Compensation as a Pathway to Professionalization

07/13/2023

Compensation as a Pathway to Professionalization

Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push—in just the right place—it can be tipped.
Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point

In a recent Rand Corporation commentary on Building a Professional Early Childhood Workforce, the authors note that efforts to professionalize our field typically focus on increasing training and educational requirements. “The benefits or costs of these types of large-scale professionalization efforts in ECE are not yet clear.”

In a study conducted with the Louisiana Department of Education, the authors learned “less than one-third of the teachers who started working towards an Early Childhood Ancillary Certificate ultimately earned one.” Program leaders, site leaders and teachers interviewed suggested that completing programs after work hours proved too difficult, and the majority who didn’t complete the credential left for other jobs due to low pay.

“Teachers who work in childcare settings in the United States earn $11.65 per hour on average—less than half of what their peers working in schools earn, and below a living wage in most U.S. counties. Accordingly, even prior to the pandemic, childcare teachers left the profession at considerably higher rates than K–12 teachers. In Louisiana, for example, nearly half of childcare teachers working one year were gone the next.”

The authors suggest a 2-pronged approach:

Embed professional learning in the paid workday—and compensate teachers for hours spent on training.
Increase pay for early educators.

Acknowledging state-level funding initiatives in Virginia, New Mexico, and elsewhere, they conclude, “Such efforts fundamentally put educator compensation first and in doing so address both the current reality of working in childcare in the United States and our longstanding underinvestment. Professionalization efforts that do not prioritize teachers' real and immediate needs may make an already challenging situation worse and, consequently, be unlikely to succeed."

This of course returns us to our discussion of apprenticeships and ways to support effective on-the-job learning. We are eager for your continued input and ideas.

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