In April 2015, the National Academies Press published a seminal volume for the early childhood education field. Transforming the Workforce for Children from Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation, puts forth a vision for shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and lays out many principles for effective preparation and ongoing professional learning. Transforming the Workforce’s recommendations, titled “Blueprint for Action,” do not call for minor tweaks to policy and practice. Instead, the report urges significant shifts to revamp how teachers, leaders, and other professionals working with children birth through age eight (B–8) are prepared, credentialed, and supported.

This will be no easy task. Much thought will need to be given to the appropriate roles for key players including federal, state, and local policymakers and the starting point of each state, recognizing that some are much further along in this work than others. Each state and community is starting at a different place. States have different governance and regulatory structures as well as political contexts, and so it is important to help stakeholders understand and effectively navigate each state’s unique landscape so they have a clear understanding of the best place to begin promoting transformation within their respective states.

The National Academy of Medicine has produced several resources based on the report. This multimedia guidebook is our contribution, complete with key takeaways, videos, interactive tools, a glossary, and more. We have designed it with three doorways for three different but overlapping audiences: educators who work directly with children, educators in higher education who prepare those educators, and policymakers interested in improving early learning settings for children from B–8.

Before you dive in, you may have some basic questions about where the movement started and what challenges it is trying to overcome. We begin with Frequently Asked Questions.

In 2018, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine published its Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education (birth through age 5), putting forward an ambitious vision for financing early care and education (ECE) with a well-prepared and well-compensated workforce.

Who is in this workforce?

This workforce consists of professionals who are involved in caring for and teaching children at any point in their development from birth through age 8 (B–8); they are typically described as working in the “early care and education” sector. The sector includes a wide range of settings and programs: home-visiting programs which support first-time parents, child care centers, pre-K programs, afterschool programs, and classrooms in the primary grades of elementary schools. Professionals in this sector are also working in health, medical, and social services agencies, but the Transforming the Workforce report focuses primarily on what it calls “those professionals who are responsible for regular, daily care and education.”

Why does the workforce need to be transformed?

New studies on children’s cognitive and social and emotional growth, including the burgeoning science of brain development, have exposed the importance of children’s earliest years for setting the path for their future. The adults who provide for the care and education of young children bear a great responsibility for the nature and quality of these early years. They need specific knowledge and skills, as well as commensurate financial compensation and supportive workplace conditions, to help young children learn and develop. These professionals are building the foundation for a child’s lifelong progress. And yet, in the United States, the members of this workforce are not currently supported and prepared for this important work. As Transforming the Workforce puts it, “the requirements for their preparation and credentials often depend on the setting where they work rather than on the needs of children.” The report goes on to explain: “those who care for and educate young children currently are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by their common objective and shared contributions to the development and early learning of young children and the common knowledge base and competencies needed to do their jobs well.”

Why does the push to transform the workforce extend across the first eight years of a child’s life?

Not only are these the years often recognized in scientific literature as the period of “early childhood,” they are also years in which children are moving through different learning settings that are disconnected from each other. One of the biggest areas of disconnect is at the transition between pre-K and entrance into elementary school. Creating systems in which professionals share a common language about how to support young children can alleviate the stress on a child’s social and cognitive growth that comes from these transitions.

Why not just focus on the professionals that work with children before kindergarten?

During the period of rapid brain development that children experience from B–8, continuity of experiences can help ensure that each year of early care and education builds on the next. The transition from a pre-K or child care setting to an elementary school can be a particularly challenging time because these systems are often disjointed. Focusing on professionals in both early care and education settings and elementary schools increases the likelihood that children will experience consistent learning environments. While the qualification requirements are often higher for professionals working with children from kindergarten through third grade, they also have room to improve their practice and understanding of early childhood education.

What does it mean to “unify” this workforce?

The professionals serving children from B–8 are not currently viewed as a cohesive workforce. Those working in different settings are held to disparate expectations often based on the type of setting, age of the children they serve, the source of program funding, and the regulations they adhere to. Their qualifications, preparation, professional learning opportunities, and levels of compensation are also highly varied. As a result, the professionals covered in Transforming the Workforce often do not even view themselves “as part of the same professional landscape.”

Unifying the workforce would mean that all professionals caring for and educating children from B–8 have the same foundational knowledge and competencies needed to serve this population, as outlined in the research on early learning and child development.

Help clarify the terminology. What does it mean to be a professional in this workforce? What does it mean to be an educator? What is a lead educator?

To be a professional in this workforce means to be working on behalf of the growth and development of young children according to a set of professional standards. The Transforming the Workforce report uses the term “care and education professionals” and that group includes practitioners in the health and social services sectors, along with educators. Educators in particular are those “professionals with regular (daily or near-daily), direct responsibilities for the care and education of young children.”

The report defines “lead educators” as “those who bear primary responsibility for children and are responsible for planning and implementing activities and instruction and overseeing the work of assistant teachers and paraprofessionals. Roles include lead educators in classroom and center-based settings, center directors/administrators, and owner/operators and lead practitioners in home-based or family childcare settings.”

NOTE: In this guidebook, based on the Transforming the Workforce report, the construction “B–8 educator” or “B–8 professional” denotes an educator or professional who is working anywhere within the sector that serves children from birth through age 8. For those who are only serving children up through age 5, we use the term “B­­–5.”

Why does the Transforming the Workforce report not include any recommendations about compensation and benefits?

The committee behind Transforming the Workforce was tasked with focusing on how professionals can best serve children during the early years based on the science of child development and early learning. The recommendations are meant to address what is best for young children and the workforce without being constrained by concern for limited resources. The committee was specifically asked not to address funding and financing.

However, as the report states in its section on The Reality of Resources, adequate financial resources are key to seeing the recommendations to fruition. Another committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Financing Early Care and Education with a Highly Qualified Workforce, has been working on that issue and will release a follow-up report to Transforming the Workforce in early 2018. The committee members working on the forthcoming report have expertise in economics, financing, labor markets, and other necessary areas.

What about the parents and family members who are with children every day?

The report acknowledges that parents and family members who care for children every day are usually the most important adults in their lives. Children’s interactions and relationships with their primary caregivers are instrumental to their success. As a growing percentage of families have all available parents working outside the home, most young children now spend a significant portion of their time with caregivers outside of their immediate families. Transforming the Workforce focuses specifically on the professional workforce responsible for caring for and educating young children and does not address parenting interventions or the types of support programs parents need. The 2016 report Parenting Matters: Supporting Parents of Children Ages 0–8 published by the National Academies focuses on these topics.

Why are bachelor’s degrees recommended for lead educators?

A bachelor’s degree with a teaching credential has long been the requirement for most teachers working in elementary grades. The qualifications for professionals in the birth through age five (B–5) space are less consistent and usually much lower. The report recommends holding all lead educators, regardless of setting or age group, to the same standards: a bachelor’s degree with specialized knowledge and competencies related to early education. The full list of those competencies is on page 497 of the report; they include a knowledge of the developmental science behind multiple domains of learning, an understanding of learning trajectories for different subject areas, an ability to help advance the learning of children with special developmental needs, and more. For background on the research and policy aspirations behind this recommendation, see pages 509–521.

Is transforming the workforce simply about adding new training programs and credentials?

Not at all. It will also require overcoming the challenging conditions that face today’s educators and caregivers (low wages; minimal benefits; stressful interactions, particularly in working with children and families coming from trauma; high turnover rates). And it will entail developing career pathways to enable practitioners of all kinds to see the steps toward their own growth and development. The report envisions a tree-like structure for B–8 careers, with shared knowledge at the base and trunk of the tree and specialized knowledge at the branches.

How long will it take to transform the workforce?

The report acknowledges the complexity and challenges of transforming the disjointed early childhood workforce. “Full implementation of some of these recommendations could take years or even decades,” the report states. “At the same time, the need to improve the quality, continuity, and consistency of professional practice for children from birth through age 8 is urgent.”

During early brain development, new neurons and synapses form and differentiate into specialized cells and brain regions that perform specific functions, laying the foundation for cognitive and social and emotional development. The developing brain is easily molded, making it highly responsive to experience and stimulation. Enriching environments will support healthy brain development, but exposure to stress and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can result in changes to the brain that can impact behavior and the capacity for learning.

Cognitive development is guided by continuous, bidirectional interactions between human biology and social environment. Both normative and maladaptive development are dependent upon the interaction of genes and environment. Gene-environment interplay consists of three interactive processes: gene-environment interaction (GxE), gene-environment correlation (rGE), and epigenetics. During critical periods of development, such as early childhood, the brain is especially responsive to the effects of physical and social environmental exposures. This is when exposures can result in irreversible changes in brain circuitry. Early learning experiences and environments influence long-term developmental and academic trajectories.

Psychosocial adversities during the prenatal period and early life have biological consequences. Examples of active stressors include chronic threat or danger, but a lack of nurturing and supportive relationships create significant stress as well, especially for young children. Early adversity (adverse childhood experiences) has lasting effects on brain development, stress response systems, coping mechanisms, and learning, and has been linked to problems in physical and mental health in adulthood. New studies also show that prenatal exposure to chronic stress also influences the developing brain because fetal development is affected by maternal stress.

Children living in poverty may experience multiple stressors, such as lack of food and exposure to violence, making them more susceptible to disruptions in brain development, especially with cognitive and self-regulatory functions. These changes may manifest as academic and social problems when the children enter early childhood programs or school. However, children are not all equally sensitive to negative and positive environmental factors. Some are more responsive to social environment, showing more negative or positive outcomes depending on the environment in which they grow up. Highly susceptible children are not just affected by unsupportive conditions; they may also benefit disproportionately from positive environments. Understanding the interplay between environmental and genetic factors in relation to individual differences in brain development is important for designing early interventions.

“Given the foundational and rapid processes of brain development during foundational periods of early development, this is a window of both great risk of vulnerability to developmental disruption and great potential for receptivity to positive developmental influences and interventions.” (pg. 60)

Policymakers

• Does your state provide resources or encourage research-based interventions or other types of support to help reduce prenatal exposure to stress?
• How does your state provide these resources to help children and their parents through adverse situations? Where are these services provided?

Higher Education

• Do teacher preparation programs include coursework about the impacts of adversity on young children?
• Do teacher preparation programs adequately teach the science of brain development to future educators, those who will work with young children as well as those teaching older children?

B–8 Workforce

• What information do you have about the backgrounds of young children in your care?
• Do you have the opportunity to sit down with each family and discuss life stressors family members are facing as well as set goals for their children?

Children are actively learning from the moment they are born. Many of the foundations of learning that are critical to later academic success are established in the first few years of life. For example, the development of secure attachments with supportive parents and caregivers during the first years of life helps children to develop socially and emotionally.

New studies show that at a young age, children begin developing the background knowledge that will enable them to better understand concepts in specific subject areas, such as math and literacy. Because of this fact, it is crucial that early educators have some knowledge of how children develop at various ages and stages across multiple domains and have the skills necessary to support that growth in the first few years of life.

Take the case of language and literacy development. Children are learning the building blocks of language from their very earliest days. Parents’ and caregivers’ talk with infants helps to stimulate language comprehension before children begin speaking their first words. The oral language and vocabulary young children learn through interactions with parents and caregivers can set the stage for future academic success. By the age of two a link exists between vocabulary size and reading comprehension, which lasts through fifth grade. Research also shows that young children who develop strong oral language skills are more likely to later develop strong reading skills. Oral language skills can be improved by engaging in authentic conversations (instead of “repeat after me” or one-word answers) with adults and other children. One of the best methods for building language and literacy skills is through interactive storybook reading in which the book stimulates conversations between children and caregivers. Engaging young children in extended discourse about a story by asking open-ended questions is an effective method for building literacy and language.

With mathematics, researchers are also uncovering important information about young children’s capacities and the benefits of exposing them to developmentally informed teaching. Early knowledge of math strongly predicts later success in the subject; skills in math are also closely entwined with language ability. If guided and provided with opportunities to learn and explore, young children can gain an understanding of mathematics that is broader and more sophisticated than counting and recognizing simple shapes. For example, among the mathematical abilities young children need to develop is the ability to discriminate between large and small sets, known as subitizing. Research is pointing to subitizing capabilities as necessary for forming a foundation for eventually understanding number words, the number word sequence, and the development of exact and extended number concepts and skills. Other more complex math skills include the use of mathematical language, which can be enhanced through discussions about how to solve narrative story problems.

The development of social and emotional skills, such as the ability to work collaboratively, learn from peers, and manage emotions and behavior, are critical for children’s long-term success. A secure parent-child attachment sets the foundation for the healthy development of these skills. They can also be encouraged by knowledgeable educators who set developmentally appropriate expectations, provide predictable routines, and guide children in developing skills of self-management.

Physical development and health are also critical for young children to thrive. Proper nutrition, a physically safe environment, and opportunities for physical activity are all linked to improved academic performance throughout a child’s life. Care and education settings can encourage healthy physical development in children by promoting healthy eating, offering opportunities for physical activity, and providing developmental screenings and connecting families to follow-up care and services.

Cognitive development can be hindered by exposure to chronic stress and adversity that arise from sources such as poverty, family conflict, parental depression, abuse, and neglect. Two-generation interventions can be effective in reducing the levels of stress faced by children by providing resources, such as job placement services, to parents while also caring for children in the family. Chronic stress and adversity can negatively affect fundamental cognitive skills, decrease self-regulation, and imperil mental and physical health. Early care and education professionals must be trained to recognize the effects of chronic stress and assist children in developing the skills necessary for coping with adverse experiences, such as persistence and emotional awareness.

