Early educators are the best spokespeople about their working conditions and what they need to thrive. Policy leaders have much to gain by actively engaging educators in identifying workable solutions to the child care crisis. The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) believes that educators have the right to exercise power in…

Teaching is a difficult profession in ideal circumstances. The job requires immense talent and training when students have the overwhelming challenges associated with poverty. Teachers will succeed only if they are given excellent preparation and valuable fieldwork experience with effective teachers. School boards and leaders can and must insist…

There is broad consensus that high-quality environments for young children depend on teachers who are skilled at nurturing their development and learning, yet low pay and inadequate working conditions routinely hamper teachers in their efforts to apply their skills and knowledge. This condition exists among teachers in early education as well as…

Early childhood teachers routinely face insufficient teaching supports and inadequate rewards for their education and commitment (e.g., low pay, lack of professional supports, and lack of benefits). These shortcomings contribute to poor program quality and fuel high levels of teacher turnover, preventing program improvement and making it…

This non-experimental quantitative study followed a correlational design that examined the relationship between five factors of school climate: a) leadership, b) professional development, c) salary, d) working condition, and e) teacher collaboration as measured by the modified version of Teacher's Perception of Factors Leading to Attrition (TPFLA)…

This study examined the extent to which significant changes after one year of a longitudinal, state-funded teacher professional development program were sustained during the second year. Participants taught in elementary schools located in small, rural school districts in the state of California in the United States. The research examined changes…

Building a stronger teacher workforce requires the thoughtful orchestration of multiple processes working together in a human capital system. This white paper presents a framework that can be used to take stock of current efforts to enhance the teacher workforce in school districts or educational organizations, as well as their underlying theories…

A new survey of more than 5,000 teachers finds few professional development opportunities targeted on working effectively with second language learners. A lack of time and instructional resources also hamper teachers' ability to reach the nearly 1.6 million students designated as English learners in California's public schools. The teachers…

"R&D Alert" covers issues affecting schools in the Western Regional Educational Laboratory's four-state region--Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah--and throughout the United States. This issue of "R&D Alert" shares what WestEd is learning from a sample of their latest work, focusing on three points in the process:…

During the 2004-05 school year, SRI International, an independent research firm, launched a fourth comprehensive round of data collection. They conducted analyses of statewide teacher data to follow trends in teacher distribution over time and to document changes in California's teacher development policies and programs. They also collected…

Teacher networks used in California and Vermont are examined. Interviews, observations, and document analyses identified how teacher beliefs, teacher experience, social influences, and practical circumstances interacted with program goals and methods to shape teachers' experiences with networks, views of teaching and learning, and classroom…