume and pleural pressure during various ventilation maneuvers. We conclude that this new model is an important step toward personalized treatment of ARDS patients by considering potentially harmful mechanisms - such as cyclic RD and overdistension - and might help in the development of relevant protective ventilation strategies to reduce ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI).

Maryland is home to more than 430,000 children under the age of six; 73 percent of these young children have all available parents in the labor force and thus potentially need child care. Stakeholders and advocates in Maryland are committed to advancing strategies that improve early care and education (ECE) services, including workforce preparation and development in order to ensure that early educators have what they need to meet the complex needs of young children. Critical to these efforts is the establishment of a well-coordinated, comprehensive professional preparation and development system that can prepare and support an incoming generation of educators, while also strengthening the skills of the existing early education workforce. Institutions of higher education are crucial to meeting the evolving and increasing demands identified as improving developmental and learning outcomes for the state's young child population. This document highlights findings from the "Maryland Early Childhood Higher Education Inventory" and the extent to which ECE higher education programs offer course content and learning experiences that are associated with effective teacher preparation. The full narrative report, "Teaching the Teachers of Our Youngest Children: The State of Early Childhood Higher Education in Maryland," and the accompanying technical report present the full findings. [For the full report, see ED614007. For the technical report, see ED614014.]

Maryland is home to more than 430,000 children under the age of six; 73 percent of these young children have all available parents in the labor force and thus potentially need child care. Stakeholders and advocates in Maryland are committed to advancing strategies that improve early care and education (ECE) services, including workforce preparation and development in order to ensure that early educators have what they need to meet the complex needs of young children. Critical to these efforts is the establishment of a well-coordinated, comprehensive professional preparation and development system that can prepare and support an incoming generation of educators, while also strengthening the skills of the existing early education workforce. Institutions of higher education are crucial to meeting the evolving and increasing demands identified as improving developmental and learning outcomes for the state's young child population. This technical report presents findings from the "Maryland Early Childhood Higher Education Inventory" and the extent to which ECE higher education programs offer course content and learning experiences that are associated with effective teacher preparation. [For the full report, see ED614007. For the Highlights, see ED614010.]

This report examines the demographic, educational, and employment characteristics (including compensation and benefits) of staff employed in center-based ECE [early care and education] programs throughout Marin County. The findings bring attention to the low wages and economic insecurity of the ECE workforce, particularly against a backdrop of one of the highest costs of living in the country. Key findings include high churn of teaching staff and a diverse workforce stratified by job role. The data were also examined by program type, participation in QRIS, and funding source. This report is an extension of the SEQUAL [Supportive Environmental Quality Underlying Adult Learning] Marin County study, "Teachers' Voices: Work Environment Conditions That Impact Teacher Practice and Program Quality--Marin County" (ED603012). [This report was supported by the Marin County Office of Education.]

California's child early care and education (ECE) system is underfunded, and California policymakers have not been willing to acknowledge the true cost of creating a comprehensive ECE system. Proposals for ECE reform have focused primarily on improving access and affordability for families but have ignored the elephant in the room: Early care and education is substantially "funded" through low teacher pay and inadequate supports for ECE teachers. In addition to being a serious injustice, lack of adequate financial and professional supports for ECE teachers compromises the consistency and quality of care children receive. In this report, the authors develop an estimate of what it would cost to provide high-quality and comprehensive early care and education for California's families that doesn't overburden them financially or come at the expense of ECE teachers. This paper makes the case for aligning the costs of the ECE system with what is required to create a strong and sustainable system. Herein, the authors model a system to meet the needs of all families in California and solve the myriad problems the current system fails to address.

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 K-12 classrooms, fueling the ubiquitous challenge of recruiting and retaining a skilled teaching workforce across the age spectrum. This report presents the findings from the 2019 Marin County SEQUAL study and shares the perspectives of teaching staff in licensed child care centers throughout the county, including centers that participate in one or both of Marin County's quality improvement initiatives (Marin Quality Counts and the ECE Quality Improvement Project) as well as centers that do not participate in either initiative. Following a description of the study design, this report will explore major findings drawn from teaching staff responses. The report is divided into three sections: (1) Study Design shares a study overview, the goals guiding the study, a profile of the survey respondents, and a guide to the findings; (2) Findings outlines teaching staff responses to items in each of the five SEQUAL domains, including an analysis of how responses varied by site characteristics; and (3) Appendices presents additional information on the study design, which includes survey instruments and analysis, characteristics of program leaders, and additional tables and figures. Marin County has made significant investments in and taken critical steps toward improving the quality of early care and education services. Notwithstanding the investment of resources and supports, the working conditions of teaching staff as captured in this study suggest further efforts are needed to support teacher practice and well-being necessary for quality services. Recommendations are made to support funders and policymakers in advancing county efforts to enhance its quality improvement systems and address work environment conditions. [Funding for this report was provided by First 5 Marin, Marin Child Care Council, Marin Child Care Commission, Marin County Office of Education, and the Marin County Board of Supervisors.]

