Dive Brief:
- There is an ongoing debate regarding whether early childhood educators should be required to attain a college degree, with some lawmakers speaking out against a Washington, D.C. mandate to that effect. In a policy brief, New America examined how preschools could enhance the strength of their employees through apprenticeships.
- New America points to Philadelphia’s ECE Career Pathways Program as an approach to consider. The program built apprenticeships, enrolling 30 early childhood educators in a two-year program; when they finish, participants will earn a U.S. Labor Department certificate, an associate's degree, and lead teacher certification in the city.
- The brief’s authors argue that the program could offer an example of how to build apprenticeship programs that address the needs of those enrolled but can move the argument away from whether a four-year degree is necessary towards a more productive discussion on how best to prepare educators.
Dive Insight:
With research indicating that access to early childhood education can have a seismic impact on a child’s educational future and offer a robust return on investment for states, cities and economies that fund such programs, it is interesting that credentialing for such centers is not uniform across the country. But it isn't just early childhood educators whose credentials aren't uniform; K-12 teachers face different requirements in different states as well. According to another recent New America report, while 40 states require that elementary school principals hold at least a masters, 41 states do not require that center directors have an associate’s degree.
However, it can become difficult to scale early childhood education programs when there are significant levels of credentialing necessary, particularly in rural areas where the available talent pool for open positions may be lower. Rural K-12 administrators often report that it is difficult to attract teachers from urban areas, and the lack of resources can often force educators and administrators to wear a number of different hats. This is also increasingly the case in higher ed institutions that are faced with the prospect of budget cuts.
Credentialing can be very important to determining the value of a potential employee, but if it is possible to offer a kind of workplace development program in lieu of an extensive educational background, particularly in areas where applicants with robust credentialing may not be readily available, it could be beneficial to scaling early childhood education in the long run.