It Takes a Community: Leveraging Community College Capacity to Transform the Early Childhood Workforce, published by the Bellwether Education Partners, and Pre-K Teachers and Bachelor’s Degrees: Envisioning Equitable Access to High-Quality Preparation Program, published by New America and Bellwether, both examine the current state of early childhood education (ECE) teacher preparation programs at the community college and university levels.
Professor Adam Winsler of George Mason University reviewed the reports and found them to be mostly sound, with the It Takes a Community report more comprehensive and useful than the second, shorter one. Here's the review.
Both reports raise
awareness about the challenges facing the ECE workforce and educational
institutions in dealing with the recent policy push to increase the
required educational credentials for pre-K teachers. Specifically, these
policies elevate the requirement from Child Development Associate
certificate to an associate’s degree or to a bachelor’s degree with
early childhood specialization.
The reports also
illustrate innovative practices that some states and colleges are
implementing to improve the quality, flexibility, mobility, and
diversity of ECE teachers. They end with policy recommendations for
states, colleges, and ECE leaders.
The methods consist of
simple literature reviews that generally rely on think tank white
papers, as opposed to peer-reviewed journal publications. The reports
also incorporate informal interviews with ECE stakeholders and leaders,
although the methodology and selection procedures used are unclear.
Notwithstanding these
limitations, the analyses appear sound and the conclusions and
recommendations made are generally reasonable, supported by the
relatively limited data available.
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