“The secure attachments that young children develop with educators contribute to an expectation of adult support that enables young children to approach learning opportunities more positively and confidently.” (pg. 103)

“Children’s early knowledge of mathematics is surprisingly important, and it strongly predicts later success in mathematics. Mathematics knowledge in preschool predicts mathematics achievement even into high school. Mathematics ability and language ability also are interrelated as mutually reinforcing skills.” (pg. 118)

“What matters is not just how much language young children are exposed to but the social and emotional context of language shared with an adult.” (pg. 150)

Policymakers

• Are policies in place that aim to support children and also give their parents access to workforce training or programs to reduce their stress levels?
• What is the state doing to help parents better understand the importance of talking with children starting as soon as they are born?
• Are the latest findings from social and cognitive science reflected in state, district, or institutional guidelines for young children’s growth and development?
• Do the guidelines for the routines in children’s classrooms allow for cross-domain learning and interplay between subject areas, such as using the teaching of early mathematics to also build oral language development?

Higher Education

• Since interactive storybook reading is one of the best ways to build the language and literacy skills of young children, is adequate time spent training future educators in best practices for interactive reading?
• What kind of training on early literacy and early math is offered in early childhood and elementary preparation programs? Do faculty teach across these programs and/or collaborate on content?

B–8 Workforce

• What mechanisms or supportive structures, such as curricula, are in place at the school level to help you build the social and emotional skills of young children?
• Are research-backed techniques for ensuring a secure educator-child attachment, such as primary caregiving and continuity of care, in place for infants and toddlers in early education programs?

Most children experience a variety of early care and education settings during their first eight years, starting in the home, then possibly at a child care center or pre-K program, followed by the start of formal education. As children grow and develop, a continuity of learning is essential for ensuring that early academic success and development are built upon by consistent educational experiences. Vertical continuity refers to the consistency of care and education up through the programs that children experience as they grow up. Horizontal continuity refers to consistency across different services or entities that serve children and families during a particular period of their lives. Both are essential to children’s success.

Communication, planning, and coordination across settings and programs and between educators within the care and education sector allow those working with children to be aware of the learning experiences that have come before and those that will follow, as well as the support they are currently receiving. Continuity also helps align expectations for children’s experiences and creates shared understanding of the interconnected quality of developmental processes.

All adults working with young children should share the same foundation of knowledge and competencies to promote learning and development. When states align early learning guidelines across the continuum and across sectors, they help to ensure that professionals share an understanding of developmentally appropriate practices that support child development. In addition, creating standards for research-based instructional strategies that are linked to a developmental trajectory provides continuity in learning experiences across settings.

High-quality learning environments are organized, safe, supportive, and culturally relevant and diverse. In these settings, assessments that are developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate can help inform the instructional paths or interventions needed to support a child. Assessments should be aligned across the continuum to provide accurate data about how a child is progressing. Child assessments should be used in conjunction with other data sources to improve instructional practices, the provision of services, school programs and systems, professional development, and the allocation of monetary resources.

Kindergarten is the first major transition into formal education for young children. Bridging activities ease the transition to a new setting from year-to-year or grade-to-grade and reduce the adverse consequences that result due to changes in personnel, expectations, and settings. Kindergarten readiness involves not only the individual child, but also families, communities, and elementary schools. It is important to establish a dialogue with families so that parents feel like partners rather than spectators.

Bridging activities provide an opportunity to share and maximize resources and training programs across professional roles, settings, sectors, and policies relating to early care and education. But, rather than making existing systems change and increasing the scope of work for current practitioners, programs can introduce a professional role specifically responsible for coordinating services among sectors.

“When there is a consistency from one learning environment to the next and communication and collaboration among educators, children are able to establish connections between lessons, between ideas and processes within a topic, between topics, and between learning from one year to the next.” (pg. 216)

Policymakers

• Does the state have policies that encourage joint planning time and professional learning opportunities for educators in pre-K and kindergarten to encourage smooth transitions?
• Do programs collect and share the child-level data (such as assessment data and data on prior early learning settings) that educators at each grade level should review to meet children’s needs?
• Do the state’s K–12 standards align with the state’s early learning standards?

Higher Education

• Are educator preparation programs preparing teachers to use, analyze, and respond to the results of developmentally appropriate assessments?
• Are field experiences for future teachers designed to introduce them to expectations and developmentally informed practices starting in the early years and across different grade levels?

B–8 Workforce

• What information do educators have about the children entering their classrooms each year?
• How can you identify and build relationships with the early care and education programs that feed into your elementary school and vice versa? How might you share information about curriculum, assessment, and instructional strategies to help better align what and how children are learning across these settings?

When applied consistently, certain educational practices can best support the learning and development of young children. In order to foster high-quality learning, B–8 educators must have knowledge of the subject-matter content, the developmental progress of how children learn specific topics, and the instructional strategies that best promote learning. While some early educators are well-versed in teaching language and literacy, the teaching of science and math is often overlooked in preparation programs. Teachers of infants and toddlers typically have less access to research-based curricula and tools to help support the development of their students.

There are a variety of techniques early educators can use to support language and literacy development. Giving children opportunities to engage in frequent and elaborated conversation is an important strategy. 

Through “serve and return” interactions during activities such as interactive book reading, parents and educators can help to build vocabulary skills beginning at birth. Interactive readings of a variety of texts help to spur content-rich classroom discussions that build reading comprehension and vocabulary skills.

While achievement gaps in math have roots in the earliest years, many early educators are not trained to provide high-quality mathematics instruction. As a result, little to no time is dedicated to talk about math in many early education classrooms. When math instruction does occur, it often only lasts for a short period of time and focuses on basic concepts such as number and shape identification. This absence of explicit math instruction might be due to a lack of knowledge and confidence among early educators in teaching mathematical content. Therefore, increasing the mathematics knowledge of early educators and their understanding of how to teach young children early math concepts should be a top priority for teacher preparation programs.

While young children are naturally curious about the natural world, they arrive in kindergarten with lower readiness scores in science than in any other subject area. Many children lack exposure to high-quality science instruction in early education settings due to a lack of time, materials, and space, and a lack of content knowledge among some educators. While work still needs to be done to identify core concepts of early science instruction, the use of research-based curricula and learning trajectories that emphasize a few core ideas over many disconnected topics can help educators gain confidence in science instruction.

New research offers clues about how children develop cognitive skills through the use of technology. Much is still unknown about technology use in early childhood, including whether any positive impact is evident when educational videos are watched prior to two years of age. Any potential benefits of educational technology will only be realized if the new technology is well implemented by parents and educators. Educators should use technology intentionally, and often need training in how to best integrate it into subject-matter-specific activities and explorations in the classroom. Early research makes clear that the most important aspect of a beneficial use of technology is ensuring joint media engagement: the presence of a knowledgeable adult who is able to engage with the media content alongside the child.

Another important task of early educators is working to foster the social and emotional development of young children. Learning environments that are organized and predictable and which offer warm relationships with educators help support the development of self-regulatory skills. In settings with very young children especially, relationships between children and educators can be strengthened by prioritizing a continuity of care model in which they are kept together over several years so that a secure caregiver-child attachment can form. Educators can benefit from consultation with mental health experts to understand how to work with children who need extra support in building their social and emotional skills.

There are a number of techniques early educators can use to help support the learning of young dual language learners as well as children with disabilities. For dual language learners, comprehensive early screening of the skills related to literacy development and follow-up in response to screening results are key to preventing future difficulties in literacy. For students with special needs, strategies aimed at individual learning objectives should be embedded into ongoing classroom activities and routines. Tiered intervention approaches can help educators identify which children might benefit from additional instruction and support.

Finally, in order to understand the progress being made by their students and programs, early educators and administrators must have a solid grasp of the different types of assessment and the purpose each assessment serves. When selected appropriately, assessments can be essential for ensuring continuous improvement in both individual teaching practices and education systems. As part of their professional preparation, early educators should be trained not only in how to conduct assessments but in all aspects of assessment literacy, including how to interpret assessment results and make appropriate changes to instruction in light of those results.

“Children learn in a developmental sequence. Well-designed curricula are therefore based on developmentally sequenced activities, and quality instructional practice requires educators who understand those sequences and can assess progress and remediate accordingly.” (pg. 242)

“Given how young children develop, it is unrealistic to expect the effects of early interventions to last indefinitely, without continual, progressive support in later schooling of children’s nascent learning trajectories.” (pg. 250)

Policymakers

• What can states do to encourage early science instruction and strengthen the quality of preparation that lead educators and other B–8 professionals receive?
• How is the state incorporating best practices for the use of technology with young children into early learning guidelines and teacher training?
• What can be done at the state level to better connect the fields of early care and education and child mental health?

Higher Education

• How can teacher preparation programs effectively increase the math and science knowledge of early educators so they are more confident when teaching these subjects?
• What coursework and field experiences are provided by teacher preparation programs to effectively prepare educators for teaching dual language learners?How are teacher preparation programs training teachers to effectively conduct assessments and use their results to improve teaching and student learning?

B–8 Workforce

• How are you using assessment in your classroom to inform lessons and improve child learning and development?
• How are teachers supported in figuring out how to adjust instruction in response to assessment results?

Identifying and reaching consensus on what early care and education teachers and administrators need to know and be able to do is an essential part of ensuring that children are supported as competent learners, regardless of the B–8 early care and education setting.

The knowledge and competencies needed by adults to support learning, development, and school success should draw from the science of child development and early learning, the knowledge base about educational practices, and the context of early care and education and related sectors.

The knowledge and skills necessary for competent practice by early educators are listed on pages 328-329 of Transforming the Workforce, which organizes them into five categories:

1. Core knowledge of the science of child development and early learning
2. Practices to help children learn and develop based on this science
3. Knowledge and skills for working with diverse populations of children
4. Developing and using partnerships with families and support services to bolster child learning and development
5. Ability and motivation to continually improve the quality and effectiveness of one’s practices

Perceptions expressed by practitioners in B–5 and elementary education communities suggest that significant differences exist between them. A comparison of national and state statements of core competencies, however, indicates more agreement exists than typically thought, especially in terms of supporting children’s growth and development across domains, including general and specific cognitive skills, social and emotional development, health, and physical well-being. These two communities both have public statements indicating shared belief in the importance of collaborating with colleagues and interacting with children in developmentally appropriate ways.

Nonetheless, there are meaningful variations in the knowledge and skills expected of early childhood educators in B–5 and elementary grade educators, especially in the areas of child assessment, family engagement, and use of technology.

Examination of national statements and state expectations for what B–8 educators need to know and be able to do indicates several areas where additional and/or more defined competencies are warranted based on the current science of child development and early learning and the importance of competent educational practice:

1. Teaching subject-matter-specific content
2. Addressing stress and adversity
3. Fostering social and emotional development and general learning competencies, including a coherent conceptual framework for preparing learning environments and experiences that support learning and growth in these areas. This realm includes understanding self-regulatory capacities and the ways these capacities interrelate with one another and connect to academic achievement when connected to specific developmentally appropriate teacher strategies
4. Working with dual language learners
5. Integrating technology into curricula

Program and school administrators are increasingly being recognized for creating the context for children’s effective learning and teachers’ continuing growth. In contrast to a broad overlap between the stated competencies expected of early childhood (B–5) and elementary educators, a more pronounced divide in expectations exists for administrators in elementary school settings and those in early childhood learning settings outside of the public schools.

To ensure learning and development is holistically supported, all adults responsible for supporting children from B–8 need knowledge, skills, and abilities that foster interprofessional practice: collaborative and coordinated practice across settings within early care and education and between early care and education, and closely related sectors, especially health, mental health, and social services.

“One of the factors that contributes to continuity in high-quality learning experiences is continuity in the stated expectations for the care and education professionals who work with children throughout the age 0–8 continuum.” (pg. 330)

“Having content knowledge and knowing the major developmental milestones in any given subject area does no good if the educator does not know how to link that knowledge to instructional practices and engineer the learning environment to support children’s growth in that area.” (pg. 336)

“While the importance of school and program leadership is unequivocal, the capacity of these leaders to support high-quality instruction and services in the early years is questionable.” (pg. 341)

Policymakers

• Does the state have one foundational set of competencies that are expected for all educators B–8?
• Do documents exist that outline competencies for those working with young children in various capacities?
• When were these competency expectations last revised and how are they used?
• Are current state competency expectations aligned with those in the report?

Higher Education

• Are teacher preparation programs incorporating all competencies for educators B–8 into their coursework and field experiences for prospective teachers?
• Do faculty have any incentive to update their knowledge base to align with the current science on what B–8 educators need to know and be able to do? What institutional policies might encourage them to do so?

B–8 Workforce

• Which knowledge and competencies do you feel you are most missing? Are there professional learning opportunities offered by your state, school district, or community to fill the gaps?

Professional learning refers to all of the activities that contribute to developing and sustaining quality professional practice, including preparation programs, mentoring and coaching, and ongoing training. Systemic and contextual factors such as working conditions, availability of resources, and status and well-being of the professionals also contribute to (or, when scarce, may detract from) a professional’s ability to learn and improve.

Early care and education professionals working with children from B–8 play a variety of roles. For this reason, there are many entry points to the field and multiple pathways leading to jobs in the profession, and requirements vary by state and local context and sector. Professional learning also occurs in many different settings and runs on different timelines. The lack of consistency and coordination across types of workforce development is not supportive of a strong B–8 continuum.

While some aspects of professional learning and practice need to be tailored to specific professional roles, specialization should be developed in the context of a shared foundation of child development and early learning. Initiatives and activities that support professional learning should be high-quality, well designed, and well implemented. All educators need to develop core competencies and a shared knowledge base to move children along a trajectory of learning and developmental goals.

“Embracing a broader and more unified concept of professional learning will facilitate a process of coming together across types of professional learning support and across settings and professional roles to arrive at improved consistency and commonality in care and education for children from birth through age 8.” (pg. 360)

Policymakers

• What policies for improving the working conditions and the well-being of the workforce might be effective to reduce staff turnover and the resulting need to constantly retrain new staff?
• Could states and districts help provide early educators with the funds necessary to pursue additional education?
• Given the needs in your state or locality, what topics for in-service professional development should be prioritized for early educators?
• How can career ladders be constructed to ensure that early educators have opportunities for professional advancement?

