ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

I appreciate your concern for the administrator/staff relationship. At this point in my professional career, I am vowing to be very careful in securing my next teaching position. I will ask many questions, specifically about philosophies on child development and principles for behavior management. I have been surprised - and shocked - to see young administrators steeped in behaviorist philosophies. I have also been surprised - and shocked - to witness their need to control and monitor the activities of young children and their teacher. We have a long way to go in bringing culturally sensitive and developmentally appropriate practices into the public school arena.

I am the director at a center in a small town in North Dakota. One of our biggest staff issues is finding staff, especially staff that have the patience and stamina to deal with children. I have put ads in the paper and have had literally no one apply. We do not have a lot of money and the pay is not very good, how do I find staff that are willing to work in a very challenging and busy job and not be able to offer good pay or benefits. We do not receive any other monies except for the Food program and parent fees. We are already at the top of the scale for our small town in charging and out town population is dwindling daily. We offer a wonderful program with my staff that have been here for many years and are dedicated but how do I find new staff.

As I read the above comments, I am struck with the realization that all these problems come down to MONEY.

It is time for state and national governments to "underwrite the cost of the nation's child care system" (Linda Smith - NACCRRA -July 20, 2006) and buy into the most valuable time in a child's life. As we know from brain research, children begin learning at birth.

"We need a systemic approach to early childhood development..." (Smith-July 20, 2006). This is what is needed to have high-quality care and to make it affordable and accessible for all families.

What happened to No Child Left Behind?!

Have you ever given thought to Gandhi? How did a man without an office
lead the second most populous nation to independence from England?

When certain positions are held in high esteem, it leads assistants to believe that unless they have a "position", they have no power to ignite positive change in themselves, in their career field and in their relationships with children and parents. It creates a cycle of misbelief. Directors are frustrated because assistants consider themselves powerless until given a "position".

On the other hand, what if people saw themselves with the ability to contribute,
despite their position? And, what if advancement meant "now you're going to serve in some different ways?"

What if our focus was on realizing the potential of every person to influence change? And, then how to nurture this philosophy within the workplace -one position is not more valuable than the next?

One person can lead your staff from the bottom rung of your career ladder when she recognizes her own power to change the world around her.

I agree that one should walk for achievment than the success but for staff, to inculcate this its necessary to conduct an awareness progams.I think alongwith the kids,teachers also need some studies and activities that should be interesting and motivating.

As I have worked and directed 30 great years in childcare, which spanned 3 states, I find it sad that seasoned professionals and lead teachers are still making $8. to $9. an hour with few if any benefits. Affordable health care ( on their pay), paid vacations, paid sick days, paid holidays and tuition reimbursement are dying things. When are the nurturers and early educators who are shaping our future ever going to be compensated as well as our road workers and sanitation engineers.

I think the greatest challenge we face regarding our staff is getting the funding required to respond to daily challenges in our profession/industry. Some of these challenges include: support for our staff who are motivated to get their Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education, compensation equal or greater to what professionals in the field of education receive for the service they provide to children, families, colleagues and the community, a balance between work and life responsibilities, a Professional Development Program that supports each member of the staff, including sufficient days for staff to learn, technology to provide staff with time to engage in Professional Development activities while children are resting and other activities and experiences that create an Early Childhood Profession that includes individuals who can meet NAEYC Accreditation Standards and Performance Criteria, Head Start Performance Criteria and much needed stronger local regulations.

Reflection! Time spent together as a staff to reflect on our work with children, families and each other. It is the time spent in reflective practice that give us a deeper understanding of our work, and yet it is the dearest commodity! How can we provide the time daily, while meeting the diversity of needs AND how can we afford to pay for time spent outside of working hours? I continue to struggle with ways to model reflective practice in my day to day work, in so doing I am hopeful staff learn by example.

I dont see how we will be able to move toward a professional career when the following exist:
Lack of respect

Lack of comparable worth in regards
to salary and benefits (esp. with accreditation changes, etc.)

Increase in standards (not that I think we shouldnt increase the professionalism)

Lack of time at work for assessment, portfolios, professional growth: workshops, classes, journals, etc.

All of the above increase the turnover which increases recruiting and training of staff. It also reduces the consistancy of education and care of children. This will keep us in the vocational field and not professional.

