Some candidates argue for universal preschool, while others believe that parents should receive tax credits to help make childcare more affordable. Other candidates, like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, want to increase the number of tax credits families can earn based on their childcare expenses. Even if the parent already works, high-quality childcare helps parents improve their productivity at work by missing fewer work hours and opening up options for further education.
Even the children in ECE benefit. These individual factors can play a big role in your local economy—and by extension—the national economy.
A study found that rising childcare costs resulted in a 13 percent decrease in employment of mothers of young children. In , Washington, D. A study of this program shows a substantial economic payoff, with an astounding 10 percent increase in workforce participation among mothers of young children after the program began in More participation in the workplace means fewer dollars lost by American business and more diversity in the workplace, as woman are primarily affected by the childcare crisis.
From the findings of national studies to the sobering statistics about the school-to-prison pipeline, the invaluable role of ECE is hard to deny. Investing in the education of our children early on puts young minds on a promising path for lifelong learning and future success in the workplace and global economy at large.
While access to ECE is instrumental to childhood development, educators play just as crucial of a role in setting children up for a successful future.
Can you envision yourself making a difference in molding young minds when it matters most? A degree in Early Childhood Education could position you to make that impact.
It has since been updated to include information relevant to There are some errors in the form. Please correct the errors and submit again. By selecting "Submit," I authorize Rasmussen University to contact me by email, phone or text message at the number provided. There is no obligation to enroll.
Kirsten is a Content Writer at Collegis Education where she enjoys researching and writing on behalf of Rasmussen University. She understands the difference that education can make and hopes to inspire readers at every stage of their education journey.
Posted in Early Childhood Education. Kirsten Slyter For early childhood educators, the need, the security, and the room for growth are all there already, and will continue to be there for many years to come. Not only is the field of early childhood education constantly growing and expanding, it also provides an array of opportunities for those just starting out.
When you choose to study early childhood education, that does not mean you are choosing a single career like a preschool or daycare teacher. Rather, the field stretches far beyond that. Within early childhood ed, you can pursue careers such as:. There are many reasons to become an early childhood educator today, and these four just scratch the surface. If you have a passion for working with children, if teaching is your calling, or if you simply wish to find a secure career that you love, early childhood education might just be the answer.
Now you just need to take the steps to get there. To become an early childhood educator today, you must have a postsecondary degree in a related field. You can learn more about the career requirements here. In terms of skills, there certain qualities a great childhood educator will have — patience, understanding, humor, good communication, and creativity are just some of the few.
Do you have what it takes? Learn more about studying early childhood education in Connecticut by contacting Goodwin College at You may also visit us online to request more information. As part of the SEED longitudinal study, a sample of 5, children born in England between September and August was selected using national child benefit records state benefits available to parents with children.
Sampling on the basis of geographical location postcode districts eligible families with children of the relevant age were selected for interview. This procedure produced a highly clustered sample.
The sample was stratified by provider type, with settings classified as one of private, voluntary, state nursery class, nursery school, children's centre or local authority nurseries LAN Melhuish and Gardiner, Settings were selected so that the percentage in each category was similar to the percentage in that category across all settings used by children participating in the SEED study.
If a provider did not wish to participate it was, wherever possible, replaced with the same type of provider from the same geographical area. A staff interview was conducted with the manager of each childcare setting. During this structured interview a questionnaire was completed by the visiting researcher recording information on the structural quality of the ECEC setting provided by the setting manager. The overall staff to child ratio was calculated as the number of staff at a setting divided by the number of children at the setting, so higher ratios mean that there are fewer children per member of staff.
Process quality was assessed by trained researchers during a half-day observational visit to each setting included in the study. This assessed settings quality using five domains: Space and Furnishings e. For all three scales the total scale score was the mean of the subscale scores. The scores on the process quality scales had a range of 1—7. These measures were selected because they are commonly used in the UK and internationally to assess the quality of ECEC settings, they have high levels of inter-rater reliability Clifford and Reszka, ; Whitebread et al.
Quality assessed using these methods has also been shown to have some predictive value for the future outcomes of children attending ECEC settings Sylva et al. The relationship between structural factors and process quality was examined using multiple linear regression of process quality measures as predicted by the structural characteristics of settings. Manager's highest qualification was omitted from the list of structural covariates because of potential collinearity with mean level of staff qualification.
Preliminary analysis showed that the relationships between structural characteristics and process quality differed by setting type; these regression models were therefore fitted separately for the different types of settings.
This enabled a comparison between the quality of ECEC settings before and after a period of rapid policy development in the area of ECEC, which occurred across the years — as described by Melhuish Both studies collected data on samples of settings that were approximately representative of ECEC group settings for 3—4 year old children in England at the relevant time.
The four local authority nurseries 0. Summary statistics for structural characteristics of settings are shown for continuous measures in Table 1 , and for binary measures in Table 2.
Structural characteristics for the different settings types were compared with those for private settings which, as the largest group, was use as the baseline. There were a number of significant differences in structural characteristics between types of settings. Voluntary settings tended to be smaller than private settings and tended to have a narrower age range for children. These figures were somewhat lower for the other scales with The results of the regression models of process quality in terms of structural characteristics of ECEC settings are given in Tables 4 — 7.
Statistically significant associations between structural characteristics and process quality were found for all settings types. As hypothesized, the associations between structural and process quality also differed between the different settings types. Table 4. Results of regression models of quality in terms of structural characteristics; private settings.
Larger settings settings with a larger number of places were associated with higher likelihood of achieving excellent ECERS-E scores, whilst excellent SSTEW scores were associated with larger settings and a higher overall staff to child ratio.
