“Losing Ground in Early Childhood Education” is available from the Economic Policy Institute.
Preschool teachers and child-care workers in center-based programs today have lower levels of education than their predecessors two decades ago had, concludes a study released last week.
Produced by the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, the Keystone Research Center in Harrisburg, Pa., and the New York City-based Foundation for Child Development, the study found that from 1983 to 1985, an average of 43 percent of center-based teachers and administrators had at least a four-year college degree.
But from 2002 to 2004, an average of only 30 percent of people in those positions had that level of education. The report suggests that minimal benefits and low wages in the early-childhood field have deterred new professionals from entering the field.