North America

While a global understanding of teacher well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic is beginning to emerge, much remains to be understood about what early childhood teachers have felt and experienced with respect to their work and well-being. The present mixed-method study examined early care and education (ECE) teachers’ working conditions and physical, psychological, and professional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic using a national sample of 1434 ECE teachers in the U.S.

Early educator well-being is increasingly understood as a critical ingredient of high-quality early education and care. The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened educator well-being by exacerbating existing stressors and introducing novel stressors to all aspects of early educators’ lives, and early educators have had differential access to resources to cope with these new circumstances.

The early childhood education (ECE) workforce plays a key role in promoting early childhood development by their interactions with young children during formative years. However, the inherent demands of the profession and the work conditions within ECE settings affect job satisfaction and overall health and well-being.

A stronger, more effective early care and education (ECE) workforce is essential for supporting children’s development. Yet the nation’s ECE workforce faces many challenges, including inadequate compensation that varies widely by jurisdiction, high staff turnover, and disparities in training and resources across the ECE sector. To address these challenges, states are working to implement new policies and establish new requirements to better support their ECE workforces.

The COVID-19 virus has created considerable uncertainty about the remainder of this school year, the next school year, and beyond. Federal, state, and local government responses should be informed by understanding current policies and their history, including the effects of the last major economic crisis, the Great Recession, on America’s state-funded preschool programs.

The COVID-19 crisis has revealed how much our nation relies on early care and education services in order for other workforces to function, yet chronic disregard for early educators’ well-being has essentially rendered their needs invisible. The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment has developed a set of 5 recommendations intended to be undertaken together, that help protect the lives of early educators and their communities and prioritize getting financial relief directly to childcare programs and staff.

Connecticut Voices for Children released a second crisis response report, as part of a series of reports, that outlines what the state can do to support children and families during and after the COVID-19 crisis.

This book describes the ways in which the mentoring terrain in early care and education has changed over the last two decades, and the multiple contexts in which mentoring now occurs. It offers mentors, coaches, and/or technical assistance providers an effective, activity-based way to reflect on, practice, and sharpen skills for working with early childhood practitioners, and it can be adapted to a wide variety of early care and education settings.

This report details the findings of the Early Childhood Higher Education Inventory: Principal Certification Programs [Principal Inventory] (CSCCE, 2016) conducted in the state of New Jersey in 2016. The Principal Inventory is a research tool used to assess the inclusion of course content and field experiences related to early education in preparation programs for educational professionals seeking to become principals. The report outlines an approach to reconceptualizing and strengthening preparation and support for principal candidates and current school leaders.