Education and Care

This blog was originally posted on the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment  website on May 7, 2018.

By: Caitlin Mclean

Why we need to know more about the early childhood workforce

This is an exciting time in early childhood education. Given early educators’ critical role in children’s early learning and development, experts are urging significant policy shifts and substantial new investments to revamp how teachers, leaders, and other professionals working with young children are prepared, supported, and compensated. These changes signal a growing understanding that the well-being and skill of this workforce is key to children’s learning.

But there’s a big obstacle in the way. The field can’t shape policy decisions or allocate resources effectively without first being able to answer basic questions about the early childhood workforce — its size and key characteristics across settings, for example.

The field can’t confidently answer these questions because data on this workforce have not been consistently or systematically collected. We know, for example, that early childhood educators benefit greatly from a deep understanding of child development — this is one reason for the emerging consensus on higher education credentials for this group of educators. And yet, if a policymaker wants to know how many members of the current workforce need additional education and how much education, this information is not available in many places. We would not be able to answer.

Here are a few other questions that we can’t answer with confidence across states:

• How many early educators are there in different settings?
• What percentage participate in professional development?
• How many lead teachers have bachelor’s degrees? Associate degrees?
• How many teachers need educational support to achieve higher qualifications?
• How does level of education vary according to the racial/ethnic characteristics of the
  workforce?
• How many early educators earn $15 per hour or more?

Without good data, we’re essentially guessing. A dearth of data reinforces the status quo. Without data, anecdote — and even bias — drives policy decisions. Without data, resources could be misdirected to communities that do not need them and away from communities that do. Without data, we risk repeating the same mistakes because we don’t know how effective a program or policy is.

Solution: Invest in Better Data

So what would a good early care and education workforce data system look like? Our new brief offers details. In a nutshell, a high-quality data collection would have five qualities.

5 Features Every Data Set Should Have

1. Data should be collected regularly.
2. Data should be comparable across regions, states, and localities.
3. Data sets should be standardized, so data on individuals can be linked to data on
   services, programs, and outcomes for children and families.
4. Data sets should be periodically supplemented to answer new or more detailed
   policy questions as they arise.
5. Data sets should be transparent and accessible to the wider public.

When building a database or conducting a survey, these four questions should be considered.

4 Questions to Ask When Building a Database or Conducting a Survey

1. Can the data be used to estimate the size and key characteristics of the workforce?
2. Do the data accurately and reliably describe the population under study? If the data
   are derived from a sample rather than a census, are they representative of the
   wider population?
3. Are the data sufficiently detailed to provide answers to more complex or in-depth
   policy or research questions?
4. Can the data identify trends over time? Is it possible to track the characteristics of
   the same teachers/providers over time, for example?

Many states have early educator workforce registries or surveys. While these resources are a good start, many registries and surveys currently cannot answer the above four questions, in part because they have not been steadily funded. Without sufficient resources, progress toward realizing the potential of either registries or surveys will likely be halting and incomplete.

5 Steps State and Local Leaders Can Take to Strengthen Data

State and local leaders should continue to develop and strengthen workforce data systems,
starting with the following five steps.

1. Take stock of your data; identify members of the workforce and programs not included.
2. Establish the basic and in-depth questions you can and cannot answer about the
   workforce.
3. Identify potential funding sources — such as the Child Care Development Block Grant —
   and design advocacy strategies for funding workforce data collection, management, and
   analysis.
4. Ensure that workforce data are part of early childhood governance structures and
   support the integration of workforce data systems with broader early childhood data.
5. Help spearhead a federal advocacy effort for better workforce data. Federal leaders
   should continue to encourage and assist states in developing data systems that track
   early care and education workforce composition and characteristics over time.

In the end, access to better data is not simply a “wish-list” item. It is critical to the field. With improved data, we can begin to answer fundamental questions and use that information to better inform policies, build the workforce, and ensure our children are being given every advantage they deserve.

For more, see, “The Workforce Data Deficit Who It Harms and How It Can Be Overcome,” by Marcy Whitebook, Ph.D., Caitlin McLean, Ph.D., and Lea J.E. Austin, Ed.D.

You can find this blog on the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley website here. 

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"Health, education, a safe and stimulating environment at home and in public spaces...none of these is more important than the other." - Mihaela Ionescu, Program Director at ISSA

Opportunities in integrating early years services

We know that integrated early childhood systems help children and their families, particularly the most vulnerable. They benefit from a "one-stop-shop" approach, through which the widest possible range of agencies and services are able to meet their needs either directly or through referral.

They also have benefits for the personnel working with young children. By offering the workforce opportunities to work across professions, the quality of staff practice is improved immensely. When centers are integrated, expertise can be shared across sectors (between health workers and teachers, for example) and work in both sectors can be boosted.

One U.S. study investigated joint working between mental health professionals, daycare, and pre-school staff found that collaboration made teachers more empathetic and interested in the deeper meaning of behavioral problems. These teachers had a greater level of control over, and responsibility for, behavior in their classroom. Training in integrated practice also allows staff from multiple sectors to develop a common way of working, and it enhances the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of service delivery.

In short, integrated systems help practitioners, managers and policymakers accomplish more together – all the while keeping the child at the center of their work. As those working in the field will tell you, this is what we’re after.

The road to integrating services…

INTESYS is a three-year project funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ Programme. A consortium of partners – Aga Khan Foundation, Compagnia San Paolo, Emanuela Zancan Foundation, Calouste Gulbekian Foundation, ISSA, Learning for Well-Being Foundation, Pedagoski Institut and Centre for Innovation in the Early Years – focuses on piloting new approaches to Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) systems in Europe. These pilots aim to ensure children and families in vulnerable situations have access to high-quality ECEC provided by services that are better integrated across sectors and professions.

It isn’t always easy. Even the terminology is not as straightforward as one may hope. Petra Bozovičar of Step By Step Center for Quality in Education mentions a question that arose when describing integrated systems to staff members working on the pilot – it is a question that many of us may have.

“If we call each other when there is a problem that we need to solve- is this not an integrated system?”

Representatives of another pilot plainly state just how difficult the road to integration can be:

Sometimes progress is made, other times you get stuck in reverse. It has become quite clear that cooperation and integration needs strong leadership, a driving force to keep partners motivated.

And, that is just what the INTESYS project is about – cooperation. Through the INTESYS project, a consortium is working together to create a toolkit for Integrated Services. This toolkit is meant to promote integration among different sectors, using the ECEC services as an entry point for integration. The approach takes into account the participation of communities, parents and civil society actors in shaping the integration of services. The Toolkit is promoting the importance of quality in integrated services and is opening the space for dialogue among different stakeholders in the early childhood system.

As a finalization of the INTESYS Toolkit is underway, many representatives of pilot projects have been articulating its success, and just how far they’ve come. One pilot explains:

We came to know each other better and connect with each other, which opened the way for new tasks and also contributed to solving current problems. Together we are stronger and more efficient in finding ways to the common goal.

Where can you learn more…

While we await the final toolkit, the draft can be found here.

You can also hear more about the barriers to making this approach work, the crucial role of the workforce and the leadership and the opportunities that it can create for the outcomes of young children listen to the webinar "Challenges and opportunities in integrating early years services: a spotlight on the workforce." 

Or, read this interview with, ISSA’s Program Director, Mihaela Ionescu where she discusses the need for multi-sectorial, integrated interventions that enable nurturing environments and adopt an individual-child and family perspective.

Did you find this interesting? Sign-up for our newsletter to receive updates about new resources and join the conversation about the early childhood workforce on Twitter.