A number of apprenticeship programs, collectively referred to as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Early Educator Apprenticeships, have recently been undertaken in California. The programs were supported by two California Apprenticeship Initiative grants, four Workforce Accelerator Fund grants, and in-kind donations from individual program sponsors. The program sponsors contracted with local institutions of higher education to offer special courses targeted toward current early educators and individuals new to the ECE field, and provided apprentices with stipends or wage increases associated with meeting certain criteria. All apprentices across programs received a set of academic and professional supports throughout their participation in the programs, including ongoing coaching and mentoring, tutoring, individual advising, and courses located in community settings. Apprentices also received financial assistance for Child Development Permit application fees, participated in no-cost college courses, and received textbooks and laptops used in their coursework. The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) employed a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the apprenticeship program. The data collection took place between January and April, 2019. The evaluation consisted of online surveys of previous and active apprentices; focus group discussions with active apprentices; and interviews and focus group discussions with key program informants. The evaluation sought to answer these research questions: (1) Who has participated/is participating in these programs; (2) What impact(s) do participants perceive as a result of their participation in the program; (3) What impact do sponsors/employers perceive as a result of their implementation of these programs; (4) What elements/aspects of the program were most beneficial to participants, employers, and families; (5) What challenges did participants face in participating in the apprenticeship program; and (6) What challenges did employers/sponsors face in implementing the apprenticeship program? The evaluation findings add to the growing evidence that apprenticeship programs present a promising approach to improving the knowledge, skills, and professional identity of early educators. The evaluation revealed the numerous ways in which the strategies employed by the apprenticeship programs--namely access supports like paying for the cost of education and holding classes in community-based locations, academic supports, and peer supports--removed barriers and supported success. Apprentices participating in this evaluation benefited from flexible course scheduling to coordinate with their work and family commitments, support from dedicated staff to ease the transition into college coursework and expectations, and a network of other early educators similarly committed to advancing their credentials and working together to improve their practice with children and families. Further, the apprentices reported gains in their knowledge and enhancements to their practices. [For the main report, see ED602988. The California SEIU Early Educator Apprenticeship Program evaluation is a project of the Service Employees International Union Education and Support Fund (ESF) with grant funding from the California Apprenticeship Initiative and Workforce Accelerator Fund.]

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 including paid planning time, which is essential to effective teaching practices (Whitebook, McLean, Austin, & Edwards, 2018). Inadequate levels of public financing and a heavy reliance on families to pay the costs of early care and education (ECE) services has allowed these conditions to persist for decades with only limited improvement, despite the growing understanding of the impact that early educators have on the children in their charge (NASEM, 2018). In this report, the authors demonstrate how assumptions about what teachers need produce per child costs that vary by thousands of dollars. Recognizing that estimates are important points of information -- as they are often used to inform short- and long-term term decisions about early care and education services -- they examined a set of cost models with regard to assumptions about resources for teachers and their working environments. These assumptions drive the per child and total systems estimates produced for budgetary purposes and ultimately frame the daily realities of early educators.

Early educators often do not have even basic expectations of working conditions -- such as program policies providing for payment for planning time, staff meetings, and professional development; a salary schedule accounting for experience and varied levels of education; and provision of health, retirement, sick-, and vacation-leave benefits that most K-12 educators can rely upon -- nor are teachers typically the focus of strategies and policies to improve the quality of early care and education services. This study captures early educators' perspectives about their work environments in the state of Minnesota and examines how these environments impact teaching staff practice and well-being. In order to teach to the best of their ability, educators require work environments that support their ongoing learning, emphasize time without child responsibilities for professional activities, and offer dependable benefits that ensure their well-being. With prioritization of workforce supports, quality improvement initiatives can make substantive progress towards a system that is equitable, efficient, and effective for children, their families, and educators alike.

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 K-12 classrooms, fueling the ubiquitous challenge of recruiting and retaining a skilled teaching workforce across the age spectrum. This study captures the perspectives of early educators about their working environments in one state, New York, and how these environments impact teaching staff practice and wellbeing. The following report presents the findings from the 2017 New York SEQUAL study and includes the perspectives of teaching staff employed in programs participating in QUALITYstarsNY in the spring and fall of 2017. Following a description of the study design, this report will explore major findings drawn from teaching staff responses. Thus, the report is divided into three sections: (1) "Study Design" shares a study overview, goals guiding the study, a profile of the survey respondents, and a guide to the findings; (2) "Findings" outlines teaching staff responses to items in each of the five SEQUAL domains, including an analysis of how responses varied by site characteristics and quality ratings; and (3) "Appendices" presents additional information on the study design, which includes survey instruments and analysis, characteristics of program leaders, and additional tables and figures. [Additional funding for this report was provided by QUALITYstarsNY and the New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute at the City University of New York (CUNY).]

