Losing Ground in Massachusetts Early Childhood Education:
Declining Qualifications in an Expanding Industry, 1980-2004
Stephen Herzenberg, Mark Price, and David Bradley
Introduction
“Parents can’t afford to pay, teachers can’t afford to stay, there’s got to be a better way” goes the lament of professionals in the field of early childhood education (ECE). This briefing paper shows that the Massachusetts industry has indeed struggled to attract and hold onto a qualified workforce since the 1980s.
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).
The briefing paper relies on new data sets that track the center-based portion of ECE outside public schools for 25 years (see Box). For home-based early childhood education, consistent 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 early 1980s. In center-based ECE programs the share of Massachusetts early childhood educators (teachers, directors, assistant teachers, and teacher aides) with a four-year college degree declined from as much as 45% in the 1980s to 26% today.
A higher share has a high school degree or less. Between the early 1980s and 2000-04, the share of Massachusetts center-based early childhood educators with a high school education or less doubled from 16% to 34%.
In the year 2000,only a thirdof center-based early childhood educators in Boston and Worcester had a college degree. In Springfield-Holyoke-Chicopee, Lowell and the Massachusetts portion of Providence-Fall River-Pawtucket fewer than a quarter of these educators had a college degree.
Education and compensation levels lower still in home-based early childhood education. In Massachusetts home-based ECE in 2000, 20% of the workforce had a college degree or more; 42% had a high school degree or less.
Low wages and benefits help explain ECE education levels. The decline in the education levels of center-based early childhood educators is related to a lack of health care and pension benefits and to median pay that has fallen from 76% of the wages of all Massachusetts workers to 66%. In 2000-04, early childhood educators earned about $10.50 per hour—some $22,000 per year for a full-time worker.
The story that emerges from the data is that the position of center-based ECE in the Massachusetts labor market has changed for the worse since the 1980s. As the field has expanded from less than 10,000 in the early 1980s to nearly 30,000, female college graduates have enjoyed expanding career opportunities in other fields and in some families, greater economic need. As a result, center directors often find that they must hire individuals with low education levels and no specialized training in early childhood development.
Massachusetts and the nation need a new approach to preparing early childhood staff 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 Massachusetts Early Childhood Education in PDF format. The complete report includes important information about the data examined, additional figures, and complete references.