Higher Education

• What coordinated actions can educator preparation programs take to ensure all early educators enter the classroom with a shared foundation of child development and early learning?

B–8 Workforce

• What barriers might be keeping early educators from being able to advance their education or take advantage of professional learning?
• What actions can schools and districts take to foster the development of a professional community of early educators that support each other to improve pedagogical practice?

There is significant variation in how educators are prepared depending on which setting they work in and the age group they serve. Elementary school educators are part of a more established system with standard structures and regulation, while educators of children prior to kindergarten (with the exception of pre-K teachers in public schools) are often in less regulated programs or facilities. Neither system is producing enough educators able to provide high-quality education and care to young children.

Professionals in B–5 settings have traditionally been expected to support child development, whereas elementary school teachers are usually expected to focus on academics and knowledge. Elementary school candidates must have formal preparation before employment, usually a bachelor’s degree and state certification. There is great variation, however, in preparation program quality, especially in settings outside of elementary schools. Many early educators work in the field before pursuing formal higher education or training, though programs have been increasing qualification requirements in recent years.

Because of program variation and limited data, it is difficult to determine which aspects of preparation are most important and effective. Programs to train elementary teachers are more standardized than those for educators outside of public schools, and they almost always include some type of clinical experience. But even though field placements are common, there are minimal quality standards in place to ensure worthwhile experiences.

There is no agreement about which standards constitute a high-quality educator preparation program. Many programs do not give educators the knowledge needed to work with young children, and programs have failed to keep up with the needs of the increasingly diverse population of children they are serving. Higher education programs can have difficulty finding and retaining high-quality faculty to prepare educators.

Policymakers can take steps to increase access to higher education and encourage educator success. Articulation agreements, for instance, can help aspiring educators overcome barriers to higher education.

An increasing number of candidates are also pursuing alternative pathways that have either been emerged out of partnerships with traditional higher education institutions or created by entirely new entities that sidestep higher education institutions.

Ongoing Professional Learning (In-Service Preparation)

Professional learning during ongoing practice is highly variable: it comes in many forms (e.g., workshops, coaching, communities of practice), can be delivered through numerous methods (e.g., in the workplace, offsite, via technology), and serves multiple purposes (e.g., supporting core competencies, introducing new tools). The goal of all professional learning is to improve quality of practice and support child outcomes.

Professional learning varies based on role and practice setting. Those working in elementary schools usually have to meet specific requirements around professional learning and may have greater access to opportunities for ongoing training. Educators in publicly-funded programs, like Head Start, are more likely to participate in professional learning during paid work hours. Some educators face barriers like limited funding, lack of support from leadership, and the inability to take time away from the classroom.

Researchers have identified characteristics of effective professional learning that improve instructional practice and foster stronger adult-child interactions. They have found that professional learning is most effective when it is ongoing, consistent, and directly related to classroom practice.

Continuous improvement is key to effective professional learning. Reflective practice where educators review and alter their own practice is also essential. Educators are more receptive to professional learning that is relevant and useful to their work. It should foster collaboration between educators, such as through professional learning communities that allow for collaborative learning and reflection. There is some evidence that high-quality in-classroom coaching can improve the quality of instruction and child outcomes. 

“Teaching is one of the most common occupations in the United States…yet as a nation the United States lacks a common vision for or standardization of how to prepare educators. This lack of standardization has influenced perceptions of the occupation, as well as policies and practices for teacher preparation. The lack of standardization and its effects become even more striking when viewed in light of the broad variations in the preparation of educators across professional roles and settings for children birth through age 8.” (pg. 365)

Qualification Standards

The expectations and qualification requirements for educators of children from B–8 vary widely based on educator role, ages of children with whom they work, and the practice setting. For example, in some states and settings, teachers may be required to earn a bachelor’s degree and a particular type of teaching license; in other places, those with responsibilities for young children’s learning may not be required to have attained anything beyond a high school diploma. Evidence on the impact of credentials is sparse and mixed. As the authors of Transforming the Workforce write, “the available studies alone are insufficient to enable conclusions as to whether a bachelor’s degree improves the quality and effectiveness of educators, whether for early childhood settings or for K–12 schools.”

This may be explained in part by the fact that the focus and overall quality of degree programs for teachers vary widely. Degree requirements set by state or program policies, for example, may not include a program design based on the science of child development and learning or address subject-matter content and pedagogical strategies.

Nonetheless, wide consensus exists across states and types of schools that early elementary educators should have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree. For B–5 early childhood educators, however, consensus is still needed regarding an “educational floor” despite extensive research and debate for more than a decade regarding the merits of early childhood educators having a bachelor’s degree. For an overview of differences in expectations for B-5 and elementary school teachers, see the chart on page 423.

Disparity between qualification expectations for early childhood and early elementary school educators perpetuates perceptions and policies that assume early childhood educators interacting directly with children prior to kindergarten require limited knowledge and skills.

Disparities in qualification requirements foster inequities for children and within the early care and education workforce. Also affected are the early care and education labor market and practitioner compensation.

Increased coherence in the content and process for meeting individual qualification requirements would improve the caliber of educator practice within settings and across the B–8 education continuum. Raising education standards for early childhood educators (B–5) could also positively affect recruitment, retention, and compensation.

Similar issues exist for administrative leaders. Expectations are not aligned with their responsibilities to foster early learning and development. Current education and certification requirements and expectations for directors in early childhood settings outside of school systems are especially erratic.

To address concerns regarding program quality, early childhood (B–5) program accreditation systems and quality improvement efforts increasingly are being implemented to cultivate increased use of national program standards and qualification requirements.

Evaluation of Practice Quality

A growing number of states and programs use evaluation systems to determine quality and figure out how to increase it. These systems vary considerably in design and intent. For example, schools and programs use teacher evaluations to increase instructional skills and child outcomes by differentiating effective from ineffective instructional practice, and inform ongoing professional learning.

In states that have implemented evaluations of teacher practice quality, district expectations apply to all K–3 teachers who work in public school systems and often to early childhood-special education programs and pre-K teachers in state funded pre-K programs. Yet if teacher evaluation systems heavily incorporate data from student test scores (a controversial trend across K–12 schooling), large questions arise about the most appropriate way to evaluate teaching in the early elementary grades.

High-stakes use of assessment results for children from B–8 is strongly discouraged unless an explicit connection exists between a test’s stated purpose and its validity and reliability in relation to that purpose. Children ranging in age from B–8 learn in ways that differ from the learning of their older peers. Consequently, instructional strategies and interactions that work well for children in this age span differ from those that are effective and meaningful for older children. Further, the younger the child, the more difficult it is to obtain reliable and valid assessment data.

Evaluation of Program Quality

Quality assurance systems in the B–8 field include accreditation systems and quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS). Their intent is to foster environments that are good for children, which in turn should mean that they are ensuring that workplace environments promote quality practice among care and education professionals. These quality assurance efforts have the potential to positively affect individual educators’ knowledge, skills, and behaviors. But they need to offer more than checklists and instead hone in on practices and provide opportunities for reflection and continuous improvement.

“Each of the 50 states (as well as U.S. territories) sets its own qualifications for public school teachers and for teachers, assistant teachers, and directors in licensed early childhood programs, as well as for regulated family childcare centers, and home-based childcare providers.” (pg. 422)

“These disparate policies create a bifurcated job market in which educators who are more able to seek higher education that qualifies them for better-compensated positions leave programs that serve young children to work in schools with older children, or leave less well-resourced preschool and childcare settings for better resourced ones. This not only introduces disparities for the workforce, it also means inequities for children across and within states and local communities, potentially perpetuating a cycle of disparity in the quality of the learning experiences of young children.” (pg. 437)  

Policymakers

• What structures does the state have in place to ensure quality in preparation programs offered by higher education and other training institutions?
• When teachers and principals are evaluated, are those evaluation systems accounting for the ways that young children learn best? Do mechanisms exist to evaluate administrators of B–5 early care and education programs?

Higher Education

• Are existing preparation programs utilizing the most recent research on best practice for children B–8?

Workforce

• Are educators aware of how evaluation and accreditation systems work and what purpose they serve?
• How are educators involved in evaluating their peers or managers?

Salary and benefits, staffing structures, opportunities for advancement and support, employee turnover, and health and well-being all impact the workforce’s ability to provide high-quality education and care to young children.

There is better understanding now than ever before about the importance of early learning, yet over the past 25 years, there have been no meaningful changes in the wages of those caring for and educating our youngest children. Child care educators still earn poverty-level wages, making less than pre-K teachers and earning less than half of what K–12 educators do. Large disparities persist even when education levels are comparable. Child care employees, mostly women, earn approximately 50 percent less than the average woman in the civilian workforce.

Employee benefits can also be limited for early educators working outside of public school settings. A North Carolina workforce survey found that it was common for centers not to provide health care or paid sick leave. Professionals working outside of school settings also often have less access to supportive policies and structures, such as paid planning time and stable schedules. These professionals often experience economic insecurity and suffer the stress that comes along with it. They often depend on public assistance programs or take on second jobs to make ends meet.

Without increasing wages and benefits and providing more opportunities for training and professional learning, workforce well-being will continue to suffer. Poor staffing structures and lack of opportunities for career advancement also diminish quality of practice. Staffing policies determine what roles are needed and what professionals in those roles must do. Professional learning systems need to be able to prepare educators for the various roles. Unprepared and unsupported educators are less equipped to provide children with what they need. A lack of clearly defined professional development or career pathways can make it difficult to recruit and retain high quality educators.

High stress and unhappiness at work are associated with high turnover, which means less stability for children. Staff turnover can compromise program quality and negatively impact children since their development and learning depend upon secure relationships and positive interactions with adults. The turnover rate in childcare centers is four times higher than in elementary schools, on average, and inadequate compensation is a primary reason. Raising salaries is especially important for centers trying to retain staff with higher education and qualifications who have the option of working in public schools.

The early education and care workforce experiences more stress than many other fields. Experiencing depressive symptoms is not uncommon, especially for those working with high-risk populations. A 2012 survey of Head Start staff members in Pennsylvania found that they had poorer physical and mental health compared to women in other fields. This is not only harmful for them, but also for the children they serve.

“Many states or localities are describing pathways for career development to help with retention and recruitment of good educators. A common challenge in both cases is how to make these pathways reflective of increasing competency, as opposed to increasing education.” (pg. 470) 

“High turnover rates can lower the quality of childcare and education programs, as frequent staff changes can have negative effects on children’s development—particularly for infants and toddlers, whose attachments and relationships with educators are disrupted.” (pg. 471)

Policymakers

• Are there viable career paths for early childhood educators?
• Is there pay parity between educators working in pre-K through third grade?
• Do educators have access to wages and benefits that reflect the skilled nature of their work?
• Do educators have access to education and training programs needed to further their careers?

Higher Education

• Are higher education programs able to meet the needs (cost, scheduling, etc.) of early childhood educators already in the workforce who wish to pursue higher education?
• How do higher education programs prepare educators to handle the stress of their jobs?

B–8 Workforce

• What types of support do educators have to improve their well-being? What do they need?

At the heart of Transforming the Workforce is this: children are greatly affected by their early learning and development opportunities and the relationships and interactions they have with caregivers both inside and outside of home. Decades of research tells us much about how children learn and develop, what professionals who provide care and education for children need to know and be able to do to maximize their learning and development, and what professional learning programs are needed for prospective and practicing early educators. Research and best practice, however, are not fully reflected in the current capacities, practices, and policies of the workforce, the settings and systems in which it operates, and the infrastructure and systems that set the qualifications and provide professional learning. Nor are they reflected by government and other funding that support and oversee those systems. This disconnect is detrimental to our youngest learners, and an injustice to our youngest learners from disadvantaged families. Given what science has demonstrated about the long-term impact of the early years, this neglect is leading to costly expenditures for remediation and a loss of potential in the next generation.

The committee behind the Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation report offers a “Blueprint for Action” that puts forward 13 recommendations along with a discussion of necessary considerations to better connect the research with policy and practice and ultimately improve outcomes for children. As state and local leaders; policy, research, and advocacy organizations; philanthropies; and the field itself begin the work to put the blueprint into action, it will be important to balance the real urgency for transformation with thoughtfulness and a realistic sense of the time it takes to bring meaningful and lasting change.

These recommendations can only be accomplished through long-term strategies coupled with short-term actions. The recommendations should not be read as sequential; every state and community is starting at a different point. Every state and community has its own conditions and situation to consider. For instance, states that won Race to the Top– Early Learning Challenge grants or Preschool Development Grants during the Obama Administration may have already begun several workforce development efforts. Other states have participated in technical assistance opportunities provided over the years by the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, T.E.A.C.H. National Center, the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes, or other organizations. Since the report’s release, nine states and one regional team have participated in the National Academy of Medicine’s Innovation to Incubation initiative. Some cities and school districts are farther along than the rest of the state that they call home. Several states will be just beginning the journey.

States, in particular, are positioned to be drivers of change and will need to begin by assessing the progress that has been made and where they are lacking. Connecting with and learning from peer states will be important. Some leaders are already engaged in promising efforts with the potential for replication or adaptation. And a cadre of national organizations is working collaboratively to support the transformational work and to avoid duplication of efforts. Philanthropic organizations are coming together as well to leverage funding to better support national and state work.

“The lack of consistency [in standards for qualifications] is dissonant with what the science of early learning reveals about the foundational core competencies that all care and education professionals need and the importance of consistency in learning experiences for children in this age range.” (pg. 509)

Requirements and expectations for educators of children from B–8 vary greatly. Rather than being based on the science of early learning, they are instead based on educator title, age of children, care and education setting, and the agency with authority to set qualification requirements. The result is a dizzying array of requirements, voluntary standards, certificates, endorsements, and credentials. For current and prospective early care and education professionals, navigating the process of entering the field, staying in the field, or advancing in the field can be daunting to say the least.

