Building and Sustaining the Child Care and Early Education Workforce: Knowledge Review Series

Publication Date: March 19, 2024

Introduction

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The challenges of recruiting, strengthening, and retaining the CCEE workforce are well documented. The child care and early education (CCEE) sector is well known for high rates of staff turnover, which can strain remaining educators and decrease the quality of care they offer. Staff turnover can also lead to diminishing returns on an organization’s investments in professional development. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these issues. The Building and Sustaining the Child Care and Early Education Workforce (BASE) project aims to increase knowledge and understanding in CCEE by documenting factors that drive workforce turnover and by building evidence on current initiatives to recruit, advance, and retain a stable and qualified CCEE workforce.

This series features five research briefs. These briefs summarize a review of the existing knowledge base on CCEE workforce retention and turnover that draws on several coordinated activities: reviewing the literature and evidence base; completing an environmental scan of strategies currently in use to build and sustain the workforce; scanning existing data sources that could be used to address key questions about the workforce; and developing a conceptual framework depicting factors related to workforce dynamics (entry, retention, recruitment, and advancement) and theory of change models guiding current strategies. 

Purpose

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This series reports findings from a knowledge review designed to increase understanding of factors that drive workforce turnover in child care and early education (CCEE) and current strategies to stabilize the workforce. Findings from these briefs shed light on the drivers of CCEE workforce instability and the current landscape of CCEE workforce development strategies, inform the development, implementation and evaluation of strategies, and offer recommendations for future data collection and research.

Key Findings and Highlights

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Child Care and Early Education Workforce Recruitment and Retention: Insights from a Current Landscape of Strategies (PDF)  (OPRE Report #2023-178)

  • Current strategies target five levers of change believed to influence CCEE educator recruitment and retention: educator economic well-being, educator qualifications and competencies, educator psychological well-being, workplace demands or supports, and CCEE system alignment and inequities.
  • Most strategies are in the early stages of development and are limited in reach, serving fewer than 50 participants at a time. 
  • Strategies are limited in breadth and scale due to the CCEE system’s fragmentation. 
  • There is limited evidence on whether current strategies are effective. 

Understanding the Child Care and Early Education Workforce: The Need for More and Better Data (PDF)  (OPRE Report #2023-190)

  • Data sources were identified to assess existing data sources that could be used to address existing knowledge gaps about CCEE workforce dynamics, which include: national surveys, state and local surveys, state workforce registries, unemployment insurance wage data, Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) data, program data, policy databases, and integrated (linked) data sources.
  • Two key gaps identified are data sources that track educators’ movement, whether across states, industries, or roles, and data sources that capture data on the same educators over time.
  • Data linkage may be a promising method to achieve a comprehensive dataset that can answer research questions about workforce dynamics, such as state integrated data sources.
  • Some populations are particularly underrepresented in the data landscape (e.g., home-based child care settings and providers).

Influences on the Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement of the Child Care and Early Education Workforce (PDF)  (OPRE Report #2023-191)

  • The BASE project team developed a conceptual framework consisting of three components to better understand hypothesized factors and mechanisms that influence CCEE workforce stability. The components describe/illustrate:
    • Workforce dynamics, consisting of four phases of the CCEE pipeline: entry, retention, turnover, and advancement.
    • Sociocultural, community, workplace, and individual influences on workforce dynamics. 
    • Five levers of change that workforce development strategies can target to positively impact the workforce, and the underlying structure needed to implement them successfully.
  •  implemented across multiple localities, systems, and states.

An Annotated Bibliography of Select Literature on the CCEE Workforce: A Supplement to the BASE Knowledge Review Series (PDF) (OPRE Report #2023-243)

  • The BASE team conducted a literature review to synthesize relevant literature and the evidence base on multilevel influences that may shape CCEE workforce dynamics and the effectiveness of strategies aiming to build a sustained, qualified workforce. This annotated bibliography contains a comprehensive list of publications included in the literature review to help researchers, practitioners, and policymakers understand the recent research landscape of the CCEE workforce.
  • During the initial screening, the research team reviewed 130 publications. In total, 97 publications received an in-depth review and were included in the annotated bibliography. 
  • The annotated bibliography includes information on the CCEE setting, target population, and sample characteristics including potential multilevel, contextual factors that might affect workforce dynamics; outcomes of interest; targeted levers of change; measures used; and study findings.

