Early learning systems simply cannot function without the early care and education (ECE) workforce, which includes teachers, assistants, and home-based family child care providers. However, persistent challenges—such as high turnover, lower compensation compared to K-12 workers, and lack of access to professional development and clear career pathways—have hindered systems’ efforts to recruit and retain a qualified ECE workforce that reflects the racial, ethnic, linguistic, and socioeconomic diversity of the children and families they serve. The ECE workforce requires attention and investment to ensure the sustainability and growth of the ECE field, and high-quality data are needed to better understand workforce characteristics, compensation, educator training, and related policies.
Using the STEP Forward with Data Framework to address challenges in the ECE workforce
The ECDC’s STEP Forward with Data Framework can help leaders gather, analyze, and use data to support the ECE workforce and strengthen systems to support children and families. The Framework is an actionable and flexible tool designed to help leaders identify and begin to address workforce needs and make system improvements. It offers a structured approach for using data to understand children’s, families’ and the ECE workforce’s experiences at different steps as they navigate state or local early learning systems (see figure). The Framework offers 20 key questions that early childhood system leaders can use to identify and address potential barriers within their systems at different steps or points along a child’s early learning journey.