The Early Childhood Care and Education Workforce Challenges and Opportunities: A Workshop Report (2012) / Chapter Skim
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6 Workshop Themes
6 Workshop Themes
Pages 81-90
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From page 81... ...
This chapter summarizes the main messages from the presentations and discussion on each of these questions, together with key points from the final workshop discussion. DEFINING AND DESCRIBING THE WORKFORCE Defining and describing the ECCE workforce is challenging in large part because the purpose and nature of the work, the characteristics of the individuals who do this work, and the settings in which it is done vary a great deal, as discussed in Chapter 2.
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From page 82... ...
However, decision makers also want more complete information about trends in the characteristics of the workforce as a whole, the influence of market and policy forces on those characteristics, and the relationships between those characteristics and quality of care and outcomes for children. Workshop discussion highlighted two primary issues that limit the usefulness of existing datasets.
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From page 83... ...
At the same time, the supply of people willing to work in early childhood care and education for relatively low wages is elastic, and the field has high rates of job turnover. Thus, despite the tremendous increase in the demand for child care that has occurred as mothers of young children have increased their labor force participation, the wages of ECCE workers have remained relatively flat.
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From page 84... ...
Results for a number of early child hood programs indicate that the longest term benefits are generally the greatest -- the more data that are accumulated, and the greater the time for benefits to emerge, the greater the quantifiable value of the return on investment. As described in Chapter 3, these analyses are likely to prove particularly useful for policy makers who need to choose among policy alternatives or assess the impact of particular interventions.
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From page 85... ...
A presenter recommended the evaluation of "packages" of program characteristics associated with a mix of high quality and program effectiveness, which would likely include: well-educated teachers; adequate compensation; strong curriculum and professional development; small classes and reasonable teacher-to-child ratios; good working conditions (paid planning time, substitutes, regular meetings, etc.) ; strong supervision, monitoring, and review; and both high standards and continuous improvement.
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From page 86... ...
Making a career in this field more attractive to potential workers, one person observed, will require a large and potentially costly public policy effort to regulate and professionalize the occupation along the lines of public K–12 education. Evidence indicates that such investments can yield sub stantial improvements in program quality and child development, but presenters and participants suggested that more information about the circumstances in which the benefits exceed the costs is needed.
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From page 87... ...
Participants also identified some goals for both data collection and analytic research. With regard to data collection systems, various participants noted the value of: • Reliable estimates of the size and characteristics of the workforce at both the individual occupational level and the organizational or establishment level; • Data collection that is consistent over time and occurs at frequent enough intervals to capture the effects of changes in economic conditions, major public policy shifts, and other influences; • The capacity to disaggregate data by state, and, for some informa tion, by local jurisdiction and program type; • Information about the factors that have been shown to be reliable predictors of quality caregiving, with disaggregation by the ages of children 0 to 5 years; and • Data that can be used by different actors, including parents, pro viders, policy makers, and researchers.
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From page 88... ...
They emphasized that while high-quality programs offer great benefits to children and society, care and education that are of poor or even mediocre quality can limit or harm children's development. The varying purposes of and expectations for ECCE, whether focused on enabling parents to work or enhancing child development, have complicated efforts to develop clear occupational definitions, meaningful entry requirements that relate in predictable ways to the quality of care and
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From page 89... ...
Many participants saw better data systems as a critical step toward educating the public about the true nature of the ECCE workforce, targeting ECCE policies efficiently, and knowing whether investments made in the workforce were effective. Many partici pants recommended that future solutions take into account the context of the workforce, noting that "silver bullet" solutions to challenges do not exist, and that the most successful programs address an array of factors affecting the workforce.
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