Early Childhood Educators Need to Be Better Supported, Valued, and Compensated

Head Start and the Unifying Framework for the Early Childhood Profession

This week NHSA joined more than a dozen leading national organizations in releasing a first-of-its-kind framework defining standards, qualifications, roles, supports, and compensation for members of the Early Childhood Education (ECE) profession. NHSA represented the Head Start community on the Power to the Profession task force that developed this Unifying Framework for the Early Childhood Education Profession because, with Head Start’s 55-year history and more than one million children and families served annually, the Head Start workforce makes up a large and critically important piece of the ECE profession.

“At the National Head Start Association, we are deeply familiar with the challenges that children, families, and educators face — and also with the incredible successes they can achieve,” Executive Director Yasmina Vinci said at the launch of the Unifying Framework.

The 273,000 staff members that make up the Head Start workforce already support children and families with exceptional skill and high standards, so NHSA is excited by the steps the Unifying Framework takes to recognize Head Start’s early childhood educators as the professionals they are. Throughout the process of creating the Unifying Framework, it was important to keep the strengths of the existing Head Start workforce in mind.

What are these strengths?

• Early childhood educators in Head Start reflect the communities they work with, giving them a valuable understanding of cultural norms and supporting natural partnerships with families. In the 2018–2019 school year, 30% of Head Start staff identified as Hispanic or Latino and 27% identified as Black or African American. Beyond valuing early childhood educators as professionals, this rich representation of people of color, women of color in particular, in the Head Start workforce means that the goals of the Unifying Framework are about economic equity as well.
• The Head Start workforce is highly educated. In the 2018–2019 school year, 72% of teachers in Head Start preschool classrooms held bachelors or advanced degrees, which far exceeds what is required by law. The Unifying Framework calls for these early childhood educators to be compensated justly for the highly-skilled work that they do.
• Head Start builds its workforce with unique and innovative pathways that benefit communities. Head Start’s multi-generational model partners with parents–and often grandparents and other caregivers–on their own educational and career journeys. For many parents, that means building a career in a Head Start classroom and receiving support for higher education opportunities in the early childhood field. Many Head Start programs also partner with local high schools to create pathways for students to join Head Start as early childhood educators.
• Head Start’s unique whole child, whole family approach supports children’s health and nutrition needs and partners with parents and caregivers on their own paths to success. This comprehensive, multi-generational model includes the work of many professionals, such as mental health counselors and family advocates, in addition to early childhood educators. These professionals are critical to Head Start’s success, and NHSA is committed to lifting up their work as well.

Head Start’s early childhood educators commit every day to supporting children and families across the country, serving as integral parts of all communities, and they deserve the professionalism, clarity, and compensation the Unifying Framework seeks to provide for the field. As we celebrate the Unifying Framework and chart our path forward, we have always been and will continue to be mindful that we are moving forward together, elevating the many strengths of the existing workforce while not leaving anyone behind.