Teacher Professional Development

The state has a plan, funding, and a coordinated higher-education structure for building the qualified workforce necessary for a high-quality pre-k system.

Rationale: Well-educated pre-k teachers contribute more to young children's intellectual, social, and emotional development than do teachers with less formal education. Yet, many pre-k teachers do not have bachelor's degrees or specialized training in early-childhood development. States must establish educational standards for pre-k teachers that conform to existing K-12-teacher requirements and then offer support for both initial and continuing education of pre-k teachers, including tuition assistance, flexible work schedules, childcare, and teacher-to-teacher mentoring. Development strategies should be paired with aggressive recruitment programs that tap diverse communities and enable applicants from underrepresented groups to meet high, teacher-degree requirements. Community colleges and in-state universities should be engaged as partners to ensure that courses reflect state requirements and are transferable between institutions.

Examples: As a result of the state Supreme Court decision in Abbott v. Burke, New Jersey required teachers in the 30 poorest school districts to have a bachelor's degree plus early-childhood certification within a four-year timeline. State leaders, major foundations, and the higher-education community came together to develop policies and provide the necessary funding to meet the new requirements. Through these efforts, realistic but ambitious timelines, quality teacher education, strengthened teacher-education infrastructure, teacher scholarships, and adequate teacher compensation and parity were put in place. Twenty-two states also have adopted the T.E.A.C.H. model, where additional training is linked to higher wages for early-education workers. While primarily focused on childcare, T.E.A.C.H. is an important first step toward improving the quality of the early-education workforce.