Methods

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As part of the knowledge review activities of the project, the BASE team: 

  • completed a literature review to identify, review, and synthesize relevant literature and the evidence base on both multilevel influences that may shape CCEE workforce dynamics and the effectiveness of strategies aiming to build a sustained, qualified CCEE workforce. 
  • conducted an environmental scan, including a review of publicly available information, a public request for information, and key informant interviews, to identify strategies currently being implemented to build, advance, and sustain the CCEE workforce. 
  • conducted a data scan to identify and assess existing data sources that could be used to address gaps in the evidence base. 
  • developed a conceptual framework to serve as a guide for researchers, policymakers, and administrators who are conducting research on the CCEE workforce and who are designing and implementing strategies to improve entry, retention, turnover, and advancement of the workforce. 

Citation

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Bernardi, Hsueh, Roach, and Rau (2023). Child Care and Early Education Workforce Recruitment and Retention: Insights from a Current Landscape of Strategies. OPRE Report 2023-178. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Available at: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/building-and-sustaining-early-care-and-education-workforce-base

Wiegand, Goerge, Porcelli, and Miller (2023). Understanding the Child Care and Early Education Workforce: The Need for More and Better Data OPRE Report 2023-190. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Available at: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/building-and-sustaining-early-care-and-education-workforce-base

Hsueh, Taylor, Maier, and Roach (2023). Influences on the Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement of the Child Care and Early Education Workforce. OPRE Report 2023-191. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Available at: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/building-and-sustaining-early-care-and-education-workforce-base

Maier and Roach (2023). What Do We Know About Building and Sustaining the Child Care and Early Education Workforce? Cross-Cutting Themes from a Literature Review, Environmental Scan, and Data Scan. OPRE Report 2023-242. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Available at: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/building-and-sustaining-early-care-and-education-workforce-base

Taylor (2023). An Annotated Bibliography of Select Literature on the Child Care and Early Education Workforce: A Supplement to the BASE Knowledge Review Series. OPRE Report 2023-243. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Available at: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/building-and-sustaining-early-care-and-education-workforce-base 

Glossary

CHILD CARE AND EARLY EDUCATION (CCEE):
refers to programs and the workforce educating and caring for children birth to 13 years. This includes educators in centers and in home-based settings caring for infants, toddlers, preschool- and school-aged children. CCEE refers to a larger age group than Early Care and Education (ECE), which consists of services for young children only (e.g., Head Start/Early Head Start, public pre-K, and centers serving children birth to age 5). ECE programs are included in the definition of CCEE.
CCEE EDUCATORS AND WORKFORCE:
refer to current and prospective educators who are paid to care for children birth to 13 years of age in center- and home-based settings. This includes educators in different positions and roles. For example, center administrators, directors, lead and assistant teachers, and home-based educators are included in this definition. This definition also includes both licensed and license-exempt center- and home-based settings. While the CCEE workforce also includes support staff in centers, like coaches, education coordinators, and behavioral specialists, these individuals are not the primary focus of this report.
CCEE SETTING:
refers to the physical location (for example, a center, school, or home) where children receive care. Settings can include Head Start child care centers; community-based child care centers; licensed and license-exempt home-based child care settings that receive subsidies; and the home or location of relatives, neighbors, or other individuals who are paid to care for children.
CCEE TYPE OF CARE:
refers to how caregiving is distinguished by different funding streams and federal, state, and local policies, regulations, and oversight. The BASE project primarily focuses on center-based or home-based care. But the research team also makes further distinctions within those two types, such as Head Start or Early Head Start programs, community-based child care settings, home-based child care settings, and publicly funded pre-K.
STRATEGY:
refers to an intervention, initiative, or policy designed to build, advance, or sustain the CCEE workforce. It can include a single APPROACH—for example, offering a scholarship—or an assortment of approaches, such as offering both a scholarship and coaching.
WORKFORCE DYNAMICS:
encompass entry into and exit out of the CCEE field as either a self-employed business owner or an employed individual. For those in the field, it includes tenure and advancement, as well as entry into and exit from different roles, settings, and types of care. Workforce dynamics include multiple phases of employment: entry, retention, turnover, and advancement.