Margaret Blood on preK teacher initiatives from Early Education for All

“The importance of teacher responsiveness to children’s differences, knowledge of children’s learning processes and capabilities and multiple goals that a quality preschool program must address…point to the centrality of teacher education and preparation.”

Eager to Learn: Educating our Preschoolers
National Research Council
Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy, 2000

In Michael Sadowski’s thoughtful article, “Degrees of Improvement: States push to reverse the decline in preschool teachers’ qualification,” New Jersey’s Ellen Frede poses the question that should be asked in every state, “Why should we think it’s OK for teachers who teach three-year-olds not to have the same qualifications as someone who teaches second grade?”

Unlike New Jersey, there is no court mandate for preschool education in Massachusetts. In the absence of such a commitment, the Early Education for All (EEA) Campaign set out to build a statewide movement for universal high-quality early education. In an effort to inform the development of An Act Establishing Early Education for All, we engaged 4,000 parents, early educators and others in an extensive community outreach process.

What we learned “on the ground” was echoed in the literature. It would be impossible to achieve our vision of high-quality early education without addressing essential professional development needs in a field plagued with low wages ($22,640 is the average annual preK teacher salary in Massachusetts), high turnover rates (29 percent), and the absence of a cohesive statewide system of professional development.

With generous support from the National Institute for Early Education Research, EEA co-funded a study by Dr. Nancy Marshall at the Centers for Research on Women at Wellesley College on the characteristics of the Massachusetts’ preschool workforce. This 2005 study found that 21 percent of the preschool teachers possess an associate’s degree, with 40 percent holding a bachelor’s degree. Of no surprise was the finding that the vast majority of those holding BA degrees teach in public schools. Yet only 13 percent of Massachusetts preschoolers attend a public school program.

These findings have bolstered our advocacy efforts to ensure the development of a statewide system of professional development for early educators. Our first step was to work with the State Legislature to create a consolidated Department of Early Education and Care with its own Board and Commissioner, and secondly, to embed in this department the statutory requirements to create a universal preschool system – using a mix of public and private programs - and to develop a statewide plan for the professional development of early educators.

EEA is advocating that the new department adhere to the Massachusetts Department of Education’s Early Childhood Program Standards for three- and four-year-olds, which include a requirement that at least one teacher per classroom have an AA within seven years and a BA within 14. While these timelines seem lax at best, given current capacity in Massachusetts’ higher education institutions, it would take 20 years to ensure that there is one teacher with a BA degree per preschool classroom. While the new department is expected to file its workforce plan with the State Legislature in early 2006, we have jump started the effort by working with the Legislature to establish a $1 million pilot scholarship program for early educators.

The creation of the department, with its mandate to design a professional development system, and the launch of the pilot scholarship program, represent the very beginnings of what EEA envisions as the foundation for ensuring high-quality “early education for all.”

Margaret Blood is director of the Early Education for All Campaign and president of Strategies for Children, Inc.