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The NJ Supreme Court’s mandate for high quality preschool in the State’s urban school districts has resulted in New Jersey’s pre-K teachers and administrators being among the best educated and best paid in the country. This finding is contained in a new study published jointly yesterday by the Economic Policy Institute, the Keystone Research Center, and the Foundation for Childhood Development, Losing Ground in Early Childhood Education: Declining Workforce Qualifications in an Expanding Industry, 1979-2004.
In Abbott v. Burke V (1998), the high court ordered the State to provide all three- and four-year-old children residing in urban or "Abbott" districts, with well-planned, high quality preschool to ensure a thorough and efficient education under the State’s constitution. Education Law Center (ELC) is counsel to the Abbott school children.
The study, which looked at 25 years of education and salary trends for preschool administrators, teachers, aides and assistants in programs not based in schools (e.g., childcare centers, stand-alone preschools and nursery schools, Head Start centers, etc.), noted a disturbing national trend: "a large and unsettling dip in the qualifications of the center-based early childhood workforce nationwide." New Jersey early childhood educators, however, are bucking the trend, with 45% of center-based preschool administrators and teachers having four-year college degrees, compared with 30% nationally. Nevertheless, through 2004, New Jersey was experiencing a decline in teacher qualifications similar to other states.
In its companion Issue Brief focusing on New Jersey trends, EPI commended the State for meeting two critical Abbott mandates:
that Abbott preschool teachers (as of September 2004) to have Bachelors Degrees
and Pre-K through Third Grade (P-3) certification, and that teachers in community-based
programs be paid salaries comparable to their public school counterparts. The
study’s authors anticipate that full implementation of these mandates will
result in higher paid, better educated teachers in center-based preschools.
The EPI warns that New Jersey has to take further steps to ensure high quality preschool for all students, "to ensure that higher standards in Abbott school districts do not lead to lower standards elsewhere in [early childhood education]." Compensation levels also need to remain high to keep well-trained early childhood educators and administrators from moving to other employment sectors.
The EPI study cites work by ELC researchers Lesley Hirsch and Erain Applewhite, and Joan Ponessa of ELC and Cynthia Rice of the Association for Children of NJ.
For more information about the reports, contact Dan Goldman at (973) 624-1815, ext. 25, or by e-mail at dgoldman@edlawcenter.org.
Prepared: September 16, 2005
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