In voluntary settings, having a training plan in place and a higher overall staff to child ratio were associated with higher scores on the ECERS-R scale.
Having a higher staff to child ratio i. Table 5. Results of regression models of quality in terms of structural characteristics; voluntary settings.
Table 6. For children's centres a higher mean level of staff qualification was associated with achieving higher scores on the ECERS-R scale; see Table 7. Table 7. Results of regression models of quality in terms of structural characteristics; children's centres. There is a greater proportion of poorer quality settings i. Figure 1. Figure 2. From the staff interviews carried out by both studies, comparable data on staff qualifications were derived. Figure 3. Figure 4. In line with previous research Sylva et al.
This study also found a wide ranging pattern of associations between the structural characteristics of ECEC settings and their process quality, which are relevant to policy development. As with any observational study, it cannot be assumed that these associations are causal, nor can it be assumed that, if they are causal, the direction of causation necessarily runs from structural characteristics to process quality.
In some cases it is possible that causation could go in the other direction; for example, it could be that the associations between higher levels of staff qualification and higher process quality arise because higher quality settings are more successful in recruiting more highly qualified staff.
There may also be unobserved confounding factors, which influence both structural characteristics and process quality. Nevertheless, it is cautiously suggested that the best explanation for the observed associations is mainly a causal one from structural characterizes to process quality, so that over time improving factors such as staff qualification levels and staff to child ratios would tend to result in improvements in ECEC settings quality.
There were some differences depending on the way that centres were funded and managed. It appears that staff qualification level was a significant driver of quality at private ECEC settings, which is in accord with existing research Sylva et al. In line with earlier studies, a higher staff to child ratio was found to be a significant predictor of quality Mathers et al.
It may be that the presence of more highly qualified staff and managers allows quality to be maintained with a larger number of children per staff member. This is an area which may merit further study. It is probable that this is an instance of reverse causation. That is, those settings that are seeking to improve have increased their frequency of CPD whilst those that have already achieved high quality standards have not needed to do so.
This trend of increasing quality over time is in line with observations by the national organization responsible for assuring quality in the UK Ofsted. During the period of time between the two studies, raising staff and manager qualifications and facilitating in-service professional development have featured in government policy initiatives.
These factors are likely to increase quality according to the analyses of structural factors as predictors of quality. Hence these findings may indicate that the increasing professionalization of the ECEC workforce as well as influencing qualification guidelines in the early years statutory framework, as elements of the policy change over the period, are factors in the observed change in ECEC quality in the approximately 15 years between the EPPE and SEED studies.
The improvement in quality seen between the time of the EPPE and SEED study is linked to a reduction in the incidence of poor quality and a corresponding increase in medium and high quality. This is relevant to future research that explores the relationship between ECEC quality and child development. Previously, where studies have found effects upon child outcomes linked to quality the studies have typically included ECEC centres that vary substantially across the quality range including substantial amounts of poor quality.
Much of the effect upon outcomes in such studies Sammons et al. The consequence therefore of reducing the prevalence of poor quality is likely to be that quality effects upon child outcomes will be reduced and potentially be too small to be systematically of statistical significance in situations where there are a large number of covariates that are associated with powerful effects upon child outcomes. In such circumstances a study may conclude that there are no quality effects upon child outcomes, and this message may be seized upon by those e.
Hence there is a socio-political danger inherent in the interpretation of a study's results without reference to the larger context of research. Burchinal has referred to the reducing size of quality effects in more recent studies and possible reasons given are the reducing incidence of poor quality ECEC, and the inability of existing measures to adequately capture the aspects of ECEC most likely to influence child outcomes. Further work is needed in improving ECEC quality measures, including both interactional and pedagogical aspects of quality.
It is increasingly clear that ECEC is a substantial contributor to the longer-term educational, social and economic success of individuals Heckman, ; Melhuish et al. In the current study staff qualifications were predictive of quality at private for profit settings, whilst for voluntary not for profit settings, which were rather homogenous in staff qualifications, having a staff training plan in-service professional development and a better staff to child ratio were predictive of higher quality.
However, state funded ECEC centres, which tend to have less favorable staff to child ratios but more highly qualified staff than private and voluntary settings, tended to have higher quality. This indicates that the presence of more highly qualified staff may be more influential on quality than the staff: child ratio, at least within the range of these variables found in the UK.
This change in policy seems to have borne fruit in that a comparison of equivalent quality data from separate UK studies, conducted before and after this period of policy change, found improvement both in observed quality and staff qualifications, as reported in the current study.
Overall these findings indicate that countries wishing to improve the quality of their ECEC provision should actively seek to improve both staff qualifications and in-service professional development.
Hence it would be appropriate for policy in this area to be framed to increase staff qualifications and to provide enhanced opportunities for ECEC staff to obtain in-service professional development. Additionally, staff: child ratios should be maintained at as favorable a level as is pragmatically viable. Structural aspects of quality such as staff qualifications and continuous professional development as well as staff:child ratios are linked to process quality in group ECEC settings.
The quality of ECEC provision has risen significantly over this period, as has the typical level of qualification of staff and managers. The almost universal use of ECEC, for 3—4 year olds in the UK, and other countries, makes the effectiveness of the provision crucial for children's later development.
However, the lessons from these two UK longitudinal studies provide an important indication for other countries about ways that child development may be enhanced through policy change, contributing to improvements in child well-being and later adult development. Ethics approval was given by the University of Oxford ethics committee.
0コメント