{"id":167817,"date":"2022-10-25T08:00:13","date_gmt":"2022-10-25T18:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=167817"},"modified":"2022-10-24T15:49:59","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T01:49:59","slug":"low-pay-for-early-educators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/10\/25\/low-pay-for-early-educators\/","title":{"rendered":"Project addresses low pay for community-based early educators in Hawai\u02bbi"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"children
Early educator having a discussion with a group of children at the UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Children\u2019s Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A report showing how Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> could improve pay and conditions for early childhood educators was released on October 25 after conducting a survey of local educators and stakeholders. <\/p>\n

The Early Childhood Educators in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>: Addressing Compensation, Working Conditions, and Professional Advancement<\/a> report looked at compensation, working conditions, professional growth incentives and more. The Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Early Childhood Educator Excellence and Equity Project<\/a> (ECE<\/abbr>3<\/sup> Project) based at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa College of Education<\/a> (COE<\/abbr>) commissioned the RAND Corporation<\/a> to conduct the fact finding. <\/p>\n

“As we redesign the early educator preparation programs through higher education, we also need to close the compensation gaps to recruit and retain more highly qualified early educators,” said Theresa Lock<\/strong>, an early childhood instructor who directs the ECE<\/abbr>3<\/sup> Project. “The RAND report is the first step to achieving our vision of building a well-prepared, well-supported, and well-compensated early care and education workforce for our children, birth through age eight, and families in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>.”<\/p>\n

\"two
Early educator observing the activities of two toddlers at the UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Children\u2019s Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The RAND research team conducted interviews with a dozen Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and national experts in the field of early childhood education. There were nine focus groups with a combination of 50 center and home-based providers and college students. The survey was distributed to Department of Human Services licensed center directors and regulated family child care (FCC<\/abbr> providers in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and yielded responses from 99 directors and 48 FCC<\/abbr> providers representing 143 center-based sites.<\/p>\n

Participants shared their views on being paid low wages. For example, wages and salaries were not competitive with jobs requiring similar levels of education or experience with a $10-15\/hour disparity. In addition, benefit packages varied across settings, and there were challenges in providing supportive working conditions, problems with recruitment and retention, and limited incentives or support for continued education and professional development. <\/p>\n

Survey takeaways<\/h2>\n

“It is very tough to keep good teachers with so many other jobs offering great pay and little stress,” said a center director. <\/p>\n

“Most of us here on the islands, it\u2019s usually a one-man operation,” noted a FCC<\/abbr> provider. <\/p>\n

“There is no designated space, so I just kind of do [planning] in the classroom when the kids are asleep,” said a center teacher. <\/p>\n

“Retaining and finding staff is unbelievably difficult. This is due to low wages. People make more money working [in fast food] than in early childhood education. This is a disservice to staff who work hard daily and a disservice to children,” said a center director. <\/p>\n

Roadmap for change<\/h2>\n

Based on their findings, the RAND research team developed a three-pillar roadmap with financing options and the following policy options: <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Stabilize the ECE<\/abbr> workforce through wage supplements, initiatives to address benefits and working conditions, piloted salary scale, and expanded apprenticeships.<\/li>\n
  2. Strengthen and sustain through salary scale, compensation parity, and scaled up initiatives to address benefits and working conditions.<\/li>\n
  3. Support workforce policies through facilities investments, workforce registry, capacity for benchmarking compensation, key workforce indicators, and other data systems.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Next steps<\/h2>\n

    With the completion of the RAND report, the ECE<\/abbr>3<\/sup> Project is convening a Compensation Implementation Plan Task Force, composed of representatives from various agencies, such as Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Careers for Young Children, Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance, Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Community Foundation, Department of Human Services, Executive Office on Early Learning, and the Early Learning Board. The purpose of the task force is to customize the roadmap to Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> by utilizing lessons learned from other states and piloting initiatives at a smaller-scale that would eventually be expanded statewide.<\/p>\n

    “We need everybody at the table\u2014local, state and federal policymakers, early educators, business and community leaders, and families\u2014backing these kinds of support so that essential early educators feel valued and can provide the critical service of educating our youngest learners,” said COE<\/abbr> Dean Nathan Murata<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The survey yielded responses from 99 directors and 48 family child care providers representing 143 center-based sites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[335,95,908,1466,1363,158,9],"class_list":["post-167817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-childrens-center","tag-college-of-education","tag-early-childhood-education","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-manoa-research","tag-publication","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167817"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167907,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167817\/revisions\/167907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}