Classroom quality and children’s academic skills in child care centers: Understanding the role of teacher qualifications
Introduction
Many 3- to 5-year-old children attend some type of early care and education (ECE) program in the United States. In 2012, about 64% of preschool age children experienced non-parental child care on a regular basis (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013). Children who attend center-based ECE programs have higher levels of school readiness than those who experience only parental or other informal child care (Burchinal, Magnuson, Powell, & Hong, 2015). Despite the potential importance of ECE for children’s development, research finds that the quality of children’s experiences varies across programs and across classrooms within center-based programs. Moreover, the average quality of ECE is typically described as mediocre at best (Zellman & Fiene, 2012). Concerned that ECE programs do not sufficiently support children’s early learning, researchers and policymakers have turned their attention to improving ECE quality with the hope that higher-quality ECE would better support children's early academic and social skills (Burchinal et al., 2016).
An important focus of the efforts to raise ECE quality has been to improve teacher preparation and qualifications. This effort was fueled by the recognition that teacher quality, including content knowledge and practice skills, are the cornerstone of providing children with positive interactions and enrichment experiences that support their learning (NAEYC, 2016). In recent years, policymakers and accrediting organizations have set higher educational standards and benchmarks for publicly funded programs, and have provided funding for professional development opportunities and grants to offset costs associated with improving teachers’ education or credentials (Ackerman, 2004, IOM and NRC, 2015; Pianta, Barnett, Burchinal, & Thornburg, 2009). For example, the National Association for the Education of Young Children accreditation standards require that all lead teachers have a minimum of an associate’s degree or equivalent (NAEYC, 2016). The Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 required that by September 2013, at least 50% of the teachers in center-based programs have at minimum a bachelor’s or advanced degree in ECE (Office of Head Start, 2008). Finally, among 39 states that have established a child care Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), virtually all include staff education or training as part of the ECE program quality rating indicators (The Build Initiative & Child Trends, 2014). Given the increased standards and opportunities, the overall education level of ECE teachers has increased substantially over the past 20 years (Bassok, Fitzpatrick, Loeb, & Paglayan, 2013).
The recent empirical research, however, has provided little evidence to support the conclusion that higher levels of teachers’ education predict better classroom quality or greater gains in school readiness among children (Early et al., 2006, Early et al., 2007, Mashburn et al., 2008). The lack of association has puzzled scholars and led to additional questions about whether and how teachers’ education is associated with classroom quality or children’s outcomes. This study contributes to the literature by estimating the associations between teachers’ education degree, ECE credits, and level on a professional career ladder and observed classroom quality as well as children’s outcomes in a recent sample of community-based child care centers (typically private pay non-profit or for-profit child care centers that are not directly funded by government programs).
Section snippets
ECE quality and teacher qualifications
High-quality ECE experiences have the potential to improve young children’s early academic skills and learning-related behaviors, especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds (Burchinal et al., 2015). Informed by attachment and cognitive constructionist theories, high-quality ECE is characterized by the warm and responsive teacher-child interactions as well as age-appropriate cognitive stimulation and learning activities (Burchinal et al., 2015). The nature of the interactions that
Data and sample
Data for this study come from a study of licensed child care programs that participated in a Midwestern state’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) and provided care for 3- to 5-year-old children. The QRIS includes home- and center-based child care programs and Head Start programs.2
Teacher qualifications and classroom quality
Table 3 presents a matrix of bivariate correlations among teachers’ education and training, ECE work-related characteristics, observed classroom quality, and children’s spring assessment scores. As would be expected given their overlapping construction, the bivariate correlations between teacher qualification variables (teachers’ education, total ECE credits, and Registry level) were moderate to high (r = 0.43 to 0.84). The bivariate correlations between teacher qualifications and classroom
Discussion
This study examines the role of teachers’ education and training in predicting observed classroom quality and children’s school readiness in community-based child care centers. It builds on previous research by measuring ECE-related training in more detail and focusing on an organizational setting that has not been the focus of recent research. Prior studies have measured teachers’ education level, major, and certificate, but not the accumulation of ECE course credits or the content of these
Funding source
Data collection is supported by the state’s Department of Children and Families that funded the original study of licensed child care providers. The content in this paper is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the views of the government.
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