Early-childhood experts in North Carolina were near desperation when
they hitched their hopes to a tiny pilot project aimed at improving
the training of child-care workers.
A study of the workforce had highlighted the turmoil caused in
child-care programs by the poor education, high turnover, and low
wages that had long been the standard among those in the
field.
That was in 1990, when most child-care workers in the state
had little more than a high school education, and the average wage
was about $4.50 an hour without benefits. Some 40 percent of the
workforce left the field each year.
With about $23,000 in grant
money, 21 workers were sent to their local community colleges to work
toward associate's degrees in early-childhood education. Their
success helped launch a statewide effort in 1993.
'Really Could Do
Something'
"As the field started to look at this issue more
closely, there was such a level of depression and a feeling of a lack
of empowerment about our ability to do anything to effect change in
education, compensation, and retention," says Susan Russell, who
started the TEACH Early Childhood Project in 1990. TEACH (the acronym
stands for Teacher Education And Compensation Helps) uses public and
private money for scholarships for early-childhood workers."It
became apparent pretty quickly that we really could do something that
didn't take huge amounts of money to at least start making a
difference in the field," says Russell, the executive director of the
Child Care Services Association, a nonprofit research and advocacy
group in Chapel Hill, N.C., that administers the $3 million
program.
TEACH is now a budding program in 17 other states. The
program is expected to spread even more as educators and state
lawmakers begin responding to research suggesting that children who
attend child-care and preschool programs with trained teachers are
better prepared for school than those whose caregivers have little
formal training for the job. In North Carolina alone, the program has
enabled more than 5,000 child-care workers to earn Child Development
Associate certificates, associate's degrees, or bachelor's
degrees.
Compensation Up
The North Carolina program, which
includes bonuses or raises for early-childhood workers who continue
their education and requires recipients to stay in the field for six
months to a year, took off under former Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. TEACH
will receive more than $2 million in state, foundation, and corporate
funding this fiscal year.By combining the initiative with two
other programsWAGE$, created in 1994 to raise the salaries of
low-paid teachers and directors, and the 2-year-old TEACH Early
Childhood
Health Insurance Program—the state has been able to transform what
many saw as poorly paid, short-term jobs into careers.
As a result,
the programs have also improved the quality and stability of the
workforce, many experts say.
WAGE$ has helped increase
compensation—in some cases, by 30 percent or more over time—for more
than 8,000
workers in the state.
"What they've done well in North Carolina is
focus policymakers' attention on the underlying salary and benefits
issue," says Adele Robinson, the director of public policy for the
National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Since
1990, turnover in North Carolina has dropped from 42 percent to 31
percent, according to Russell.
And last year, for the first time,
the number of TEACH recipients working toward a college degree
exceeded those seeking a simple, four-credit credential.
"The fact
of the matter is there are more teachers in this state with more
education around early childhood than ever before, and there are more
parents in the state who understand what they should be looking for
in a program for their children," says Stephanie Fanjul, who ran the
state's child-development division under Gov. Hunt.