Recommendation 1: Strengthen competency-based qualification requirements for all care and education professionals working with children from B–8.

Government agencies and nongovernmental professional and accreditation organizations at the national, state, and local levels should review their standards and policies for workforce qualification requirements and revise them as needed to ensure they are competency based for all care and education professionals and based on the principles identified in the earlier chapters.

Key Takeaway for Implementation

• Launching a review process guided by the principles of this report would lay the groundwork for greater coherence in the content of and processes for qualification requirements, such as those for credentialing and licensure. This work is already underway through the Power to the Profession, a national collaboration to define the early childhood profession by establishing a unifying framework for career pathways; knowledge and competencies; and qualifications, standards, and compensation.

Recommendation 2: Develop and implement comprehensive pathways and multiyear timelines at the individual, institutional, and policy levels for transitioning to a minimum bachelor’s degree qualification requirement, with specialized knowledge and competencies, for all lead educators working with children from B–8.

State agencies, national, state, and local stakeholders, accrediting bodies, and institutions of higher education will need to come together to develop a multi-year, phased, comprehensive, coordinated strategy to move this recommendation forward. Its implementation should be tailored to local context and reasonable timelines for changes to occur at the individual, institutional, and policy levels. The federal government should align its policies, develop incentives, and direct resources to support this strategy.

Key Takeaways for Implementation

• The high level of complex knowledge and competencies indicated by the science of child development provides a strong rationale for establishing an equal footing among those who share similar lead educator roles and responsibilities for children.
• Simply instituting policies requiring a minimum bachelor’s degree is not sufficient. Implementation of this recommendation should be closely connected to those that follow as well as with an early care and education system financing strategy. (Another committee, Financing Early Care and Education with a Highly Qualified Workforce, through the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is currently finalizing its report and recommendations, which is expected in early 2018.)
• Changes to degree requirement policies will need to be implemented over time and with careful planning. Concurrent steps will need to be taken to ensure that specialized training related to the foundational knowledge and competencies can be achieved through multiple and diverse pathways to meet the needs of current and prospective early care and education professionals.
• State and national goals and timelines are important, but local context must be considered. Local investment and benchmarks will be critical for ensuring that communities lagging behind are given the support they need.
• The degree requirement must allow for multiple pathways. A degree in a specific major is not what matters; what matters most is that candidates complete a course of study that includes child development, early learning, and instructional strategies. A bachelor’s degree program that is not aligned with the principles of this report will not equip candidates with the knowledge and competencies they need to be successful with young children.
• For a successful transition to new requirements, the supply of quality higher education programs and demand from the workforce to acquire them must move together. Federal and state policies will need to support new financing strategies that support increased compensation and financial assistance for teachers.

Recommendation 3: Strengthen practice-based qualification requirements, including a supervised induction period, for all lead educators working with children from B–8.

While field experiences are required for the majority of prospective public school elementary teachers, field experience for teachers of children in other early childhood settings is gained once on the job. And even though the field experience or student teaching experience is more standard for teachers of older children in public schools, states do not necessarily set standards around classroom setting, length of placement, and requirements of supervising teachers. More strategic thinking is needed around how to connect these placements to what prospective teachers are learning in courses, identify quality placements in a variety of B–8 settings, and ensure that once new teachers are hired there is someone to support and coach them.

Key Takeaways for Implementation

• Strategies are needed for ensuring a greater number and diversity of field placements that connect educators with qualified supervisors and mentors and provide opportunities to demonstrate knowledge and competencies needed to be successful with children from B–8.
• This requirement must be differentiated for experienced educators who are currently working in early care and education settings.

“The issue of quality in higher education extends to how well care and education professionals are equipped with the knowledge and competencies needed across professional roles and settings to support continuity in high-quality learning experiences for children from birth through age 8.” (pg. 389)

If there is no common vision or standard approach for how to prepare educators to teach and support our nation’s older children, the lack of standardization is even more present for those who guide our youngest children. Regardless, most educators are not being well prepared to meet the learning and developmental needs of children from B–8. Institutions of higher education (IHEs) will need to make sweeping programmatic and curricular changes that are built upon the latest science on child development and learning in order to equip educators with the knowledge and competencies they need. States and accrediting bodies will need to hold IHEs accountable for doing so.

Recommendation 4: Build an interdisciplinary foundation in higher education for child development.

There are many different roles across various sectors that require foundational knowledge and competencies for working with young children. Regardless where individuals pursue their degrees or training, they should leave equipped with that same foundation. This means IHEs will need to revisit their programs, policies, and infrastructure to ensure the necessary cross-departmental and cross-disciplinary collaboration for this shared and foundational knowledge. Federal and state governments as well as philanthropic, policy, and advocacy organizations should create incentives for IHEs to take an interdisciplinary approach. Accreditation and oversight bodies should use an interdisciplinary approach to review programs that lead to degrees or certificates in fields serving young children.

Key Takeaways for Implementation

• Prospective educators should be oriented to the early childhood field through an interdisciplinary introduction that incorporates content and context from multiple fields associated with the science of childhood.
• Students should be provided with cross-disciplinary field experiences so that those pursuing professions in health, mental health, and social work can experience the realities of health and social service needs in child care, kindergarten, and early elementary settings, and educators can experience the settings where children they support are referred for services.
• Administrative and departmental leadership will need to address barriers resulting from the existing silos among programs and disciplines in institutions of higher education.
• Shifting to an interdisciplinary approach will likely require resources and incentives tied to new funding for higher education.

Recommendation 5: Develop and enhance programs in higher education for care and education professionals.

There is a strong need for high-quality degree or certificate programs that provide current and future early care and education professionals with the knowledge and competencies they need to be successful with young children. To meet this need, administrators, leadership, and faculty in institutions of higher education will need to come together to review and revise appropriate program requirements and content. Engaging local early care and education programs will be important for including the perspective of professionals currently practicing and for collaborating on high-quality field placements for students.

Key Takeaways for Implementation

• Redesigning higher education programs means improving and aligning content, curriculum, pedagogy, and field experiences with the core knowledge and competencies identified in this report.
• Differentiated pathways are needed for the current and future workforce as well as for those moving into different roles across the field (e.g., early childhood mental health consultant to pre-K teacher).
• Early care and education faculty will need to be developed and expanded. There is a need for faculty who are experts in child development and pedagogy, but also faculty who are experts in preparing and guiding students to practice. IHEs should establish approaches to equally value these faculty.
• It will be important for institutions at all levels to coordinate and collaborate. This can be accomplished through faculty learning communities within and across institutions and through two- and four-year articulation agreements to develop consistent and more seamless pathways for students.

“For many practitioners who do not participate in formal preparation programs, such as those in early childhood settings, these activities during ongoing professional practice often overlap as default preparation for practice.” (pg. 393)

Professional learning during ongoing practice includes workshops and trainings, coaching and mentoring, reflective practice, learning networks, and communities of practices. This kind of learning has many purposes, including supporting and building knowledge and competencies and introducing new skills, concepts, and strategies. Because all professional learning aims to improve or sustain quality practice and improve child outcomes, its effectiveness can therefore be viewed in terms of how well it achieves these two goals.

Recommendation 6: Support the consistent quality and coherence of professional learning supports during ongoing practice for professionals working with children from B–8.

Quality, consistency, and parity are needed across professional learning offerings. State and local governments, along with nonprofit groups, can help improve offerings by developing clearinghouse and quality assurance systems that promote access to strong learning opportunities, coordinate with other relevant state systems, and promote joint participation in learning across settings and roles. Federal and state agencies and philanthropic organizations should provide funding to support this work to better coordinate and identify high quality in professional learning systems.

Key Takeaways for Implementation

• While it is important to improve professional learning opportunities across the board for B–8 professionals across all settings, special attention is needed for those who work with infants and toddlers and for practitioners in settings outside of centers and schools, such as family child care.
• Early elementary school teachers have a more supported infrastructure for professional learning, but it is not necessarily focused on providing opportunities to best support the learning of young children; these teachers should have more tailored professional learning activities.
• There are many barriers for educators to access high-quality professional learning, including cost, obligations out of work hours, and geography. Consideration will need to be given to how to address these and ensure that all professionals have easy access to opportunities that hone their competencies.

“Current systems for measuring the performance of educators—even current reforms to those systems—are not sufficient for those who work with children in the early elementary years and younger.” (pg. 533)

New and revised systems evaluating and assessing the effectiveness of educators who work with children from B–8 are needed. Current reforms of these systems focus on student outcomes typically in only one or two areas (often reading and math) instead of capturing the full range of early learning domains. These systems also neglect important competencies such as trauma-informed practice, family engagement, and collaboration and communication with other early care and education professionals.

Recommendation 7: Develop a new paradigm for evaluation and assessment of professional practice for those who work with children from B–8.

Policymakers at all levels along with stakeholders such as educators and administrators should review and improve how educators are evaluated and assessed. Federal and state policymakers and philanthropic organizations should invest in research and development to improve or create new tools for this purpose. These systems should consider multiple sources of evidence, including assessments of children’s progress and measures of knowledge and competencies. They should also account for setting and community factors and be part of a continuous system of support for educators. Evaluation and assessment systems should be able to answer questions such as: How are the children with whom professionals are working developing in each domain? Do professionals demonstrate knowledge and capacity for best practices in working with dual language learners and children with disabilities in order to support their growth across all learning and developmental domains? How skilled are professionals at engaging family members from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds as partners?

Key Takeaways for Implementation

• B–8 educators need to be shown how the information they gather on children’s learning from assessment tools can be used to inform their lesson plans.
• Evaluators and evaluation systems should be able to account for overcrowded classrooms, poorly resourced settings, lack of access to professional learning, quality and quantity of supportive community factors, and quality of home environments.
• In order to appropriately assess teachers, center/program directors, principals, and other administrators need training and support to understand what teachers need to be able to instruct young children in the ways they learn best and to identify when good instruction and learning environments are in place and when they are not.
• Systems should be developed, evaluated, and improved with meaningful involvement of early learning practitioners and experts.
• Educator evaluation and assessment systems will only serve their purpose of improving teacher practice and child outcomes if the information they produce is used to shape local-, district-, and state-level professional learning activities, investments, and policies.

“While the importance of school and program leadership is unequivocal, current policies for training or certifying elementary school principals are not well aligned with the interest of children.” (pg. 539)

Elementary school principals, early care and education center directors or program directors, and other administrators are integral to the quality of children’s early learning experiences. They establish the conditions and culture and provide support for high-quality, developmentally appropriate teaching and learning environments. These leaders, however, often lack the early childhood education knowledge and competencies to do so.

Recommendation 8: Ensure that policies and standards that shape the professional learning of care and education leaders encompass the foundational knowledge and competencies needed to support high-quality practices for child development and early learning.

States and organizations that put forth competencies for early childhood education administrators should review these competencies to ensure they reflect what leaders need to know and be able to do to support B–8 teachers and the children they serve. Accrediting bodies and IHEs should integrate early learning principles and best practices for early childhood education throughout the principal development pipeline.

Key Takeaways for Implementation

• Both principals and early childhood education administrators need specific competencies for collaboration and communication because of their important role in bridging systems to support greater continuity in early learning experiences before and after young children enter school systems.
• Rethink requirements including education, credentials, coursework, and professional experience for early childhood education administrators. Build higher education capacity to meet new needs for B–8 leader preparation.
• The foundational knowledge and core competencies elementary school principals need should be better embedded in policies that govern their preparation and ongoing learning.

“A critical factor in providing consistent support for children from birth through age 8 is the ability of care and education professionals to work in synergy with other professionals…” (pg. 542)

Early childhood care and education professionals must be able to and have resources to work with others in related sectors, especially health and social services.

Recommendation 9: Improve consistency and continuity for children from B–8 by strengthening collaboration and communication among professionals and systems within the care and education sector with closely related sectors, especially health and social services.

One particularly important area for collaboration is in infant and child mental health. To improve these linkages, leaders in care and education settings should partner with mental health professionals. Because there is limited availability of mental health consultants, federal agencies and national organizations should prioritize funded, integrated training programs for educators that focus on both early learning and early childhood mental health. And, because of mental health consultants work with young children, the mental health sector should review their standards, practices, and systems for professional learning to incorporate basic knowledge in child development.

“Implementing the committee’s recommendations will produce substantive changes that elevate the perception of the professionals who work with children from birth through age 8 and improve the quality of professional practice, the quality of the practice environment, and the status and well-being of the workforce—and ultimately, outcomes for children.” (pg. 560)

Accomplishing this will require coordination and alignment among funders, oversight agencies, and stakeholders conducting work to support and develop children from B–8. Setting policy alone is not enough; establishing ambitious but reasonable timelines for implementation and allowing for opportunities to revisit policies based on how well they are working or not working is necessary.

Recommendation 10: Support workforce development with coherent funding, oversight, and policies.

To support the transformation of the workforce for children B–8, federal, state, and local governments and nongovernmental resource organizations should review their policies and practices to ensure they are aligned with the unifying foundational principles in this report. This should include revisions of regulations for funding streams to remove barriers to continuity across settings. Existing streams have differing eligibility requirements and quality standards.

Recommendation 11: Collaboratively develop and periodically update coherent guidance across roles and settings for care and education professionals working with children from B–8.

National nongovernmental organizations that offer resources and support for local and state governments or directly to the care and education workforce should collaborate and update foundational guidance related to the care and education workforce serving children from B–8. Governments at all levels, nongovernmental organizations, IHEs, and professional learning providers should use the shared guidance to align and augment their own standards. The goal here is to promote consistency among the various groups with oversight and influence across early care and education. Federal agencies, along with philanthropic organizations, can and should support these collaborative efforts with the goal of getting to a more permanent, recognized organizational infrastructure.

