A new report from the Boston Opportunity Agenda (BOA) and the City of Boston’s Early Childhood Office points out what early educators already know: the early childhood workforce is in crisis. 

Salaries are low. Workdays are long. And turnover is high.

Fortunately, there are also strategic ways to strengthen the workforce.

The report — Strengthening the Foundation: A Profile of Early Childhood Educators in Boston and Beyond — takes a holistic view, explaining “We must move away from a piecemeal approach to job improvements and invest in a system that values our early educators.”

The report is a collaborative effort. It was written by Pratima A. Patil and Fernanda Q. Campbell of BOA, and Paula Gaviria Villarreal, from the City of Boston’s Office of Early Childhood. The project drew on guidance from the Birth to Eight Collaborative Data Committee, which consists of several research, data, and policy partners, including Titus DosRemedios, of Strategies for Children.

A video of the report’s release event is posted here.

To understand the workforce, BOA surveyed more than 650 early education and care professionals across Massachusetts.

Among the report’s findings, as WBUR reports:

“Especially in Boston… the child care workforce is diverse — except for gender: only 2% of respondents were men. But nearly half of respondents identify as Hispanic or Latino, 30% speak a first language other than English, and nearly a quarter have completed at least some post-baccalaureate higher education.”

In addition, the 37% of respondents “who had left a child care job said they did so due to insufficient wages. Based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics from May 2022, child care workers in Massachusetts reported a median annual wage of just $38,840.”

Other findings in the report include:

• the workforce is aging. In Boston, for example, “the age distribution across different early educator roles reveals a high proportion of individuals aged 45 and older.”

• child care center leaders are disproportionately white

• more than half of Boston-based centers “have a turnover rate above 20 percent, which U.S. Health and Human Services defines as high. High turnover leads to reduced quality, reduced income, and increased stress in the sector.”

• “Leadership positions in the early education and care sector in Boston and across Massachusetts are disproportionately occupied by White individuals,” and

• There is a “Limited association between wages and experience/education… This makes the high cost of further education a risky investment”

The report also shares the voices of early educators who raise important issues and challenges, among them:

• “Please stop referring to us as child care/child-care workers/daycare. We teach and work in the field of early education. We are early education teachers. It is insulting to our profession when we are referred to in any other way.”

• “Help us to get dignified salaries for the daily work we do. Have a fair wage so we can hire new personnel and have the option to take vacations.”

• “I think that [policymakers] should be visiting different programs to see where the needs are. My program has many different needs than the program next door. There is not a one size fits all model to ECE and this needs to be considered when making policies.”

The report’s four recommendations address “immediate concerns” and “lay a foundation for a sustainable and high-quality early education system” across the state. These recommendations are:

• Develop sources of “long-term sustained and improved funding.” The state’s Commonwealth Cares (C3) grants have helped provide some stability. Massachusetts could also leverage its “bargaining power to make affordable benefits—including health insurance, paid sick leave, vacation, and retirement plans—available to early educators.”

• Create a career map with “educational, credentialing and apprenticeship pathways.” One example to follow is the work that has been done “to create career pathways through partnerships with higher education institutions and community-based organizations” by the City of Boston’s Office of Early Childhood and the state’s Department of Early Education and Care.

• Develop data systems that gather descriptive information and statistics that “track educator-level and system-level factors.” Ensure that the data can be disaggregated at the municipal level so cities and towns can use the information. And share the information widely so it can inform policy discussions, and

• Advocate for “federal investment to sustain wage increases and support the Commonwealth’s early education and care system.” Federal investments are, the report says, imperative for ensuring sustained living wages for early childhood educators, attracting and retaining new members of the workforce, meeting working parents’ needs, and supporting the broader economy.

As the report concludes, these recommendations are “a starting point for strategies to catalyze positive transformations in Boston and across Massachusetts.”

“It is imperative that all stakeholders— from policymakers to educational institutions to community partners—collaborate to implement these recommendations, ensuring a brighter future for our early educators and the children they nurture.”