Poster #82 - Shortages in Early Childhood Education Teachers in Wisconsin

• In Event: Poster Session 03

Abstract

In recent years, there has been widespread concern among researchers, policymakers, and in the media about an apparent shortage of early childhood education (ECE) teachers across the country (i.e., National Public Radio, 2022; Petrovic, 2019; Still, 2022). A recent survey of ECE directors conducted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) found that four out of five respondents reported a staffing shortage, while 15% reported a “major shortage,” indicating they had six to fifteen fewer workers than needed (Bohlen, 2021). What factors might contribute to a lack of qualified ECE teachers? ECE teachers earn very low wages, low levels of benefits, and have disproportionately high rates of burnout and depressive symptoms (Jeon et al., 2018; Phillips et al., 2016; Smith & Lawrence, 2019; Whitebook et al., 2014). In turn, turnover in this sector is high (Bassok et al., 2021). Yet, there is variation across programs in the extent of staffing shortages, suggesting the need to consider program-level factors, like wages and benefits, that might contribute to this issue. This study addresses this gap in the literature by examining the program-level factors that are associated with shortages of ECE teachers within programs.
This study uses survey data collected from a representative sample of Wisconsin ECE directors between November 2020 and February 2021. The survey asked directors about working conditions of lead teachers and assistant teachers employed in their programs. Included in the analytic model for this paper are directors’ reports of teachers’ average wages, centers’ provision of health insurance, retirement contributions, paid holidays, and paid time off for staff, whether centers offer free or reduced-price childcare for children of staff, centers’ quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) rating, the region of the state in which programs are located, staff’s daily time spent on COVID-related duties (less than one hour, one to two hours, or more than two hours), and whether typical wages are currently higher, about the same, or lower compared to the last three years.
Results show that 38% of directors reported limiting the number of children their center serves because they could not find qualified staff. Of those reporting a shortage, directors indicated needing to hire three additional teachers on average to be fully staffed. Preliminary results from regression models show that center directors offering lower average wages and not offering paid time off were significantly more likely to report a staffing shortage (see Table 1). Other factors, including programs’ provision of health insurance and QRIS ratings, were not associated with staffing shortages.
Findings from this study suggest that a shortage of qualified ECE teachers in Wisconsin may be reducing the number of childcare slots in the state. Moreover, results suggest that variation across programs in teacher shortages is driven by differences in teacher compensation, specifically wages and paid time off. Wisconsin families’ access to high-quality ECE and children’s healthy development, which are supported by the availability of ECE teachers in early education settings, are likely negatively impacted by staffing shortages across the state.

Author

• Leah Awkward-Rich, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author