Key Takeaways for Implementation

• The representation in collaborative efforts also should reflect practice communities, the research community, policy research and analysis, policy makers and government leadership, higher education, agencies that oversee licensure and credentialing as well as accreditation, and organizations that provide ongoing professional learning.
• For collaborative efforts to be helpful, it will be necessary to establish some form of infrastructure.
• Collaborative efforts should draw from and build on existing resources rather than create new and duplicative solutions.

Recommendation 12: Support comprehensive state- and local-level efforts to transform the professional workforce for children from B–8.

Governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations should support collective efforts at the state and local levels to transform the workforce for children B–8. These groups should collaborate to provide technical assistance, financial help, and other resources. The report calls on the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services to use this approach to jointly fund local or state coalitions to undertake a long-term initiative to review, assess, and improve professional learning and workforce development for the care and education workforce.

Recommendation 13: Build a better knowledge base to inform workforce development and professional learning services and systems.

Many of the recommendations above will require stakeholders and policymakers to understand the current status, characteristics, and needs of the early care and education workforce. Several organizations are currently undertaking projects to make this type of information available and to track results over time. Those results and other types of information about the workforce will also be important for mobilizing resources and gaining public and policymaker support for new workforce improvement initiatives. There is a need for state and local governments to establish data systems for better data collection on the early care and education workforce. National organizations, philanthropic organizations, and federal governmental agencies should provide support for these data systems. Throughout the report, the committee noted several areas where additional knowledge is needed, several of which are laid out in Box 12-6 on pages 554–556. These areas should be included in the funding portfolios of governmental and nongovernmental research funding sources.

Experiences Build Brain Architecture

From the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

This video (1:56) is part one of a three-part series titled “Three Core Concepts in Early Development” from the Center on the Developing Child. The series depicts how advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, and genomics now give us a much better understanding of how early experiences are built into our bodies and brains, for better or for worse. The full series can be viewed on the Center’s YouTube channel.

Serve and Return Interaction Builds Brain Circuitry

From the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

This video (1:42) is part two of a three-part series titled “Three Core Concepts in Early Development” from the Center on the Developing Child. The series depicts how advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, and genomics now give us a much better understanding of how early experiences are built into our bodies and brains, for better or for worse. The full series can be viewed on the Center’s YouTube channel.

Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development

From the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

This video (1:51) is part three of a three-part series titled “Three Core Concepts in Early Development” from the Center on the Developing Child. The series depicts how advances in neuroscience, molecular biology, and genomics now give us a much better understanding of how early experiences are built into our bodies and brains, for better or for worse. The full series can be viewed on the Center’s YouTube channel.

Teacher-Child Interactions are Critical for Learning

From Teachstone

This video (:44) is part of a longer clip produced by Teachstone, a company that develops professional learning programs and measurement tools for educators, including early educators. It includes commentary from Robert Pianta, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and co-founder of Teachstone, on the importance of the quality and nature of interactions between teachers and children. Pianta stresses that those interactions are the basis of children’s learning and development.

Texas Program Focuses on Helping Adults Foster Children’s Language Development

From Tap, Click, Read

This video, produced by New America and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center as part of the multimedia book Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens, offers an example of how home visitors, caregivers, teachers, and parents can gain skills in supporting children’s language and literacy development.  It tells the story of the Play and Learning Strategies (PALS) program developed at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston.

Science Practices Can Be Introduced to Young Children

From the University of Northern Iowa

This video (1:43) focuses on a particular approach, called Ramps and Pathways, that can engage young children in science and engineering practices such as close observation, inquiry, and the conducting of trials to achieve better results. It was produced by the The Regents’ Center for Early Developmental Education at the University of Northern Iowa, which has been involved with researching and implementing this approach for several years. Ramps and Pathways is just one example of the research-based approaches that early educators can add to their skillsets as they build competencies as professionals.

Educators Gain Understanding of Math Learning Trajectories

From Interactive STEM

This video (3:21) was produced by Interactive STEM, a group of researchers at the research firm EDC, in collaboration with schools in Auburn, Maine to show the impact of a new approach to teaching math in the early grades of elementary school. In this particular video, educators talk about the significance of learning the progressions that children go through as they learn math concepts and how those progressions (also called trajectories) help them individualize their instruction to foster children’s learning. The video also includes examples of how technological tools and digital media can be applied in the context of teaching math.

Omaha Schools Build Continuity from Birth Through Third Grade

From New America

This video (6:46) shows what is possible when schools and community leaders work together to provide a continuum of learning for children and families, starting at birth and extending up through age 8 (B—8) and beyond. It focuses on efforts by the Buffett Early Childhood Institute to build linkages and support professional learning among all members of the workforce in various schools in Omaha.

An Oakland School Offers Playgroups and a Resource Center for Families

From New America

This video (5:29) provides an example of how early educators are gaining skills to support families. The playgroups and other programs shown in this video are part of the Lotus Bloom Family Resource Center, which creates physical spaces and develops educational opportunities that enable adults (parents and other caregivers) and children to experience learning together.

Washington P-3 Leadership Program Promotes Connection

From New America

This video (5:20) was produced by New America to show what it looks like to develop a preparation program for leaders that brings together principals and center directors.  The video centers on the Washington P-3 Executive Leadership Certificate Program, which also is designed to prompt collaboration in teams within specific communities.

Tulsa Institutions of Higher Ed Revamp Degree Program

From New America

This video (6:43) produced by New America tells the story of how Tulsa Community College and the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa, together with the George Kaiser Family Foundation, created a new bachelor’s degree program in early childhood. It was designed to teach developmentally informed practices, be accessible to child care staff members and educators already in the workforce, and provide loan forgiveness to offset costs.

Teacher Stress and Low Compensation Undermine Early Learning

From New America

This video (6:14), produced by New America, zooms in on the significance of the conditions faced by today’s early education workforce. In addition to giving voice to the daily experiences of educators, the video features experts from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment who provide national statistics on early educators’ low compensation, stress, and depression—all factors that affect the ability of educators to provide positive learning experiences for the children in their care.

Transforming the Workforce Report

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation (2015)

New America’s multimedia guidebook (which you are reading now) is adapted from this landmark volume published by National Academies Press. Developed through an 18-month consensus process of committee members* led by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council (organizations that are now known as the National Academy of Medicine), this volume provides a comprehensive review of the science of childhood development and its implications on the education professionals that work with children B–8.

Full disclosure: one of the committee members was Lisa Guernsey, a co-author of this guidebook and Deputy Director of the Education Policy Program at New America.

State Implementation Plans

To help facilitate implementation of the Transforming the Workforce recommendations at the state level, the National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM’s) Innovation to Incubation program launched the B8 State Pathways to Implementation Project. Through this project, NAM convenes state stakeholder teams interested in developing independent implementation plans. To date, 10 state and regional teams have participated in the project: California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Virginia, Washington State, and a regional team representing Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC. An additional cohort of state teams is expected.

• Implementation Plan for the State of California
• Implementation Plan for the State of Colorado
• Workforce Commission Overview for the State of Nebraska
• Implementation Plan for the State of Virginia
• Implementation Plan for Washington Metro Region (DC, MD, and northern VA)

Other Reports from the National Academies

• Parenting Matters: Supporting Parents of Children Ages 0-8
  This report on the integral role that parents play in the lives of young children was published by the National Academies Press in 2016.
• Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures
  In 2017, the National Academies Press released this consensus study assessing the current research, policy, and education landscape related to dual language learners.
• Forthcoming Report: Financing Early Care and Education With a Highly Qualified Workforce
  In 2018, the National Academies Press will be releasing a report on how to fund early care and education for young children that is consistent with the vision laid out in Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8.

New America Resources

• A Tale of Two Pre-K Leaders: How State Policies for Center Directors and Principals Leading Pre-K Programs Differ, and Why They Shouldn’t
  This May 2017 report provides a scan of state policies on leader preparation requirements, licensure, professional learning, and compensation. It includes an online database that allows stakeholders to explore the varied policies relating to center directors and principals across states.
• Beyond Ratings: Re-envisioning State Teacher Evaluation Systems as Tools for Professional Growth
  This is an examination (March 2016) of teacher evaluation policies and their connection to professional development in 31 states.
• Connecting the Steps: State Strategies to Ease the Transition from Pre-K to Kindergarten
  This July 2017 brief offers several recommendations for states to help facilitate district and school actions to improve the transition between pre-K and kindergarten.
• Dual Language Learners National Work Group​
  This links to a research group in the Education Policy Program at New America that analyzes policies and programs that aim to support dual language learners.
• First Things First: Creating the New American Primary School
  Recording of a 2016 discussion on New America fellow Ruby Takanishi’s book on reimagining the organization of primary education.
• From Crawling to Walking: Ranking States on Birth–3rd Grade Policies that Support Strong Readers
  This November 2015 report ranks states on 65 indicators in seven policy areas that guide children’s literacy development from B–8.
• Getting in Sync: Revamping Licensure and Preparation for Teachers in Pre-K, Kindergarten, and the Early Grades
  With a pre-K through third-grade focus, this 2011 report analyzes the challenges of teacher licensure and preparation, offering suggestions for improvement.
• One Size Doesn’t Fit All: The Need for Specialized Teacher Licenses in the Early Grades
  This June 2017 brief takes a closer look at teacher licensing laws and practices for elementary age students in four states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, South Carolina, and Arkansas.
• Principal’s Corner: Perspectives on Teaching and Learning in PreK–3rd Grade
  Six briefs (August 2015) that take a closer look at principals’ perceptions of what should take place in pre-K and early grade classrooms, while offering recommendations for states and school districts in regard to building principals’ expertise in this area.
• STEM Starts Early: Grounding Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education in Early Childhood
  This 2017 report explains the challenges and opportunities in early STEM learning.
• Watching Teachers Work: Using Observation Tools to Promote Effective Teaching in the Early Years and Early Grades
  This 2011 paper examines the importance of classroom observation as a tool to identify, promote, and reward good teaching.
• Worthy Work, Still Unlivable Wages
  Recording of a 2014 discussion (2.5 hours) on key strategies to better support and reward those in the early care and education workforce, building from updated findings from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment report, Worth Work, STILL Unlivable Wages: The Early Childhood Workforce 25 Years After the National Child Care Staffing Study.

Resources from Leading Organizations

• 2017 Early Childhood Education Leadership Development Compendium: A View of the Current Landscape (Goffin Strategy Group)
  This resource identifies and provides an overview of early childhood education leadership development programs.
• Building a Skilled Teacher Workforce: Shared and Divergent Challenges in Early Care and Education and in Grades K–12 (Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE))
  This 2014 report examines the early care and education workforce and offers suggestions for promoting a skilled workforce for the 21st century.
• Building State P–3 Systems: Learning from Leading States (Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO))
  This 2016 report conducts case studies on three states examining experiences, quality, and continuity across the P–3 continuum.
• Cities Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative (National League of Cities)
  This project works with local leaders to transform the early childhood workforce by helping them strengthen support and develop initiatives in their communities.
• Early Childhood Workforce Index (Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE))
  This 2016 index offers state-by-state information on early childhood workforce conditions and policies.
• Early Learning and Educational Technology Policy Brief (U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services)
  This 2016 brief provides a guide for developmentally appropriate technology use in early learning settings and homes.
• Equity Starts Early: How Chiefs Will Build High-Quality Early Education (Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO))
  This 2016 report outlines five steps that, coupled with high-quality K–12 education, will contribute to strengthening long-term student outcomes.
• Framework for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating PreK–3rd Grade Approaches (University of Washington College of Education)
  This 2013 document provides an evidence-based framework for the implementation of PreK–3rd grade programs.
• Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five (Office of Head Start)
  This 2015 framework provides five developmental areas that are critical for a child’s academic and long-term success.
• Closing the Leadership Gap: 2017 Status Report on Early Childhood Program Leadership in the United States (McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership)
  This report discusses the L.E.A.D. Early Childhood Clearinghouse, an interactive tool that provides information on the status of the early childhood leadership workforce; national and state professional standards for leaders; and programs that educate, support, and enhance the competency of individuals who lead programs serving children B–8.
• Leading Pre-K–3 Learning Communities: Competencies for Effective Principal Practice (National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP))
  This 2014 report outlines a strategic approach to assist principals in strengthening their early education programs.
• The Early Childhood Care and Education Workforce: Challenges and Opportunities (Institute of Medicine and National Research Council)
  This 2012 report explores the early care and education workforce and opportunities to strengthen the profession.
• Power to the Profession (National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC))
  This initiative aims to unify career pathways in the early childhood profession.
• The New Early Childhood Professional: A Step-by-Step Guide to Overcoming Goliath (Valora Washington, Brenda Gadson, and Kathryn L. Amel)
  This 2015 book offers a framework to assist educators in the early care and education profession.
• Worthy Work, STILL Unlivable Wages: The Early Childhood Workforce 25 Years After The National Child Care Staffing Study (Center for the Study of Child Care Employment)
  This 2014 report provides a review of data on wages and the quality of work environments for those who work with young children, 25 years after the release of the National Child Care Staffing Study.

This tool was developed in 2015 to accompany the Transforming the Workforce report. It is designed to help communities and states get a fuller picture of the multiple roles and positions held by individuals across the landscape of child development and learning from birth through age 8. The tool can be used to build a map of the landscape for your particular state, locality, or initiative. It groups professionals in different spheres to show how they interact and uses different colored lines to show connections between settings and professionals.

Go here to use the tool (registration is free) and learn about Kumu, the company that created it.

To transform the workforce, state leaders should play a large role. But sometimes they are stymied by complexities in the way a state is governed or how different policies have been enacted. To be effective, they will need to delve deeply enough to uncover their state’s internal systems, structures, and regulations. This questionnaire,  designed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and New America, is intended to help—consider it something akin to an MRI machine for scanning a state’s policy and regulatory structures. The answers that come from this questionnaire can help people spot where opportunities, gaps, and blockages exist and where infrastructure is strong and weak, while also helping to establish paths for moving forward. For more information on how this tool was applied in scanning three states (Indiana, New York, and Wisconsin), see Uncovering the Inner Workings of States’ Early Childhood Polices: Results from a New Tool for Changemakers Focused on Transforming the Workforce. Additional information is available from the Power to the Profession initiative.

