Losing Ground in California Early Childhood Education:
Declining Workforce Qualifications in an Expanding Industry, 1980-2004
Stephen Herzenberg, Mark Price, and David Bradley
Introduction
The qualifications of early childhood educators matter because, first, high-quality ECE improves long-term academic outcomes for children and delivers benefits to the community that far outweigh the costs;(1) and second, high-quality ECE programs require educated and experienced teachers (Bowman, Donovan, and Burns 2000).
This briefing paper relies on new data sets that track center-based ECE outside the public school system for 25 years (see Box). For home-based ECE, data are available for 2000-04.
Main findings
A lower share of center-based early childhood educators has a four-year college degree than in the 1980s. In center-based ECE programs, the share of California early childhood educators (teachers, directors, assistant teachers, and teacher aides) with a four-year college degree fell from 26% in the late 1980s to 16% in 2000-04.
A higher share has a high-school degree or less. The share of California center-based educators with a high school education or less climbed from about 30% throughout 1983-93 to 37% in 2000-04.
By the year 2000, less than a third of center-based early childhood educators had a college degree in every one of 14 metropolitan areas. In Riverside-San Bernadino, Bakersfield, and Fresno, less than one in 10 center-based early childhood educators had a college degree. In Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, and San Jose, one in six or less had a college degree.
Education levels are lower still in home-based ECE. In California home-based ECE, only 9% of staff members has a college degree or more and 26% do not have a high school degree.
Low wages and benefits help explain ECE education levels. The fall in the education levels of center-based early childhood educators stems partly from median pay that remains about $9 per hour—some $19,000 per year for a full-time worker—and a lack of health care and pension benefits.
The story that emerges from the data is that the position of ECE in the California labor market has changed for the worse since the late 1980s. As the field has expanded, female college graduates have enjoyed expanding career opportunities in other fields and, in some families, greater economic need (over 95% of the ECE workforce is female). As a result, center directors often find that they must hire individuals with low education levels and no specialized training in early childhood development.
California and the nation need a new approach to preparing early childhood educators who can help children succeed. The new approach must establish high standards for all teaching staff and increase compensation to attract and retain teachers who can meet high standards.
1 These benefits include lower costs for subsequent education, increased taxes paid once children mature and enter the workforce, and reduced social costs (Lynch 2004).
Bowman, Barbara T., M. Suzanne Donovan, and M. Susan Burns, eds. 2000. Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers. Report of the Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy, National Research Council. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. pp. 161-176.
Lynch, Robert. 2004. Net Benefits of Early Childhood Development. Washington, D.C.: Economic Policy Institute.Download the complete report
You can download the complete report "Losing Ground in California Early Childhood Education" in PDF format. The complete report includes important information about the data examined, additional figures, and complete references.