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…

In California today, many licensed early care and education (ECE) programs--and a large number of license-exempt providers--receive public dollars to care for children of low-income families. While, a generation ago, the term "subsidized child care" carried a very specific meaning, referring to certain forms of center-based care that…

Focuses on the problem of teacher retention in day care and early childhood programs. Clarifies concepts used to describe and measure retention. Suggests consequences of retention on children and parents. (BB)

The National Child Care Staffing Study explores the effect of teachers and teaching conditions on the caliber of center-based child care in the United States. The study raises concerns about the quality of services children receive, the education of staff, the work environment, low teachers' wages, and staff turnover. (BB)

Research Findings: This study examines child care centers that improved quality and sustained these improvements over time. Quality was assessed using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales (ECERS). Forty-three centers were visited three times over six years. Centers that substantially improved by Time 2 were not initially rated better than…

In 1988, the National Child Care Staffing Study (NCCSS) exposed the minimally adequate and deteriorating quality that characterized many of our nation's full-day child care centers and linked this poor quality to the inadequate compensation available to child care teaching staff. This report describes a follow-up study done in 1992 to provide an…

In 1988, the National Child Care Staffing Study first gathered information on staffing and quality from a sample of child care centers in five metropolitan areas--Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Phoenix, and Seattle--and returned for updated information in 1992. In 1997, directors of the original sample of centers still in operation were contacted again…

Demand for child care services has grown steadily over the last few decades due to demographic trends, public policies, newly discovered links between brain development and early environments, and the number of parents entering the labor market for reasons such as welfare reform. As a result, most U. S. children under five spend time on a regular…