The Early Childhood Care and Education Workforce Challenges and Opportunities: A Workshop Report (2012) / Chapter Skim
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5 Building the Workforce and the Profession
5 Building the Workforce and the Profession
Pages 61-80
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From page 61... ...
She emphasized the point that innovative strategies are needed to reach those who provide care and education in homes, both in family child care settings as well as in the homes of the large numbers of family, friends, and neighbors who provide child care, regardless of their status as members of the ECCE profession. Lombardi described her concern that the ECCE field needs -- but may 61
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From page 62... ...
She highlighted several federal initiatives to address the needs of a broad range of the ECCE workforce, including Head Start's National Center for Teaching and Learning, programs to support home-based pro viders, and the expansion of mentoring programs for teachers. She also noted her optimism in seeing the energy, creativity, and intentionality of young teachers, including those from Teach for America and so many other new teachers, who are dedicating their work to young children.
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From page 63... ...
developed a template to evaluate new and emerging health care professions, such as acupunc ture, naturopathic medicine, and homeopathic medicine. This tool has since been used in many contexts because it provides a standard way to identify benchmarks to gauge progress relative to other fields, and to calibrate expectations related to cost, access, choice, quality, and culturally appropriate care or service.
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From page 64... ...
Existing and emerging fields have taken different pathways in this climate of rapid change, but several factors are widely shared. The most important ingredient in keeping them viable, she added, is leadership, and leaders within the 200-plus recognized health professions have looked to education, certifica tion, and licensure tools to help them gain public recognition and stay current.
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From page 65... ...
CAREER PATHWAYS FOR WORKERS Marcy Whitebook, senior researcher and director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley, presented an overview of the interrelated contextual challenges facing today's ECCE workforce. Differences among caregivers and teachers -- in their purpose and goals, the care they provide, and their education and training -- are vast and often reinforced by regulation and funding streams, she noted.
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From page 66... ...
Demographic differences in the profiles of workers in the various settings that provide care and education also reflect status differences, as some California data suggest. In that state, 26 percent of K–12 teachers, 47 percent of teachers in ECCE centers, and 58 percent of licensed providers are non-white (while 70 percent of children they care for are non-white)
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From page 67... ...
. The financial issues are complex in the current political environment, but working to make affordable care available is nonetheless a key responsibility of these professions.
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From page 68... ...
"If we just build one piece then it's not going to be an efficient system." EDUCATION AND TRAINING Education and training are critical components to having an ECCE workforce that is able to meet the needs of children and families. Pamela Winton, senior scientist and director of outreach at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provided an overview of the current system and the issues it presents.
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From page 69... ...
6. Are education and training integrated across key sectors (child care, Head Start, public prekindergarten, early intervention)
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From page 70... ...
Unfortu 2 Winton noted that organizations that have standards for early childhood educators include NAEYC, the Teacher Education Accreditation Council, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, Child Development Association, and Council for Exceptional Children.
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From page 71... ...
The CONNECT Project (the Center to Mobilize Early Child hood Knowledge) is addressing this need by designing instructional modules for early childhood faculty and professional development providers that are focused on research-based practices drawn from the professional and program standards of the NAEYC, DEC/CEC, and Head Start.
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From page 72... ...
Some state training registries list professional development providers, but, in general, few people are thinking about this issue. Data are not adequate to describe the knowledge, skills, and practices of those who are delivering education and training (Hyson
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From page 73... ...
Existing early childhood systems are not well integrated. Multiple professional development initiatives are ongoing across child care, Head Start, public prekindergarten, preschool disabilities, and early intervention programs, each with different funding streams, missions, and standards (Buysse et al., 2009; Winton et al., 2008)
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From page 74... ...
the greatest number of individuals who are diverse and are interested in early education, as well as the greatest number of men interested in this female-dominated field. Another concern for Mann was the general lack of preparedness of young people entering postsecondary education, which ultimately influ ences the readiness of early childhood workers.
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From page 75... ...
Zaslow recommended further study of whether the graduates of these programs actually engage in observably different practices, as well as whether differences exist in the populations that select and enroll in different programs. Zaslow also noted national efforts to provide quality markers for training, including individual credentialing, program accreditation, and identification of qualified professional development providers.
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From page 76... ...
Six compen sation strategies have shown some promise: • Closed delivery systems, such as the U.S. Department of Defense, that link career ladders, wages, and benefits; • Requirements for parity in pay and benefits with the prekin dergarten sector, as has been tried in a few cases, such as New Jersey's Abbott preschools and public prekindergarten programs in North Carolina; • Wage subsidies to help child care programs meet minimum salary requirements for different types of work, such as the Washington Career Ladder, and San Francisco's WAGES Plus program; • Individual salary supplements, now offered by about 15 states, that offer regular, graduated supplements to individuals and are tied to education levels.
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From page 77... ...
Ellen Frede, codirector of the National Institute for Early Education Research, focused first on what the early childhood field can do to improve public understanding of its role and its value. Perhaps, she suggested, "we need to let go of some sacred cows." While both public prekindergarten teachers and nurses might be surprised to hear themselves described as well-paid, their wages are higher
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From page 78... ...
However, despite these challenges, Rudisill noted the significance of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for the ECCE workforce. "For us to hit 2014, which is only a few years away, and have every single member of the workforce covered by health insurance, will be huge....
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From page 79... ...
NAEYC Executive Director Jerlean Daniel said NAEYC is working hard to build the profession, as are other advocates. Their focus is the whole child, she explained, because it is "so easy to focus on particular policies and end up only addressing a very narrow aspect of what children really need to grow and develop." They also work to help people understand that early childhood workers have specialized knowledge, but "it is hard and exhausting work and it never seems to be done." She described a constant "dance between research and practice," but indicated that "really researchers, policy makers, and practitioners must work together." Linda Smith, executive director of the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies, noted that "we don't have a system of health care in this country any more than we have a system of early care and education." In her view, what the early education community can learn from health care is that consumers must be their own advocates as they navigate an array of options that are not really "connected to anything central." Walter Gilliam, director of the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale University, echoed this view, suggesting that the difficulty is that even the consumers of the service do not neces sarily recognize what constitutes high quality, or what is required to make it possible.
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From page 80... ...
They assume that because counting and learning preliteracy skills seem simpler than, say, high school mathematics, the teachers of young children have a much easier job than mathematics teachers do. To Gilliam, the lack of understanding and value placed on the work of the ECCE workforce is the crux of the challenge facing the field.
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