This report describes the early childhood degree programs offered in Mississippi, focusing on variations in program content, age-group focus, student field-based learning, and faculty characteristics, as well as the extent to which Mississippi ECE higher education programs are incorporating early math, family engagement, and working with dual language learners. This report is part of our Early Childhood Higher Education Inventory. The "Early Childhood Higher Education Inventory," administered by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California at Berkeley, assists policymakers and other stakeholders to develop a more coordinated and comprehensive professional preparation and development system for the early care and education workforce. The Inventory is a mechanism to describe the landscape of a state's early childhood degree program offerings, at the associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels. The Inventory captures variations in program goals, content, child age-group focus, student field-based learning, and faculty characteristics and professional development needs. This information allows policy makers, institutions of higher education and other stakeholders to identify the gaps and opportunities in the available offerings, make informed policy decisions, and assess the capacity of the higher education system over time. [For the Highlights, see ED614354.]

The state of Washington is home to more than 566,000 children under the age of six. About 306,000 of these children have all available parents in the workforce and, thus, potentially need child care. Like many states in recent years, Washington has committed public and private resources toward multiple efforts to improve early care and education services, including early education degree and certification programs, in order to improve the preparation of their graduates to meet the complex needs of young children. Critical to these efforts is the establishment of a well-coordinated, comprehensive professional preparation and development system that can prepare and support an incoming generation of educators, while also strengthening the skills of the existing early education workforce. Institutions of higher education are crucial to meeting the evolving and increasing demands identified as improving developmental and learning outcomes for the state's young child population. This report highlights findings from the "Washington Early Childhood Higher Education Inventory" and the extent to which early childhood higher education (ECE) programs offer course content and learning experiences that are associated with effective teacher preparation. [For the narrative report, see ED614291. For the technical report, see ED614300.]

Tennessee is home to more than 463,000 children under the age of six. Sixty-three percent of these young children have all available parents in the workforce and, thus, potentially need child care. Stakeholders and advocates in Tennessee remain committed to advancing strategies that improve early care and education (ECE) services, including workforce preparation and development in order to ensure that early educators have what they need to meet the complex needs of young children. Critical to these efforts is the establishment of a well-coordinated, comprehensive professional preparation and development system that can prepare and support an incoming generation of educators, while also strengthening the skills of the existing early education workforce. Institutions of higher education are crucial to meeting the evolving and increasing demands identified as improving developmental and learning outcomes for the state's young child population. This document highlights findings from the "Tennessee Early Childhood Higher Education Inventory" and the extent to which ECE higher education programs offer course content and learning experiences that are associated with effective teacher preparation. The full narrative report, "Teaching the Teachers of Our Youngest Children: The State of Early Childhood Higher Education in Tennessee," and the accompanying technical report present the full findings. [For the narrative report, see ED614309. For the technical report, see ED614310.]

This report describes the early childhood degree programs offered in Tennessee, focusing on variations in program content, age-group focus, student field-based learning, and faculty characteristics, as well as the extent to which Tennessee early care and education (ECE) higher education programs are incorporating early math, family engagement, and working with dual language learners. This report is part of our Early Childhood Higher Education Inventory. The "Early Childhood Higher Education Inventory," administered by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California at Berkeley, assists policymakers and other stakeholders to develop a more coordinated and comprehensive professional preparation and development system for the early care and education workforce. The Inventory is a mechanism to describe the landscape of a state's early childhood degree program offerings, at the associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels. The Inventory captures variations in program goals, content, child age-group focus, student field-based learning, and faculty characteristics and professional development needs. This information allows policy makers, institutions of higher education and other stakeholders to identify the gaps and opportunities in the available offerings, make informed policy decisions, and assess the capacity of the higher education system over time. [For the Highlights, see ED614311. For the technical report, see ED614310.]

Tennessee is home to more than 463,000 children under the age of six. Sixty-three percent of these young children have all available parents in the workforce and, thus, potentially need child care. Stakeholders and advocates in Tennessee remain committed to advancing strategies that improve early care and education (ECE) services, including workforce preparation and development in order to ensure that early educators have what they require to meet the complex needs of young children. Critical to these efforts is the establishment of a well-coordinated, comprehensive professional preparation and development system that can prepare and support an incoming generation of educators, while also strengthening the skills of the existing early education workforce. Institutions of higher education are crucial to meeting the evolving and increasing demands identified as improving developmental and learning outcomes for the state's young child population. This technical report presents findings from the "Tennessee Early Childhood Higher Education Inventory" and the extent to which ECE higher education programs offer course content and learning experiences that are associated with effective teacher preparation. [For the narrative report, see ED614309. For the Highlights, see ED614311.]