Section 7: Program Standards

• 7.1 Teacher Qualifications
• 7.2 Class Size and Adult-Child Ratio
• 7.3 Curriculum
• 7.4 Duration of Program
• 7.5 Scope of Services

Effective prekindergarten programs meet specific standards of program quality. Each link includes more information on why the specified standard is important, what the research says about it, and the state-of-the-states in implementing the standard.

7.1 Teacher Qualifications

The education levels of preschool teachers, as well as their specialized training in early childhood and child development, directly relate to the positive learning and development of children.¹ The research has shown the following.

• Teachers with a bachelor’s degree and specialized education in early childhood or a related field are more effective than those with less formal education.²
  
  
• Teachers who have taken community college coursework in the field of early childhood display more developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices in their classrooms than those who have not attended college classes.³
  
  
• It is not clear whether overall education level in any field is better than less formal education specifically related to early childhood. Studies that focus on the effects of teacher education and specialized training in early childhood find that these factors are often intertwined. Teachers with more years of formal education also tend to have more specialized training.⁴
  
  
• Teachers with higher levels of education show higher frequencies of positive initiations with children than teachers with less formal education.⁵ Positive initiations include: smiling, touching, or talking; positive responsive behaviors to children’s requests; use of language play (e.g., rhyming games, reading aloud to children); and positive management (e.g., redirect or remind children of the rules for behavior).
  
  
• Teacher education is highly correlated with teacher wages and turnover. Teachers with more education are paid more and tend to stay at their jobs longer than those who are less educated and paid less.⁶

• American Federation of Teachers;
  
  
• National Research Council, Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy;
  
  
• National Association for the Education of Young Children; and
  
  
• National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education.

State of the States

Despite wide recognition of the importance of teacher education and training, only about 50 percent of all teachers of three- and four-year-olds have a bachelor’s degree. This figure varies widely by setting, with close to 90 percent of college-educated teachers in public school prekindergarten programs, and less than 40 percent in for-profit child care settings.⁷

Wide variation also exists in teacher credentialing requirements, in part because of the different governing bodies that regulate Head Start, public schools, and community-based preschool and child care programs.⁸

According to credentialing policies in place in 2001-02:⁹

• only Rhode Island and New York City require a bachelor’s degree for all teachers in early education programs, including child care;
  
  
• twenty-four states require a bachelor’s degree to teach in their state-funded prekindergarten program;
  
  
• four states require an associate’s (two-year) degree with courses in early childhood education;
  
  
• eleven states require a Child Development Associates credential (CDA);
  
  
• California requires twenty-four credits related to early childhood education; and
  
  
• Head Start requires a two-year college degree for half of all teachers, nationwide. The 2003 reauthorization of Head Start may raise the requirement so that 50 percent of Head Start teachers hold a bachelor’s degree by 2008, and all new teachers begin to pursue at least an associate’s degree within the next three years.

For More Information

Barnett, S. Better Teachers, Better Preschools: Student Achievement Linked to Teacher Qualifications. New Brunswick, N.J.: National Institute for Early Education Research, 2003. Available at:
http://nieer.org/docs/index.php?DocID=62

National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education and National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators. Executive Summary: Early Childhood Teacher Certification. A Position Statement of the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education and the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators. Washington, D.C.: National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education and National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators, 1993. Available at:
http://naecs.crc.uiuc.edu/position/ecteachr.html

Saluja, G., D.M. Early, and R.M. Clifford.“Demographic Characteristics of Early Childhood Teachers and Structural Elements of Early Care and Education in the United States.” Early Childhood Research and Practice 4 (2002), vol. 1. Available at:
http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v4n1/saluja.html

Stein, S.E. “Prekindergarten Teacher Licensure.” ERIC Digest ED330674. Washington, D.C.: ERIC Clearinghouse on Teacher Education, 1991. Available at:
http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/2a/14/2c.pdf

Whitebook, M. Early Education Quality: Higher Teacher Qualifications for Better Learning Environment – A Review of the Literature. Berkeley, Calif.: Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, 2003. Available at:
http://www.iir.berkeley.edu/cscce/pdf/teacher.pdf

Web Resources

National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators
http://www.naecte.org/

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
http://www.nbpts.org/

¹ A.K. Clarke-Stewart, C.P. Gruber, and L.M. Fitzgerald, Children at Home and in Day Care (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994).
Also, S. Kontos, and A. Wilcox-Herzog, “How do Education and Experience Affect Teachers of Young Children?” Young Children 56 (2001), vol. 4: 85-91.
Also. M. Whitebook, C. Howes, and D. Phillips, Who Cares? Child Care Teachers and the Quality of Care in America. National Child Care Staffing Study Executive Summary (Oakland, Calif.: Child Care Employee Project, 1989).
Also, Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes Study Team, Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers: Executive Summary, 2nd ed. (Denver, Colo.: Economics Department, University of Colorado at Denver, 1995).
Also, K. White, “Does a Degree Make a Difference? A Comparison of Interactions between Degreed and Non-degreed Early Childhood Educators and their Four-Year-Old Children.” Early Child Development and Care 96 (1993): 147-60.

² M. Whitebook, Early Education Quality: Higher Teacher Qualifications for Better Learning Environment – A Review of the Literature (Berkeley, Calif.: Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, 2003). Available at:
http://www.iir.berkeley.edu/cscce/pdf/teacher.pdf
Also, Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes Study Team. Cost.
Also, C. Howes, “Children’s Experiences in Center-Based Child Care as a Function of Teacher Background and Adult: Child Ratio,” Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 43 (1997): 404-25.

³ D.J. Cassidy, M.J. Buell, S. Pugh-Hoese, and S. Russell, “The Effect of Education on Child Care Teachers’ Beliefs and Classroom Quality: Year One Evaluation of the TEACH Early Childhood Associate Degree Scholarship Program,” Early Childhood Research Quarterly 10 (1995): 171-83.

⁴ Kontos, “How do Education and Experience”.

⁵ Howes, “Children’s Experiences.”
Also, Kontos, “How do Education and Experience”.

⁶ Whitebook, Who Cares?

⁷ G. Saluja, D.M. Early, and R.M. Clifford, “Demographic Characteristics of Early Childhood Teachers and Structural Elements of Early Care and Education in the United States,” Early Childhood Research and Practice 4 (2002), vol. 1. Available at:
http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v4n1/saluja.html

⁸ S. Barnett, Better Teachers, Better Preschools: Student Achievement Linked to Teacher Qualifications (New Brunswick, N.J.: National Institute for Early Education Research, 2003). Available at:
http://nieer.org/docs/index.php?DocID=62

⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰ K.L. Maxwell, and R.M. Clifford, “Professional Development Issues in Universal Prekindergarten,” in The Case for Universal Preschool Education, Eds. E. Zigler, W. Gilliam, and S. Jones (in press).

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NPC Prekindergarten Framework
©2004 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
National Prekindergarten Center, FPG Child Development Institute, UNC-CH
[Section 7.1. revised 1/31/2004]