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Committee on Early Childhood Care and Education Workforce:
A Workshop
Board on Children, Youth, and Families
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Gov-
erning Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from
the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engi -
neering, and the Institute of Medicine.
This study was supported by Contract No. HHSP23337014T between the National
Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this pub -
lication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the
organizations or agencies that provided support for this project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-21934-1
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-21934-5
Additional copies of this report are available from The National Academies Press,
500 Fifth Street, N.W., Lockbox 285, Washington, DC 20055; (800) 624-6242 or (202)
334-3313 (in the Washington metropolitan area); Internet, http://www.nap.edu.
For more information about the Institute of Medicine, visit the IOM home page
at: www.iom.edu.
Copyright 2012 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
The serpent has been a symbol of long life, healing, and knowledge among almost
all cultures and religions since the beginning of recorded history. The serpent
adopted as a logotype by the Institute of Medicine is a relief carving from ancient
Greece, now held by the Staatliche Museen in Berlin.
Suggested citation: IOM (Institute of Medicine) and NRC (National Research
Council). 2012. The early childhood care and education workforce: Challenges and oppor-
tunities: A workshop report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating
society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research,
dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the
general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress
in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal govern-
ment on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the
National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the
charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of out -
standing engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of
its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility
for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also
sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages
education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers.
Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of
Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions
in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The
Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences
by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon
its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education.
Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of
Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology
with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal
government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the
Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the
National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in pro -
viding services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering
communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the
Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and
vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
www.national-academies.org
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COMMITTEE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND
EDUCATION WORKFORCE: A WORKSHOP
ALETHA C. HUSTON (Chair), Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professor
of Child Development, Human Development and Family Sciences,
The University of Texas at Austin
DAVID M. BLAU, SBS Distinguished Professor of Economics, The Ohio
State University, Columbus
RICHARD N. BRANDON, Principal, RNB Consulting, Seattle, WA
JEANNE BROOKS-GUNN, Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of
Child Development and Education, Teachers College, Columbia
University, New York
VIRGINIA BUYSSE, Senior Scientist, Frank Porter Graham Child
Development Institute, The University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill
DEBORAH J. CASSIDY, Director, North Carolina Division of Child
Development, North Carolina Department of Health and Human
Services, Raleigh, NC
CATHERINE DOWER, Associate Director, Research, Center for the
Health Professions, University of California, San Francisco
YOLANDA GARCIA, Director, West Ed E3 Institute-Excellence in Early
Education, San Jose, CA
SHARON LYNN KAGAN, Professor of Early Childhood and Family
Policy, Columbia University, Teachers College, New York
ROBERT G. LYNCH, Professor of Economics, Chair, Department of
Economics, Washington College, Chestertown, MD
DIXIE SOMMERS, Assistant Commissioner, Occupational Statistics
and Employment Projections, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S.
Department of Labor, Washington, DC
MARCY WHITEBOOK, Director and Senior Researcher, Center for the
Study of Child Care Employment, University of California, Berkeley
Study Staff
HOLLY RHODES, Study Director
ALEXANDRA BEATTY, Senior Program Officer
REINE Y. HOMAWOO, Senior Program Assistant
ROSEMARY CHALK, Board Director
WENDY KEENAN, Program Associate
JULIENNE PALBUSA, Research Assistant
v
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Reviewers
T
his report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen
for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance
with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s
Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is
to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in
making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the
report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and respon -
siveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript
remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process. We wish to
thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Harriet Dichter, First Five Years Fund
Eugene Garcia, Arizona State University
Robert Pianta, University of Virginia
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive
comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the final draft
of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by
Caswell A. Evans of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Appointed by
the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, he was respon-
sible for making certain that an independent examination of this report
was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all
review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final
content of this report rests entirely with the authors and the institution.
vii
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Preface
M
ore than 30 years ago, Children at the Center (Ruopp and Irwin,
1979) called attention to the important role of teachers and care-
givers who were serving an increasing percentage of young chil-
dren. A decade later the National Child Care Staffing Study (Whitebook et
al., 1990) brought the issues of teacher education and training, turnover,
and wages to the forefront of national discussion and established their
link to the quality of caregiving. Over the years, such major studies as
the Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes Study (Helburn, 1995) and the
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of
Early Child Care (NICHD, 2002) firmly established the importance of
quality care to the well-being of children and their later success. The
long-term follow-up of the Perry Preschool (Schweinhart et al., 1993) and
Abecedarian programs (Campbell and Ramey, 1995) documented the eco-
nomic benefits to investing in early childhood programs. Earlier reports
from the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine
(IOM), such as Who Cares for America’s Children? (NRC, 1990), From Neu-
rons to Neighborhoods (NRC and IOM, 2000), and Eager to Learn (NRC,
2001), synthesized the child development research, showing the critical
nature of the birth-to-age-5 period of life for later success, the importance
of quality experiences for children, and the central role of teachers and
caregivers in early childhood care and education settings.
