Ashley LiBetti: By 2023 all DC early childhood teachers will need a degree. But will they actually learn anything?
The conversation about teacher strikes in recent months has largely ignored early childhood educators, who arguably have one of the most important jobs in the country but are paid miserably for it. Even though they are responsible for shaping human development at the most critical point in a student’s life, they earn less than not only K-12 teachers but also other workers with comparable degree requirements, including camp counselors, animal caretakers and desk clerks.
In an attempt to elevate the child care profession and in turn increase compensation, advocates have pushed to increase degree requirements for early childhood educators. Five years from now, all lead teachers in child care centers in DC (and many other places) will be required to hold an associate degree in early childhood education. That may seem like a low bar — particularly since teachers in public schools typically have bachelor’s degrees — but it’s a radical change from the status quo, in which 17 states don’t require lead teachers in preschool programs to have even a high school diploma.
Critics of these new laws call the requirements “nonsensical” and “insanely stupid,” hypothesizing that the burden of completing these degrees will make child care more expensive and push educators out of the workforce. Several child care workers even filed a lawsuit (since dismissed) over the summer to prevent DC from enforcing the requirements, in part because it would strip them of their “right to pursue an honest living free from arbitrary and irrational regulations.” For proponents, DC’s move represents a bold step to raise the prestige and skills of a crucial but often undervalued profession.
But, as I found in a recent analysis of existing research, both sides completely miss a central consideration: We know almost nothing about the quality of teacher preparation programs where child care teachers actually earn degrees. In fact, not only is research largely silent on the quality of early childhood teacher preparation, but there is very little data on what early educators even learn in these programs.
That’s a problem. Completing preparation programs carries substantial cost — in both time and money — for early educators. DC didn’t decide to require associate degrees out of a desire to make people jump through hoops; the goal is to help teachers improve their practice and, ultimately, better support children’s development. If a degree program is low-quality, or if it doesn’t help teachers become more effective in the classroom, then policies requiring degrees are unlikely to produce intended results. The value of completing these programs must be worth that cost — and as of now, research can’t promise that it is.
Understanding the current quality of preparation programs is a crucial first step to improving the preparation that early educators receive. To that end, the field needs research that provides information on the specific program content and methodology that improve educator practice.
DC is perfectly positioned to provide that research. The DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), which set the degree requirement regulations, already has a partnership with Trinity Washington University’s early educator associate degree program. Together, Trinity and OSSE could study the effects of Trinity’s content and methodology on the practice of early educators in DC classrooms. This hyperlocal, tailored collaboration could form a body of knowledge that is useful fieldwide. And similar research partnerships are possible in cities and states across the country, in any scenario where a preparation program and early childhood classrooms are willing to work together. What’s more, this research could prove invaluable for broader efforts to elevate the early childhood profession, like the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s Power the Profession initiative.
If public policies demand that early childhood educators earn degrees, it is imperative that this preparation actually help them improve their practice. Investing in preparation quality for early educators would put DC at the forefront of improving its early childhood workforce — and the District’s children will benefit from it.
Ashley LiBetti is a resident of Ward 6 and an associate partner in the DC office of Bellwether Education Partners, a national nonprofit organization focused on changing education and life outcomes for underserved children.
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