Events

The quality of early education teachers has been shown to be a key driver in overall classroom quality and outcomes for prekindergarten children. Also, early education teachers are prepared, regulated, and compensated differently, and often more poorly, than their K-12 counterparts. However, both professions require similar training and expertise, including a bachelor's degrees for entry level positions. These discrepancies can discourage otherwise interested and qualified candidates from pursuing early education teaching positions, which can contribute to shortages and declines in quality within the early education workforce.

About This Project

Through this project, NCSL will grow legislators' understanding of challenges in the early education workforce and policy options to support early learning teachers. Five state teams will be developed. These teams will be led by a bipartisan duo of legislators with expertise in education or health and human services and include state education agency staff, office of the governor, and the state board of education. Other groups could be invited based on feedback from the state teams, including a member of a stakeholder group, state or local workforce agency, educator preparation program, etc. The state teams will collaborate with one another to create policy action plans for supporting the early learning workforce in their state in four phases:

• Phase One: Building Legislative Expertise
• Phase Two: Policymaker Convening
• Phase Three: In-State Technical Assistance Action Plan Development
• Phase Four: Action Plan Writing and State Team Approval

Areas of Focus:

• Improve Preparation and Ongoing Development: Improvements to the preparation and ongoing professional learning, with emphasis on institutions of higher education.
• Enhance Quality of Practice: Enhancement to the quality of professional practice though implementation research.  
• Professionalize the Field: Professionalization of the early childhood workforce and increased awareness of the status of the early childhood workforce.

Meetings and Timeline

June 22, 2021, 1-4 p.m. ET: Virtual Early Learning Workforce Boot Camp 

Join NCSL staff, early learning researchers, and program administrators as we review the challenges faced by the early learning workforce and discuss opportunities to support these essential workers. This meeting will cover the current state of the early learning workforce, teacher preparation, teacher and classroom support, and career pathways. The meeting will also include opportunities to engage with experts and fellow legislators and staff.

To register for the meeting, please contact Emily Ronco.

Resources

Pre-meeting materials:

• 2020 Early Childhood Workforce Index Policy Recommendations (Center for the Study of Child Care Employment [CSCCE])
  • State Profiles - Early Childhood Workforce Index 2020 (CSCCE)
• The American Rescue Plan: Recommendations for Addressing Early Educator Compensation and Supports (CSCCE)
• Video: Growing and Learning in Preschool (National Institute for Early Education Research [NIEER])
• The High Quality Early Learning Project 
  • Report: Quality UPK Teaching in Diver Settings (The City College of New York and Columbia University)

Other resources:

• Report: Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation (Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council of the National Academies)
• The Early Care and Education Workforce (NCSL)

URL:

https://www.ncsl.org/research/education/building-a-strong-early-learning-workforce.aspx