The research picture is clear—quality of care and education matters
to the lives of young children, and teachers and caregivers are central
to providing that quality. Fittingly, initiatives at the state and federal
ix
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x PREFACE
levels have sought to bolster the skills and knowledge of the workforce,
to tie their educational attainment to higher pay, and to reduce teacher
turnover. Yet, the problems identified more than 30 years ago—inad-
equate training and education, low wages, and high turnover—are still
vexing today (Herzenberg et al., 2005; Kagan et al., 2008; Whitebook,
2003; Whitebook et al., 2001). To tackle these issues, policy makers need
a complete picture of teachers and caregivers—their professional prepa -
ration, working conditions, compensation, training, and qualifications.
Knowing how many teachers and caregivers are in the workforce and
how economic forces affect it is the starting point for making decisions
about the most cost-effective ways to build the profession of early child -
hood care and education (ECCE) in ways that ultimately benefit children
and families. Although such information appears to be straightforward, in
practice painting a comprehensive picture of the ECCE workforce is quite
complex. Detailed data are available for segments of the workforce such
as state prekindergarten programs and Head Start, but are much sparser
for family, home-based, and relative child care. The lack of consensus on
a definition of the ECCE workforce poses a fundamental challenge.
The Committee on Early Childhood Care and Education Workforce
was asked to plan a workshop sponsored by the Board on Children, Youth,
and Families of the IOM and NRC, with support from the Administra-
tion for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services to address this challenge. This effort was encour-
aged by the leadership of Joan Lombardi, deputy assistant secretary and
interdepartmental liaison for early childhood development at ACF, who
sought to bring needed attention to the ECCE workforce. Our committee’s
primary charge was to plan a workshop that would provide an adequate
description of the workforce and to outline the parameters that define the
population.
Thus, we organized the workshop around three key areas: (1) defining
and describing the ECCE workforce; (2) exploring characteristics of the
ECCE workforce that impact children; and (3) describing the context that
shapes the workforce and how to build the profession of early child-
hood care and education. This report summarizes the presentations and
discussions from the workshop. As a workshop report, this report does
not reflect the conclusions or judgments of the committee, but rather
describes the research and perspectives that were presented. The report
also includes two commissioned papers. The first presents a description
of the ECCE workforce based on a review of federal data sources and
50 research studies. This paper also includes detailed descriptions of all
of the reviewed studies. The second paper offers a detailed description
of relevant federal data sources, the elements they include, their struc-
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xi
PREFACE
ture, and their benefits and drawbacks for obtaining data on the ECCE
workforce.
The committee would like to thank the study director for this project,
Holly Rhodes, for overseeing the project from its inception; Alexandra
Beatty for providing an initial draft of the report from which the report
was developed; and Reine Homawoo for excellent logistical and project
support. We also gratefully acknowledge the contributions of report
editor, Laura Penny and report review officer, Elisabeth Reese. Finally,
the committee extends sincere thanks to Joan Lombardi and T’Pring
Westbrook, and their colleagues at the Administration for Children and
Families for their support.
Aletha C. Huston, Chair
Committee on Early Childhood
Care and Education Workforce:
A Workshop
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Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Defining and Describing the Workforce 5
Defining the Workforce—A Fresh Look, 6
The Federal Statistical System, 10
Describing the Workforce, 14
Improving Data Collection, 17
Summary, 25
3 Economic Perspectives on the Early Childhood Care and
Education Workforce 27
The Early Childhood Labor Market, 27
Costs and Benefits of Investing in Early Childhood Education, 33
4 How the Workforce Affects Children 39
Effects of the Workforce on Child Development, 39
Discussion, 48
Focus on Working Conditions, 53
Discussion, 59
5 Building the Workforce and the Profession 61
Learning from the Health Care Experience, 62
Career Pathways for Workers, 65
Education and Training, 68
xiii
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xiv CONTENTS
Panel Discussion on Education and Training, 74
Recognition of the Workforce, 75
Panel Discussion on Recognition of the Workforce , 77
Early Childhood Care and Education as a Profession, 79
6 Workshop Themes 81
Defining and Describing the Workforce, 81
The Marketplace for Early Childhood Care and Education
Workers, 83
Effects on Children, 84
Building the Workforce, 86
Filling the Gaps, 87
Final Thoughts, 88
References 91
Appendixes
A Workshop Agenda and Participant List 99
B Commissioned Papers 107