The quality of an early childhood education program is largely dependent on an often overlooked group of professionals: school or program leaders. In 2017, New America conducted a scan of state policies on leader preparation requirements, licensure, professional learning, and compensation. This tool sheds light on the current expectations for center directors and principals, identifies areas for improvement in state policy, and highlights states that are leading on leaders. Explore the interactive maps and see how your state compares, here.

In 2015, New America’s Early & Elementary Education Policy team developed a birth-through-third grade state policy framework. It includes state policies in seven areas that are essential for supporting children’s literacy development:

1. Educators: Teachers and Leaders;
2. Standards, Assessment, and Data
3. Equitable Funding;
4. Pre-K: Access and Quality;
5. Full-Day Kindergarten: Access and Quality;
6. Dual Language Learner Supports; and
7. Third Grade Reading Laws.

Using this framework, New America ranked 50 states and Washington, D.C.  into the categories of Crawling, Toddling, or Walking based on their progress toward achieving 65 policy indicators across these seven individual policy areas and across all of them together. Use the interactive maps, which can be accessed here, to figure out where your state should focus its efforts.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): stressful or traumatic events related to development that can impact a person’s health in the long term like trauma, abuse, neglect, or poverty.

Assessment literacy: the ability of care and education professionals to understand how to select, administer, and interpret a range of assessment instruments and use the information to make decisions about instruction and intervention.

Bridging activities: activities employed to support and sustain the growth of children’s competencies across developmental domains designed to ease transitions between learning environments and reduce adverse consequences that may result from stresses encountered in transitioning.

• Ex: deploying mixed-age classrooms
• Ex: having an educator move with a group of students for multiple years
• Ex: developing partnerships within a community among early care providers, community-based organizations, preschools, and elementary schools

Career advancement pathways: paths for individuals to follow as they advance within a role, such as novice to expert, as well as advancement and promotion to higher-level professional roles.

Certification: terminology used to indicate that a professional has met qualification requirements for teaching or leading in a particular setting. The general term for documents proving this certification is “credential.” Some states use the term “license” to denote credentials in public school settings.

Chronic stressors: prolonged activation of the physiologic stress response systems that are particularly harmful when experienced in the absence of the protection afforded by stable, positive relationships.

Coaching and mentoring: types of professional learning that involve a collaborative partnership in which an early childhood educator works with an adult educator to improve his or her practice. Mentors are likely to work one-on-one with educators to reach agreed-upon goals. Coaches often work with individuals or groups of educators following a planned program.

Cognitive flexibility: the ability to move from thinking about one concept to thinking about a different concept, and then back again; as well as the ability to think about multiple concepts simultaneously.

Continuity: in the context of children from B–8, the consistency of experience across diverse care and education settings as they grow up. It also includes the coordination of services from diverse programs and agencies affecting young children at any given point.

Continuity of care: in settings for very young children, this is the practice of keeping children and their caregivers together for an extended period of time, ideally up to 36 months of age so that a secure caregiver-child attachment can form.

Core competencies: (1) foundational knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by all adults with direct responsibilities for children regardless of setting or sector; (2) the specialized knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by educators and administrators who directly work with children from B–8. See pp. 326–327 of Transforming the Workforce for the abilities needed by all adults who have professional responsibilities with young children and pp. 328–329 for the competencies needed by early educators.

Critical and sensitive periods: time windows in which experience-related developmental transitions must or can most readily occur.

Early childhood (B–5) program accreditation: a process for assessing program quality against a set of program standards. Typically developed by national organizations and voluntarily accessed, accreditation systems are available for center-based programs as well as for family child care settings.

Epigenetics: processes in which genes are activated or deactivated by environmental conditions.

Executive function: the term for a collection of mental processes that enable one to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully.

Gene-environment correlation: the influence of genetic variation on environmental exposures; individuals may select, alter, and generate experiences that are in keeping with their own genetic proclivities.

• Ex: child with more inhibited temperament inclined toward less intensive social environments

Gene-environment interaction: genetic or environmental effects that are conditional upon each other.

• Ex: hereditary risk for heart disease (the genotype) can be aggravated by poor diet and lack of exercise (environment)
• Ex: clinical depression, generally characterized by low levels of serotonin in the brain (genotype), can be worsened by high-stress situations, including grief, the physical stress of disease, or even the presence/absence of sunlight (environment)

Higher education program accreditation: a process for assessing the quality of an institute of higher education program’s quality. Accreditation standards promote quality by setting standards around course content and faculty requirements. In the early care and education space, organizations like the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) offer voluntary program accreditation. NAEYC awards accreditation to early childhood associate, baccalaureate, and master’s degree programs that meet the NAEYC Professional Preparation Standards.

Inhibitory control: the ability to inhibit unproductive responses or behaviors to enable oneself to think about better strategies or ideas.

Interprofessional practice: the ability to collaborate and coordinate across settings within early care and education and with related sectors, especially, health, mental health, and social services. These abilities include three competencies:

• Common competencies: overlapping competencies shared across multiple roles
• Complementary competencies: specific to one’s role and enhances the work of other professionals
• Collaborative competencies: knowledge and skills for working together across roles and sectors

Joint media engagement: engagement that occurs when a child watches media with an adult who engages him or her in the content or helps connect the ideas on screen to the world.

Kindergarten readiness: a child’s early knowledge in subject areas and that child’s physical, emotional, social, and behavioral preparedness to engage in the early elementary learning environment. Also refers to the preparedness of professionals, schools, and related systems to facilitate smooth transitions between home or early care settings and elementary school.

Lead educators: those who bear primary responsibility for children and who are responsible for planning and implementing activities and instruction and overseeing the work of assistant teachers and paraprofessionals. They include the lead educators in classroom and center-based settings, center directors/administrators, and owners/operators and lead practitioners in home-based or family child care settings.

Professional learning: any mechanisms that can contribute to ensuring that the early care and education workforce has what it needs to gain and reinforce necessary knowledge and competencies for quality practice. This includes but is not limited to preparation programs for prospective educators and professional development for those already in the workforce. Examples of professional learning mechanisms include:

• workshops, trainings, or courses
• coaching and mentoring
• reflective practice
• learning networks
• communities of practice

Professional learning communities: a type of professional learning where groups of educators collaborate using inquiry, reflective dialogue, and data to determine their learning needs and those of their students in order to improve educator effectiveness and student outcomes.

Quality assurance efforts: strategies for enhancing program quality in early childhood settings (B–5) in conjunction with practitioners’ knowledge, skills, and practices.

Quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS): QRIS for early childhood programs have been developed and implemented at the state and local level. While considerable variability exists in their design and implementation, they all aim to improve child outcomes and make the extent of a program’s quality transparent to parents and the general public by assessing multiple indicators and combining them into a single summary rating of quality

Reflective practice: an important professional learning strategy where educators reflect on and analyze their own work, potentially making them more open to refining or altering their teaching methods. Key components of reflective practice include questioning one’s assumptions, identifying alternatives in one’s practice, and deliberating on how to proceed.

Secure attachment: healthy attachment style between young children and caregivers that develops when children feel protected by and know they can depend on caregivers; research has shown that securely attached children develop greater social skills and have higher levels of self-esteem than those without this attachment.

“Serve and return” interactions: interactions that occur when a child vocalizes and a caregiver responds in a way that furthers the conversation rather than ending it; for example, an infant may coo and then the caregiver responds.

Social and emotional competence: a set of skills that contribute to the ability to understand and manage emotions and behaviors and establish and maintain positive relationships with peers.

Teacher preparation: for educators in public school systems, this usually entails preservice education that leads to a degree and then licensure. Teacher preparation programs almost always include coursework and student teaching. Degree attainment and licensure are usually followed by induction or mentoring programs for new teachers. Teacher preparation outside of public school systems is more varied.

Tiered intervention approaches: also known as response-to-intervention models, a process through which educators identify which children might benefit from additional instruction and support.

Two-generation interventions: activities designed to assist children by providing simultaneous support to their parents, such as providing child care along with training for parents to help them gain jobs and succeed in the workforce.

Given that you work with children every day, you already see how much experiences in the early years can affect their development. Exposure to significant stress and hardship can result in changes to the brain that negatively impact behavior and cognition. Yet science is showing that environmental factors impact each child differently, as brain development is based on a combination of children’s experiences and their genetic makeup. Experiencing a traumatic event, such as physical abuse, can have different long-term implications for different children. Understanding more about children’s lives outside of the classroom can enable you to tailor your teaching and caregiving to better support their development. Develop strong relationships with families to learn about their needs and connect them to resources that support their wellbeing.

Questions

• What information do you have about the backgrounds of young children in your care? What training have you received on how to protect families’ privacy while also becoming more informed about the stresses they may be experiencing?
• Are there professionals in your workplace who have the opportunity to sit down with each family and discuss life stressors family members are facing as well as set goals for their children?
• Is there someone in your program who is responsible for connecting families to wraparound services, such as health clinics or job training centers, that can help mitigate families’ stressors?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 3 of  Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to that summary for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

You want children to learn how to share, make friends, and regulate their emotions. You want to help build their language and literacy skills. You want to develop their understanding of math beyond counting and recognizing simple shapes and to cultivate their interests as young scientists and explorers. To do all of this for the children in your care, you will need to ensure that they have developed a feeling of security and attachment to you and that they experience high-quality interactions with you and the other adults in their lives. Science shows that children, even at very young ages, benefit greatly from back-and-forth interactions with caregivers and learn from dialogue that is contingent on their own responses and questions. In the realm of language development, for example, research shows that these authentic conversations help to develop children’s oral language skills and their comprehension of new words. Doing this skillfully will require a deeper understanding of what children are capable of doing and learning in multiple domains at each stage of their development. Understanding these capacities can help you identify potential developmental delays or disabilities and ensure that families receive the supports they need.

Questions

• Are curricula or other structured materials in place at the school or program level to help you build social and emotional skills, literacy and language skills, early math skills, and early science skills in young children?
• Are research-backed techniques for ensuring a secure educator-child attachment, such as primary caregiving and continuity of care, in place for infants and toddlers in early education programs?
• Does your program provide developmental screenings to identify any potential delays and ensure that children have access to the services they need?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 4 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to that summary for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

Children need continuity during the early childhood years to ensure that high-quality learning experiences build off each other. From B–8, children are in multiple early education and care settings, usually with varied standards based on the type of setting (i.e., home-based, center-based, or public school) and age of the children served. These inconsistencies stem largely from the fact that programs are responding to different regulations and funding streams.
You can mitigate inconsistencies and help ensure that children’s experiences align from one year to the next by increasing communication and coordination within and across programs. Once you know what learning experiences students have had in the past and what is expected of them the following year, you can better tailor instruction and care. If you can use assessment data that align across the continuum, you will have an easier time making comparisons and being able to discern where children are and how they are progressing.

Questions

• What information do you have about the children entering your classrooms each year?
• How can you identify and build relationships with the early care and education programs that feed into your elementary school and vice versa?
• How might you share information about curriculum, assessment, and instructional strategies to help better align what and how children are learning across years and settings?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 5 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to that summary for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

To foster learning, you will need knowledge of subject-matter content, an understanding of how children learn specific skills and develop background knowledge at various stages of their development, and an ability to select the instructional strategy that will best promote learning at any given time. For example, there are multiple techniques that you can use to support language and literacy development. One is to facilitate “serve and return” interactions with young children that help build their vocabulary skills. When children have experiences with frequent and elaborate language from an early age, they build vocabulary and background knowledge. This also teaches children how words work together. By listening and then speaking children understand more words, which eventually translates to reading.

Similar techniques are becoming better understood for helping teachers to develop children’s early math skills, provide them experiences with scientific practices, and nurture their social and emotional development. Helping children to learn to regulate their actions and emotions, for example, requires learning environments that are organized, predictable, and focused on developing warm relationships with you and their peers. For all of these subject areas and domains, Transforming the Workforce concludes that teachers need to use research-based curricula and take advantage of opportunities for professional learning.

In addition to knowing how to teach subject matter and skills, you will need to know how to apply these strategies for specific populations of students, such as dual language learners or children with disabilities. Part of your job entails being able to identify which children need additional supports, which requires understanding the different types of screening and assessment tools, including how to interpret assessment results and make appropriate changes to instruction in response.

In short, being an early educator requires a whole host of competencies and a deep base of knowledge. And while there are meaningful differences in these competencies depending on whether you are working with infants and toddlers, preschoolers, or elementary school students, professionals working across the B–8 continuum should have a shared knowledge base and skills to provide quality practice and ensure continuity for children.

On pages 328–329 of Transforming the Workforce, you can see a full list of the competencies that educators need. The report organizes these competencies into five categories:

1. Core knowledge of the science of child development and early learning
2. Practices to help children learn and develop based on this science
3. Knowledge and skills for working with diverse populations of children
4. Development of partnerships with families and support services to bolster child learning and development
5. Ability and motivation to continually improve the quality and effectiveness of one’s practices

Questions

• Review the list of competencies on pages 328–329. Which ones do you feel most confident about as an educator? Which ones do you want to develop further?
• Are professional learning opportunities offered by your state, school district, or community to fill the gaps?
• Do you have access to research-based curricula and tools to help support children’s learning? Are those tools equally strong in all domains (such as social-emotional development, literacy and language development, math, and science)?
• How are you using assessment in your classroom or program to inform lessons and improve child learning and development?
• Do you need more training in learning how to adjust instruction in response to assessment results?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 6 and summary of chapter 7 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to those summaries for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

To achieve the competencies and skills outlined in the report, you need access to professional learning, whether through preparation programs (pre-service) or ongoing education (in-service). Researchers have found that professional learning is most effective when it is ongoing, consistent, and directly related to classroom practice. Transforming the Workforce describes how difficult and variable access can be in different types of settings; for example, educators in publicly funded settings like Head Start and elementary schools usually have greater access. To whatever extent possible, seek out professional learning that employs these characteristics of quality in the areas that you most need support.

