This is the executive summary for the report, "From Unlivable Wages to Just Pay for Early Educators." Teaching in early care and education (ECE) programs is one of the lowest-paid occupations in the United States. Low wages for early educators are not a new challenge. Compensation has been low in this field since its inception, but only…

The "Early Childhood Workforce Index" provides a state-by-state look at policies and conditions affecting the early care and education workforce. This biennial report has tracked state progress since 2016. This third, 2020 edition of the Index continues to track state policies in essential areas like workforce qualifications, work…

The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE), in partnership with the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), has produced a series of materials that explore state policy efforts to move toward compensation parity between pre-K and K-3 teachers. This report forms the third part of the series, examining a small set of…

Teaching in early care and education (ECE) programs is one of the lowest-paid occupations in the United States. Low wages for early educators are not a new challenge. Compensation has been low in this field since its inception, but only recently have the public, policymakers, and other stakeholders begun to appreciate the full ramifications of…

The 2016 inaugural edition of the biennial "Early Childhood Workforce Index" represented initial efforts to establish a baseline description of early childhood employment conditions and policies on a state-by-state basis in order to improve early childhood jobs. This 2018 edition, as well as future editions, will focus on tracking…

Many pre-K teachers across the nation are expected to earn a bachelor's degree, similar to their peers teaching older children. Yet salaries and benefits remain consistently lower for pre-K teachers than for elementary school teachers. Increasingly, compensation parity is perceived as an achievable policy goal rather than a lofty ideal, yet there…

The State of the Early Childhood Workforce (SECW) Initiative is a groundbreaking multi-year project to shine a steady spotlight on the nation's early childhood workforce. The SECW Initiative is designed to challenge entrenched ideas and policies that maintain an inequitable and inadequate status quo for early educators and for the children and…