Thanks to a recent survey, community college students have the chance, for the first time, to share their opinion about Massachusetts’ Early Childhood Career Pathways Programs—and help build even stronger partnerships between early education and higher education.

Since 2019, as the program’s website notes, Career Pathways has provided grants to the state’s 15 community colleges and the Urban College of Boston “to support early childhood educator’s economic mobility and career goals.” 

This state funding pays for classes for early educators and for students interested in early education careers. And the community colleges also use this investment to provide “textbooks, tutoring, mentoring, technology and other student support services.”

In the past, the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) collected aggregated program data from the colleges. But in 2024 EEC worked with Abt Global, a research and consulting company, to collect feedback directly from students by using a survey. 

The survey was featured at EEC’s October board meeting (at the 24:33 time mark). The slides shared at the meeting are posted here. And Abt’s full report is posted here.

“It has allowed us to really better understand directly from students their experiences in the Career Pathways program,” Ashley White, EEC’s Director of Research, said about the survey at the board meeting. “And it’s allowed us to learn some lessons that we can hopefully apply to future program design.” 

The survey results are inspiring: 4,109 students were surveyed, and 31 percent (1,295) responded, which is a statistically significant number of students. Of this group: 

• 95 percent feel they had gained knowledge that they could use to improve the “care and teaching young children”

• 93 percent have implemented skills and tools in their classrooms that they learned from their college courses, and 

• 91 percent felt better prepared to handle different classroom challenges

Sarah Sian, EEC’s Workforce Development Specialist, added at the Board meeting, “I think what’s really important here is that 77 percent of respondents were working full-time and also indicated that they want to continue to take more classes. And that just speaks to their interest and ability in multitasking and professional development while working.”

Many students also learned about navigating higher education, and their experiences prompted them to develop plans for the future, including earning a higher EEC credential and remaining in the early education field. 

Students also shared their personal appreciation for the program. 

This project promises to yield even more information and insights. 

EEC has formed a new working group with the community colleges to look at expanding access to child care for students. And Ariana Burnham, one of the Early Childhood Policy Pathways Fellows, has written a memo that looks at differences in survey responses across colleges, which should spark ideas about the unique ways that each individual college might better address student needs.

It’s exciting to see how this collaborative research approach that welcomes early educators’ voices can improve higher education and, ultimately, create better learning environments for young children.