Questions

• What barriers might be keeping you from advancing your education or taking advantage of professional learning
• What actions can schools and districts take to foster the development of a professional community of early educators that support each other to improve pedagogical practice?
• Are you afforded opportunities to join professional learning communities? If not, can you advocate for the creation of those communities or start them with the assistance of professional membership organizations in the field?
• Have you talked with leaders about expanding options in your state or locality for augmenting your skills and sharing learnings across programs or grade levels?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 8 and summary of chapter 9 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to those summaries for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

If you are an educator of children over the age of 5, you likely have a bachelor’s degree. If you are an educator of children younger than 5, your credentials may be quite different. The Transforming the Workforce report details these disparities. It shows how divergent qualification requirements for B–5 and elementary school educators have perpetuated misconceptions that working with younger children requires less knowledge and fewer skills. These disparities foster inequities in compensation. The report provides many recommendations for beginning to bridge these gaps. It ends with a big list of to-dos for policymakers and institutions of higher education, including efforts to help raise the quality and the level of credentials required of educators serving children under age 5.

The report also delves into how educators and programs are evaluated. Existing systems vary considerably in design and intent. Teacher evaluations used in public schools are designed to improve instruction and child outcomes by differentiating effective from ineffective instructional practice. If you are a teacher or principal conducting evaluations in elementary schools, you will need to keep in mind that PreK–third grade students learn in ways that differ from their older peers. Further, in evaluation systems that rely on student outcomes, evaluators should understand that the younger the child, the more difficult it is to obtain reliable and valid assessment data.

States and national organizations have also been refining how program quality is measured. Quality assurance systems in the B–8 field include accreditation systems and quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS). There is great variation in these systems, but when done well, they have the potential to positively affect educator knowledge, skills, and behaviors.

Questions

• Do you have the financial, logistical, and moral support you need to gain a higher credential if required? If so, do you also have an advisor who can help you find a high-quality, accredited institution?
• Are you aware of the criteria by which you and your peers are evaluated?
• If you work in an elementary school, do your principals or other evaluators of PreK–third grade classrooms understand how to evaluate quality instruction in the early grades?
• Are you involved in evaluating your peers or managers?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 10 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to that summary for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

You know better than anyone that teaching and caring for young children is a demanding job. And yet studies show that compensation and benefits for early educators, especially for those working outside of the public-school system, are often so low that you may have to take on a second job or rely on public assistance to make ends meet. Consequently, as studies show, you and your peers experience more stress than those in many other fields. Experiencing depressive symptoms is not uncommon, especially for those working with high-risk populations. Depression and stress can make it difficult to provide high-quality education and care for the children in your classrooms.

Questions

• Are efforts underway to improve compensation in your work setting? Are policymakers aware of disparities?
• What types of support do you or the educators you work with have to improve their well-being? What types of supports do you wish you had?
• Is there a defined career ladder or opportunities for advancement in your program?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 11 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to that summary for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

Children’s brains are developing rapidly from birth through age 8 (B–8). What happens to children socially and physically during these years influences their long-term developmental and academic trajectories. Just as children’s development can be hurt by negative factors, it is also strengthened by positive environments and relationships. High-quality relationships with adults, both parents and educators, during these early years are key to children’s success.

As policymakers, you can take steps to ensure that both parents and educators have what they need to support young children’s growth and development. Devoting resources so that families have avenues for avoiding undue stress and have better access to high-quality early education programs are among the most critical. Ensuring that early interventions and education programs are following state, district, or institutional guidelines that are up to date with the most recent social and cognitive science is also key. Appropriate guidelines and quality standards are first steps in guaranteeing that effective educators are able to provide quality instruction across cognitive domains, as well as support children’s social and emotional skills and physical health and development.

Because children living in poverty are likely to experience multiple stressors, which can manifest as academic and social problems when they enter early childhood programs or school, make sure that these children in particular have access to high-quality education and care. Professionals should be trained to recognize the effects of chronic stress and assist children in developing skills such as persistence and emotional awareness that are necessary for coping with adverse experiences.

Questions

• Does your state provide resources or encourage research-based interventions or other types of support to help reduce prenatal exposure to stress?
• How does your state provide resources to help children and their parents through adverse situations? Where are these services provided?
• Are policies in place that aim to support children and also give their parents access to workforce training or programs to reduce their stress levels?
• What is the state doing to help parents better understand the importance of talking with children starting as soon as they are born?
• Are the latest findings from social and cognitive science reflected in state, district, or institutional guidelines for young children’s growth and development?
• Do the guidelines for the routines in children’s classrooms allow for cross-domain learning and interplay between subject areas, such as using the teaching of early mathematics to also build oral language development?

This synopsis was drawn from our summaries of chapter 3 and chapter 4 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to those summaries for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

Continuity of learning is essential for ensuring that children’s early academic success and development are built upon by consistent educational experiences. But continuity can be difficult to achieve when children experience a variety of early care and education settings that adhere to different standards and regulations. Take steps to improve both vertical continuity (consistency of care and education across years as children age) and horizontal continuity (consistency across different services or entities that serve children and families). Both are essential to children’s success.

At the state level, early learning guidelines and standards for research-based instructional strategies should be aligned for educators across the continuum. This helps educators to develop shared understanding of the expectations and instructional approaches used across settings and ages. Local policies that support communication, planning, and coordination across settings and programs can keep educators informed about the learning experiences each child had before and those that will follow. Educators can also use bridging activities to ease the transition between years and reduce the adverse consequences that can result because of changes in personnel, expectations, and settings. Bridging activities can also be used to connect services across sectors, giving educators better context to guide children’s learning trajectories.

Educators also need reliable data to understand how children are progressing across the continuum. Provide guidance and financial resources on the state and local to ensure that educators have access to high-quality child assessments that are aligned across years.

Questions

• Which policies are making it difficult for professionals to share information across vertical and horizontal continuums? Which of those policies do you have control over and could change?
• Do your state’s K–12 standards align with your state’s early learning standards?
• Does your state have policies that encourage joint planning time and professional learning opportunities for educators in pre-K and kindergarten to aid in smooth transitions?
• Do programs collect and share the child-level data (such as assessment data and information on prior early learning settings) that educators at each grade level should review to meet children’s needs?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 5 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to that summary for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

As policymakers, you can play more of a role than you might think in making sure that educators have the knowledge and skills they need to teach young children. It starts by recognizing that to foster high-quality learning, B–8 educators will need a deeper knowledge of subject-matter content, the developmental progress of how children learn, and the instructional strategies that best promote learning.

The Transforming the Workforce report summarizes insights from multiple new studies on the effectiveness of various practices with young children that lead to development of social and emotional skills, language and literacy skills, early math and early science skills, and the use of technology, as well as how to tailor methods to support dual language learners and other diverse populations of young children. Yet many early educators enter the field ill-equipped to teach certain subjects, such as math, or support specific populations. This is in part because preparation programs are usually designed in response to state competencies, qualifications, and licensure requirements, which may not align with the latest research.

Transforming the Workforce includes a full list of the competencies that B–8 educators need on pages 328–329. However, there is no current consensus on what professionals need to know and be able to do. National statements and state expectations for B–8 educators overlap, but also vary in significant ways. While some aspects of practice need to be tailored to specific professional roles, specialization should be developed in the context of a shared foundation in child development and early learning. States and other entities responsible for competencies and standards should revise them to align with the latest research on child development and early learning. The report recommends that states expand their existing core competency statements on areas such as the science of child development, the use of assessment, and work with dual language learners.

On pages 344–345, the report lays out specialized knowledge and competencies for leaders in the field. Program leaders are important in ensuring the quality of early learning experiences, yet their training often does not prepare them to be both administrative and instructional leaders. There is a pronounced divide in expectations for leaders in elementary school settings and those in early childhood learning settings outside of the public schools. Existing state and federal policies, such as minimal qualifications for center directors and accountability systems focused on the later grades for elementary school principals, often fail to motivate or support leaders in acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to lead early childhood educators and their students.

In addition to strong educator preparation programs and professional learning opportunities, which we expand on below, you should help ensure that educators have access to research-based curricula and other relevant materials instrumental in supporting their practice. States or districts can provide guidance around curricula selection and use.

Lastly, the report points out that B–8 educators and administrators need to learn how to foster collaboration with and to coordinate practices across early care and education settings and between the care and education sector and related sectors, especially health, mental health, and social services.

Questions

• Are there particular subject areas that are weak among educators in your state or locality that need to be addressed? For example, what is the state of early math or science instruction? Are educators being trained in how to build language and literacy skills? Are there best practices for the use of technology with young children that need to be integrated into early learning guidelines and teacher training?
• Are all B–8 educators in your state or locality provided opportunities to learn more about child mental health and what services may be offered to the children and families in their care?
• Does the state have one foundational set of competencies that are expected for all educators B–8?
• Do documents exist that outline competencies for those working with young children in various capacities?
• When were these competency expectations last revised and how are they used?
• Are current state competency expectations aligned with those in the report?

This synopsis was drawn from our summaries of chapter 6 and chapter 7 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to those summaries for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

Educators usually participate in some combination of pre-service and in-service activities to develop their practice, but huge divides exist across the B–8 continuum in terms of what type of professional learning is required and what is accessible. Why? Divergent state qualification and licensure policies for educators share a big part of the blame. Elementary school educators must have formal preparation before employment, usually a bachelor’s degree and state certification. Educators of children prior to kindergarten (with the exception of pre-K teachers in public schools) may not be required to have any formal higher education and often work in the field before pursuing formal higher education or training. Similar disparities in qualifications exist for leaders.

This bifurcated system is failing to produce well-qualified educators who possess all the knowledge and skills they need. State licensing, qualification, and accreditation policies should align with what research shows is best for young children. Policies should acknowledge that all educators of children B–8 need a similar foundation of knowledge and skills, and that preparation programs must include a focus on child development and early learning, as well as emphasize subject areas (early literacy, math, and science) and the content knowledge that emerges from them. Ensure that educators have opportunities to learn from what happens in everyday interactions with children by participating in high-quality clinical experiences.

It is also important to remove barriers that keep early educators from gaining more training and education. Early educators, especially those working in settings outside of public schools and making very low wages, are usually unable to go back to school because of the high costs of attendance and time constraints. You can take steps to increase access to higher education and support educator success by collaborating with institutions of higher education to create articulation agreements between community colleges and four-year institutions, stackable credentials, online degree programs, and scholarships. You can also support alternative preparation pathways, such as Teach for America, which put candidates on a fast track and often assist with employment.

In addition to reforming licensure and higher education, you can break down barriers, create incentives, and channel financial resources into programs that provide effective ongoing training, including mentoring and coaching. As with higher education, a bifurcated system exists across these in-service programs. Those working in elementary schools usually have to meet specific requirements around professional learning and may have greater access to opportunities for ongoing training. Educators in publicly-funded programs, like Head Start, are more likely to participate in professional learning during paid work hours. Other educators face barriers like limited funding, lack of support from leadership, and the inability to take time away from the classroom.

Questions

• What credentials and licenses does your state require of educators working in B–5 settings compared to those working in elementary schools?
• What types of professional learning opportunities does your state or district offer for early childhood educators? Are there opportunities for all educators (e.g., teachers, leaders, and paraprofessionals) working with children from birth through third grade? Are educators working with different ages of children participating together in these opportunities at times?
• Are there requirements that providers of ongoing professional learning help educators stay up to date on the latest science and best practices?
• Could your state or district help provide early educators with the funds necessary to pursue additional education?
• Given the needs in your state or locality, what topics for in-service professional development should be prioritized for early educators?
• How can career ladders be constructed to ensure that early educators have opportunities for professional advancement?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 8 and summary of chapter 9 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to those summaries for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

Building mechanisms to identify quality is one of the primary ways that you can influence reforms to the early education workforce. Those mechanisms include requiring educators and leaders to show competencies and hold credentials, requiring systems for reviewing the performance of educators and leaders, and requiring systems for assuring the quality of programs and early education settings across the age spectrum.

Those working in elementary schools are consistently held to higher credentialing standards than those working in B–5 programs: states agree that early elementary teachers need at least a bachelor’s degree, but there is no widespread agreement about the appropriate level of education for those in early childhood programs. Similar disparities exist for administrative leaders in both settings.

This divided system for B–5 and elementary school educators perpetuate misconceptions that working with younger children requires less knowledge and skills. These disparities can foster inequities in practitioner compensation, making it more difficult to recruit and retain B–5 educators. Solving this problem is not as easy as simply increasing qualifications. Educators will need time and support to meet new guidelines. You should help ensure that increases in education are coupled with substantial salary increases.

Educator quality is mixed at least in part because the focus and overall quality of preparation programs for teachers vary widely. By itself, a degree or a specialization in early childhood education does not guarantee that a person will become a better teacher or that she can improve child outcomes for children B–5. Higher education accreditation and other markers of quality could be improved to help steer aspiring educators and the current workforce to more effective higher education programs.

States and programs have also been refining the ways that they determine the quality of current educators’ practice. Existing systems vary considerably in design and intent. Teacher evaluations in public schools are meant to improve instruction and child outcomes by differentiating effective from ineffective instructional practice. Policies should take into account that pre-K through third grade students learn in ways that differ from their older peers. States and localities should provide evaluators with tools to understand what early learning should look like in these grades. Practice caution in using evaluation systems that rely on student outcomes in these grades since it is more difficult to obtain reliable and valid assessment data with younger children.

States and national organizations have been refining how quality is measured in B–5 programs with early education program accreditation systems and quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS). There is great variation in these systems, but when done well, they have the potential to positively affect educator knowledge, skills, and behaviors. They can also help parents make informed decisions about where to enroll their children. Help ensure that these systems align with the latest research on child development and early learning and that programs have the supports and incentives they need to improve.

