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Upgrading Preschool

August 23, 2005
The Boston Globe

In preschool classrooms it's often toys, books, and children's art that catch the eye. But a better sign of quality is whether the preschool teacher has a college degree.

Research indicates that college-educated teachers create richer learning environments. This insight is crucial for Massachusetts as officials build a universal system of early education and care.

Many early-education teachers hold bachelor's degrees, but they aren't well distributed, according to a report from the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College. The highest concentrations of college-educated preschool teachers work in public schools and Head Start -- which provide only 21 percent of the places for preschool children. The rest are in day care centers and home-based facilities, where teachers and other workers are less likely to have college degrees.

Of assistant preschool teachers, only 13 percent have a bachelor's degree. Forty-six percent have only high school credentials or less. The
Bostonarea has a better-educated preschool workforce than other parts of the state, but only 17 percent of Boston's preschool classrooms have teachers with bachelor's degrees.

More of these teachers need to go to college. But the state can't just ask them to go and wait to see if they do. Legislators should be arranging a happy marriage between early education and higher education, asking public colleges to create and enhance college programs for teachers. Challenges will include serving the providers of family care, only 27 percent of whom have college credentials, and making sure that wherever teachers live, there's a college program nearby.

That could mean offering college courses at day care centers or at flexible times on campus. Scholarship help is essential. Fortunately, the state's Department of Early Education and Care, which was created last year by the Legislature, has $1 million to set up a pilot program for preschool teacher scholarships.

Educated teachers will need competitive salaries. Teachers with bachelor's degrees who work in public schools earn $35 an hour, more than twice the $12 an hour earned by comparably educated peers working in day care centers, according to the Wellesley report. Such discrepancies must be eliminated.

The Wellesley report also points to creative ways to provide benefits. In North Carolina, federal dollars pay part of the health insurance costs for early-childhood teachers.

Better wages and benefits should decrease the high turnover in the field, keeping experienced teachers in the classrooms.

Well-educated teachers can teach children how to love learning and excel as individuals -- traits that promote lifelong success.

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