Early Childhood

Study: Calif. Child-Care Centers Struggle To Keep Good Teachers

By Linda Jacobson — May 02, 2001 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Even child-care programs that are striving to be among the best in the country are struggling to hold on to their teachers and directors, according to the latest findings from a longitudinal study of those who provide care and education to young children.

For More Information

The new “Then and Now” study is available for $15 and can be ordered online from the Center for the Child Care Workforce.

In fact, more than three-quarters of the teachers and 40 percent of the top administrators who worked at a center in 1996 were no longer on the job four years later, says the report, which is based on an examination of programs in three California counties. The study was scheduled for release this week by the Center for the Child Care Workforce and the Institute for Industrial Relations at the University of California, Berkeley.

Calling that turnover pattern the “other teaching crisis,” the authors describe employee turnover in programs for young children as “equal to, if not greater than, the staffing crisis plaguing elementary and secondary schools.”

And they argue that the issue must be addressed through an increase in public funding.

“We think that compensation ... must be increased dramatically and quickly,” said Marcy Whitebook, a senior researcher at the Institute for Industrial Relations.

The study, “Then and Now: Changes in Child Care Staffing, 1994-2000,” shows that many newly hired employees are not as well educated as those they are replacing. While about half the teachers who left had four-year degrees, only a third of the new teachers had the same level of education.

In addition, the researchers found, only half the teachers who had left the centers were still working in child care when they were contacted last year. What’s more, those who were working in other fields were making an average of $8,000 more a year than those who had accepted another child-care job.

The new report updates the center’s 1997 study, which focused on 92 early-childhood-education programs in three northern California counties—Santa Cruz, San Mateo, and Santa Clara— that had earned or were seeking accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The counties have a mix of low-, middle-, and high-income neighborhoods, and the sample includes both nonprofit and for- profit centers.

In the initial study, “NAEYC Accreditation as a Strategy for Improving Child Care Quality,” the researchers found that earning national accreditation was one of the characteristics of high-quality child-care centers, but that such recognition alone was no guarantee that children were receiving the best care possible.

And the new study, which focuses on 75 of the original 92 centers, draws the same conclusion.

Wanted: Higher Salaries

Only centers paying higher wages were more likely to retain their teachers. Those teachers who had quit by 2000 earned an average of $10.29 an hour—about $1.50 less than those who were still in their positions.

The authors note that even the highest-paid and most experienced teachers in centers are making about $10,000 less than the average K-12 teacher in California.

Among their other findings, the authors discovered that early- childhood-education teachers were more likely to stay on the job if they worked with a higher percentage of well-trained colleagues, including those with a college degree and specialized training in child development.

“The absence of capable co-workers makes the already-demanding job of creating a well- functioning environment for children even harder,” the report says.

Barbara A. Willer

Barbara A. Willer, the deputy executive director of the NAEYC, agreed that the high turnover rate over a four-year period “is not good news.”

But she added that the results should be put in context. The study focuses only on counties within California, a state that began a large class-size-reduction effort in grades K-3 nearly five years ago.

Ms. Whitebook said that of the directors who were interviewed for the study, about a third said that they had lost teachers to the public school system.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the May 02, 2001 edition of Education Week as Study: Calif. Child-Care Centers Struggle To Keep Good Teachers

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Recruitment & Retention Webinar
Substitute Teacher Staffing Simplified: 5 Strategies for Success
Struggling to find quality substitute teachers? Join our webinar to learn key strategies to keep your classrooms covered and students learning.
Content provided by Kelly Education
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
AI in Education: Empowering Educators to Tap into the Promise and Steer Clear of Peril
Explore the transformative potential of AI in education and learn how to harness its power to improve student outcomes.
Content provided by Panorama Education
English Learners Webinar Family and Community Engagement: Best Practices for English Learners
Strengthening the bond between schools and families is key to the success of English learners. Learn how to enhance family engagement and support student achievement.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Early Childhood Head Start Teachers Will Earn More—But Programs Might Have to Serve Fewer Kids
A new federal rule will raise wages for Head Start employees—but providers won't get any additional funding.
7 min read
Preschool teacher with kids sitting nearby while she reads a book.
iStock/Getty
Early Childhood EdReports Expands Curriculum Reviews to Pre-K
Non-profit EdReports will review pre-K curricula to gauge its alignment with research on early learning.
2 min read
Boy raises his hand to answer a question in a classroom; he is sitting on the floor with other kids and the teacher is sitting in front of the class.
iStock / Getty Images Plus
Early Childhood The State of Teaching Young Kids Are Struggling With Skills Like Listening, Sharing, and Using Scissors
Teachers say basic skills and tasks are more challenging for young students now than they were five years ago.
5 min read
Young girl using scissors in classroom.
E+ / Getty
Early Childhood Without New Money, Biden Admin. Urges States to Use Existing Funds to Expand Preschool
There's no new infusion of federal funds for preschool, so the Biden administration is pointing out funding sources that are already there.
4 min read
Close cropped photo of a young child putting silver coins in a pink piggy bank.
iStock/Getty