Addressing the shortage of early childhood workforce data

A new policy brief — Guidance for Reporting Data on Your Early Care and Education Workforce — calls for states to have more data on their early childhood workforce.

“Public reporting on common workforce data elements helps create a clear picture of workforce needs and supply. This crucial data can then be analyzed to guide and monitor initiatives and investments,” the brief says.

However, “To date, there is no unifying guideline for what workforce reporting should contain or which variables states should prioritize. As a result, the field is left with an assortment of reports that may not contain the same information or be presented in similar ways.”

In addition, much of this data is in silos, making it tough to understand and support the workforce.

To fill the data gap, states have to come up with data that will help them take a broad look at key factors such as salary levels, linguistic diversity, educational levels, and professional development progress and needs.

Published on the website of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, the brief was produced in collaboration with the Early Childhood Data Collaborative at Child Trends and the National Workforce Registry Alliance. The brief was supported by grants from the Alliance for Early Success, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the Richard W. Goldman Foundation.

Fortunately, work on data is already underway.

“Advocates in all 50 states, including Massachusetts, are working to improve conditions for their early childhood professionals,” Titus DosRemedios, Strategies for Children’s deputy director, says.  “As with any systemic reform, good data is essential. This brief will help with the organization of workforce data, which will help state officials, policymakers, and advocates gain important insights for making meaningful change.”

To make it easy for states to set their own data guidelines, the brief shares three sample reports from Montana, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. These reports look at:

• workforce size

• numbers of center based programs and home-based programs

• the race and ethnicity of workforce members,

• and their wages

For example:

• in Pennsylvania, average hourly wages in centers are $18.48 for directors, $15.00 for teachers, and $12.50 for assistant teachers

• in Montana, only 19 percent of the workforce serves infants, compared to 27 percent in Nevada and 32.3 percent in Pennsylvania, and

• in Nevada, 24 percent of staff are 50 years old or older, a reminder that the workforce will need to replace retiring staff. In Montana 16 percent of staff are over 50. And in Pennsylvania, it’s 22 percent.

The brief also includes links to more information about data deficits, data standards, and to a report on the National Workforce Registry Alliance’s core data elements for early childhood and school-age professional registries.

There’s great potential for positive change. Once states can rigorously and systematically collect workforce data, they can make more informed decisions about how best to serve their youngest residents.

To learn more, check out the brief.