With new NAEYC accreditation standards the biggest issues I am worried about are:
THE GAP BETWEEN PROFESSIONAL EXPECTATIONS AND SALARIES is only getting wider... The gap is growing between the professional expectations (documenting chidrens progress, assessing children, being involved in community and policy issues, meeting with parents regularly) and salaries (which can still be compared to those of service workers rather than professionals)
THE NEED FOR TEACHERS TO HAVE PLANNING TIME AWAY FROM CHILDREN DURING THEIR WORK WEEK to meet the expectations (documenting, assessing, planning, preping, teaming, etc) is a gigantic struggle for those of us keeping day care hours.

I think our biggest challenge is keeping good teachers. They need salaries commenserate to education and experience. Time to train and collaborate is also necessary.

MONEY: To retain and train qualified staff
TIME: To attend training, workshops, conferences, and for networking.
The problem is the same all over the country.
It is a shame since children are this country's most valuable resource. The Government wants children well-educated, but are not willing to pay for it. When it comes to budgets, it seems they are always willing to cut education dollars.
New York City has subsidized early education programs whose budgets are being slashed annually! Teaching staff who acquire state certification leave the early education centers to go into the public school system where they receive higher pay, summers off and have continued health benefits when they retire! How can we compete with that? Our experiences here in NYC (and I'm sure around the country) have left us wondering what's happening with the "No child left behind" initiative! It seems children are being left behind with all the education budget cuts.

MONEY to pay educated staff what they're worth
MONEY to pay for leadership staff to be out of the classroom for significant time periods
MONEY to train all staff properly, particularly supervisors

I think adequate compensation, including insurance and retirement benefits is a critical issue for early childhood educators. We know that high quality early childhood programs greatly impact children's future success in school and in adulthood. In order to have quality programs, we must keep our well educated and experienced staff. Parents can no longer be solely responsible for paying the teachers' salaries.

I moved here 6 months ago from southeastern Wisconsin. I am a director of a new church run center serving toddlers and preschool age children. Centers are scarce here. It is very hard to attract anyone with experience or an education in the field due to the low wages and lack of benefits. Centers can't stay in business due to the low tuition charged to the families. Conditions are much better in Wisconsin for child care centers.

Find qualifed and experienced staff is the hardest thing, but when we DO find them, we can't afford them. We cannot afford to pay quality staff a salary commensurate with the educational levels we require (based on NAEYC regulations). Public school systems can. As a nonprofit program serving a population of 100% at risk children, the money is not going to come from our families. But these are the VERY CHILDREN who NEED the QUALITY early care and education that is proposed. How do we give it without the financial resources? This is our dilemma.

There are several key staff issues that I see affecting our field today. I find it extremely difficult to recruit and maintain highly qualified, committed staff with the low pay and lack of benefits my non-profit day care center currently offers. Unfortunately due to the low pay, this is typically not a field a person with a college degree stays in long term. It is usually used as a "stepping stone" or is "second best" when a teaching position in a public school setting is not easily attained. We are also seeing more and more children with special needs enrolling in our program. Staff complain that they do not have the training to deal with such children (IE: ADHD, Autism, ODD, etc) which causes a lot of stress and frustration which leads to burn out. The lack of time away from the children is also a huge factor. Our center cannot afford to hire more staff in order to give the teachers the time they deserve away from the children to make lesson plans, research topics and attend trainings.

We now have Voluntary Pre-K in our State and with that comes the challenge of keeping the staff the have the right credentials needed. In the near future the state will require an AA and then a BA for teaching 4 year olds. How can a small private school compete with the benefits and salary of the public schools? Unless the state steps up with the corresponding funds we will lose those teachers to better paying positions.

I am co-owner of a small child care center. We have 40 children who range in age from 2 months to 5 years in our center. We struggle on a regular basis to recruit, train and retain qualified staff. Our focus is on the children in our school but we lack the time and money needed to go through the NAEYC accredidation process. We already struggle with the time and money issues daily in order to maintain our program itself and we are exhausted. Between code requirements (fire and building, etc.), taxes, employee salaries and benefits we are financially strapped. We value high quality care and education but we desperately need some support from NAEYC and our government instead of more and more requirements and regulations.

My 7 staff all have a stakehold in facilitating the program & the documentation of the children. The problem begins with the lack of TIME to complete the tasks at the standard we set ourselves. With little to no pupil-free time
(the centre can not afford the luxury), Centre staff are compelled to complete the tasks at home or grab bits of time over a tea break... 'TIME' is our staff issue