Questions

• What needs to change in your current credentialing systems? Could they be revamped to enable candidates to demonstrate their competencies as educators?
• What structures does your state have in place to ensure quality in preparation programs offered by higher education and other training institutions?
• When teachers and principals are evaluated, are those evaluation systems accounting for the ways that young children learn best? Do mechanisms exist to evaluate administrators of B–5 early care and education programs?

This synopsis was drawn from our summaries of chapter 10 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to that summary for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

The early education workforce is plagued with high turnover, particularly in the B–5 years. This workforce experiences more stress than many other fields, and teachers who are struggling to care for themselves will have difficulty caring for young children. As policymakers, you have the power to increase educators’ quality of life and job satisfaction, improve job stability in the field, and attract high-quality teachers.

Wages and benefits that are commensurate with the demands of the job are essential to maintaining an effective workforce. Child care educators still earn poverty-level wages, making less than pre-K teachers and earning less than half of what K–12 educators do. Unfortunately, large income disparities persist between educators working in different settings even when education levels are comparable. Early care and education is already prohibitively expensive for many families and programs are already running on extremely tight budgets, so raising tuition to pay educators is not a solution. Increased public investment is needed to raise compensation. Some states, for example, have implemented pay parity policies to guarantee that pre-K teachers are paid the same as kindergarten teachers. A few states also participate in the WAGE$ program, which provides salary supplements to low-paid educators. A few states offer tax credits to early childhood educators to supplement their wages.

The cost of higher education can be an additional financial burden. Because increases in educational attainment are not always coupled with meaningful increases in pay, it is important that students do not take on significant debt to pay for higher education. Establish grants and scholarships to help. T.E.A.C.H. scholarships, for example, have increased access to higher education in many states; in addition to help in paying for college, recipients are guaranteed small pay increases.

Limited opportunities for advancement also make it difficult to attract and retain a high-quality workforce. Devote resources to professional learning opportunities for educators and create career pathways to help educators advance in the field.

Questions

• Do any of your current state or local policies aim to improve the working conditions and the well-being of the workforce? Are there viable career paths for early childhood educators?
• Is there pay parity between educators working in pre-K through third grade?
• Do educators have access to wages and benefits that reflect the skilled nature of their work?
• Do educators have access to education and training programs needed to further their careers—and the financial support to pay for them?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 11 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to that summary for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

The committee behind Transforming the Workforce offers a “Blueprint for Action” that puts forward 13 recommendations along with a discussion of necessary considerations to better connect the research with policy and practice and ultimately improve outcomes for children. Our overview of these recommendations, including key takeaways for implementation, is available here. 

From birth through age 8 (B–8), children’s brains are developing rapidly and are highly responsive to experience and stimulation. Physical, social, and environmental exposures during these years change brain circuitry, influencing children’s long-term developmental and academic trajectories. Disruptions in brain development, such as those caused by adverse experiences, can manifest as academic and social problems when children enter early childhood programs or school. But just as development is susceptible to negative factors, children can also benefit from positive environments and relationships, such as those with educators.

As a leader or faculty member in an IHE, you will need to ensure that prospective B–8 caregivers and educators have a strong understanding of how children’s brains are developing during these years. Well-prepared educators will know how to take into account experiences both inside and outside of the classroom as they track children’s learning and development. Understanding the relationship between environmental and genetic factors in relation to individual differences in brain development allows educators to tailor instruction to each child and to effectively design early interventions.

Questions

• Do your teacher preparation programs include coursework about the impacts of adversity on young children?
• Do teacher preparation programs adequately teach the science of brain development to future educators, those who will work with young children as well as those teaching older children?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 3 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to that summary for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

To support their growth and learning, early educators need to understand how children develop at various ages and stages across multiple domains. Children are actively learning from the moment they are born and the quality of their interactions with adults is paramount to their success. Forming secure attachments with supportive caregivers during the first years of life helps children to develop socially and emotionally. They also begin developing the background knowledge that will enable them to understand concepts in specific subject areas, such as math and literacy, from a very early age.

You can help educators effectively distinguish such nuances in instruction and practice in language and literacy development, early mathematics, early science, social and emotional skills, and physical health and development. Educators should be trained to recognize the effects of chronic stress and assist children in developing the skills, such as persistence and emotional awareness, necessary for coping with adverse experiences.

Questions

• Does your institution provide incentives for faculty to stay abreast of the science of early learning? Are there opportunities for faculty to collaborate and make connections across departments like developmental science, education, sociology, and other fields that are fostering insights into human development?
• What kind of training on early literacy, math, and science is offered in your institution’s early childhood and elementary preparation programs? Do faculty teach across these programs and/or collaborate on content?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 4 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to that summary for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

Studies show that young children learn best when they experience continuity in their learning experiences from one year to the next, starting at birth and extending up through age 8 (when middle childhood begins). Ideally, their caregivers and teachers will be building upon the skills and development set forth in the prior year. But this continuity is difficult to achieve when children experience a variety of early care and education settings that adhere to different standards and regulations. To begin to change this, B–8 educators will need a shared knowledge base on how children learn and develop. Their current lack of shared knowledge derives in part from how IHEs and teacher licensing programs have been designed, which has led to different expectations for educators working in early childhood programs and elementary schools.

As a leader in an IHE, you have an opportunity to restructure programs to ensure that B–8 educators, regardless of which setting or age group they work with, share the same foundation of knowledge and competencies. B–8 educators should have aligned expectations for children and know what developmentally appropriate instruction looks like at different ages and stages. High-quality child assessments that are aligned across the continuum can provide educators with data about how a child is progressing. You should equip educators to interpret and use assessment data, which can inform instructional paths, including decisions about intervention services.

Questions

• Are preparation programs designed to build competencies in educators across the B–8 spectrum or do they focus on only one part of this spectrum? How might programs be reformed to ensure that educators of, say, 6-year-olds can gain understanding of the stages of development that those children have passed through before they reached age 6 and so that educators working with 2-year-olds can better understand how to develop a foundation that will help children develop skills when they are in elementary school?
• Are field experiences for prospective teachers designed to introduce them to expectations and developmentally informed practices starting in the early years and across different grade levels?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 5 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to that summary for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

Transforming the Workforce summarizes insights from various new studies on the effectiveness of various practices with young children that lead to the development of social and emotional skills, literacy and language skills, early math and early science skills, and the use of technology, as well as how to tailor methods to support dual language learners and other diverse populations of young children. It then presents these competencies on pages 328–329 and organizes them into five categories:

• Core knowledge of the science of child development and early learning
• Practices to help children learn and develop based on this science
• Knowledge and skills for working with diverse populations of children
• Development of partnerships with families and support services to bolster child learning and development
• Ability and motivation to continually improve the quality and effectiveness of one’s practices

Faculty members’ own skills and knowledge may vary dramatically across these competencies, depending on their backgrounds. For example, some faculty may focus on teaching the theories of child development but are not as strong in understanding how to apply them, nor do they know the new science of learning trajectories in, say, mathematics. Some programs may be good at teaching how to design a classroom to encourage guided play but are not as strong in teaching how to engage and partner with diverse families (including dual language learners and children with disabilities) or how to develop assessment literacy, including how to interpret assessment results and make appropriate changes to instruction in light of those results. Faculty may not be up-to-date on how to use tiered intervention approaches to identify which children might benefit from additional instruction and support.

Questions

• Are your teacher preparation programs incorporating all competencies for B–8 educators into their coursework and field experiences for prospective teachers?
• Do faculty members have any incentive to update their knowledge base to align with the current science on what B–8 educators need to know and be able to do? What institutional policies might encourage them to do so?
• How might your programs more effectively increase the math and science knowledge of early educators so they are more confident when teaching these subjects?
• What coursework and field experiences are provided by your teacher preparation programs to effectively prepare educators for teaching dual language learners and students with disabilities?
• Are you training prospective teachers to effectively conduct assessments and use their results to improve teaching and student learning?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 6 and summary of chapter 7 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to those summaries for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

A big hurdle to transforming the workforce is the significant variation in how educators are prepared depending on the setting and age group with which they work. While elementary school educators must have formal preparation before employment, usually a bachelor’s degree and state certification, educators of children prior to kindergarten (with the exception of pre-K teachers in public schools) are often in less regulated programs and may not be required to have any formal higher education. Indeed, these early educators often work in the field before pursuing formal higher education or training. Disparities also exist for programs that prepare leaders. Elementary school principals usually need a master’s degree, but preparation programs often do not focus on child development or what instruction should look like for young children. Preparation programs for center directors emphasize the business side of their job instead of their role as instructional leaders.

To overcome this bifurcated system and do a much better job of supporting children’s learning, Transforming the Workforce recommends what many B–5 programs are already doing: increasing the qualification requirements for educators they hire. This development will have big implications for IHEs. The current fragmentation within IHEs can be difficult for students to navigate. “It is common,” the authors write, “to have multiple programs focused on professions related to early childhood that are operating on the same campus but are scattered across the same institution, housed in separate departments with different expectations and requirements.” IHEs are often running on limited resources and can have difficulty finding and retaining high-quality faculty to prepare educators.

As a leader or faculty member in an IHE, you should be aware that an increasing number of prospective educators are also pursuing alternative pathways. Some are for people who have already received a bachelor’s degree and are switching into the education field. Some are for bilingual paraprofessionals who hope to become certified teachers. Others, such as Teach for America, put candidates on a fast track and often assist with employment. You may see these alternatives as competitors, but they are potential collaborators with which to forge partnerships to support the preparation of B–8 educators coming from many different backgrounds.

Questions

• In preparation programs, are educators who are planning to work in elementary schools leaving with a strong foundation in child development and the science of early learning?
• Are educators who are planning to work with children prior to kindergarten gaining a foundation in how to foster learning in developmentally informed ways across multiple domains, including social-emotional development, literacy, and math?
• How can preparation programs incorporate additional high-quality field experiences to give prospective teachers more opportunities to practice and demonstrate competencies?
• Is there a track for administrators of non-public school early education programs that includes both operational or managerial knowledge and instructional knowledge?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 8 and summary of chapter 9 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to those summaries for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

For those who are already working in early education, gaining access to higher education to obtain a higher degree can be exceedingly difficult, especially for the B–5 workforce. Early educators working outside of the public school system are often paid debilitatingly low wages. Over the past 25 years, there has been no meaningful change in the wages of those caring for and educating our youngest children. Many professionals in this field, especially those working with younger children, continue to earn poverty-level wages. Large disparities persist even when education levels are comparable.

It is not surprising, then, that the cost of higher education can be an additional source of stress. Grants and scholarships that take into account the full cost of pursuing higher education (tuition, books, lost income, etc.) can increase accessibility. T.E.A.C.H. scholarships have been a means of increasing access to higher education in many states and recipients are guaranteed small pay increases. Unfortunately, higher education requirements are not always coupled with meaningful increases in pay so it is important that students do not take on significant debt to pay for higher education.

Early educators also work long hours. Early educators working full-time may need to attend programs at night or on weekends. Online courses, when high-quality, can be a good option, especially for students who do not live close to IHEs offering early learning programs. Access to counselors and cohort models can provide students with the supports they need to succeed. Offering programs at community colleges and making it easier for students to transfer between schools, such as through articulation agreements, can also help educators overcome barriers to further education.

Questions

• Are your preparation programs designed to meet the needs of early childhood educators already in the workforce who wish to pursue higher education?
• What is your IHE doing to make higher education more accessible? Are there efforts underway to provide courses at alternate times to accommodate working students, to provide tuition breaks, and to take advantage of the fact that many early educators are already working with young children every day?

This synopsis was drawn from our summary of chapter 10 of Transforming the Workforce; we encourage you to go to that summary for key takeaways, examples, graphics, important quotations from the National Academies’ volume, and more.

The committee behind Transforming the Workforce offers a “Blueprint for Action” that puts forward 13 recommendations along with a discussion of necessary considerations to better connect the research with policy and practice and ultimately improve outcomes for children. While many of the recommendations will impact IHEs, the report includes two recommendations specifically targeted towards higher education programs:

• Recommendation 4: Build an interdisciplinary foundation in higher education for child development.
• Recommendation 5: Develop and enhance programs in higher education for care and education professionals.

Our overview of these recommendations, including key takeaways for implementation, is available here.

This guidebook would not have been possible without the hard work and insights of many team members and colleagues. We thank Sabrina Detlef for her editorial insight; and Ellie Budzinski, Kirk Jackson, Maria Elkin, and Tyler Richardett for their help in the execution of this project. Early on, the project benefited from the consultation of Kimber Bogard, Charlee Alexander, and Ivory Clark at the National Academy of Medicine.

The videos embedded in this guidebook are the work of Sarah Jackson and her team at Hired Pen Inc. and Nat Soti of Zero One Projects; we are grateful for their talents. We also would like to give a special thanks to the National P-3 Center at the University of Washington and Hazel Valley Elementary for their assistance with the video “Focusing on Principals, Center Directors, and Other Leaders.” Thanks to Lotus Bloom Family Resource Center, Oakland Unified School District, and the Oakland Starting Smart & Strong Task Force for helping with the video on informal care. The “Teacher Well-being” video benefitted from the stories of educators at St. Mary’s Preschool Center, the Alameda County Early Care and Education Program, and the expertise of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at University of California – Berkeley. The Early Childhood Education Institute at University of Oklahoma- Tulsa and Tulsa Educare I were instrumental in creating the “Teacher Education” video. We appreciate the help of the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska, Sandoz Elementary School, and Ralston Public Schools in “Building Continuity from Birth through Third Grade.” Financial support for the videos was made possible by the Foundation for Child Development, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Alliance for Early Success.

This project was funded by the Foundation for Child Development. New America thanks the Foundation for its support. Any views expressed in this project are of the authors alone.