The most important elements of high-quality early childhood education are the compensation, consistency, and education and training of child care teachers.
The Washington State Early Childhood Education Career and Wage Ladder is a successful public-private partnership between the state and child care centers. It gives child care teachers small wage increases for getting more education, increasing responsibility, and staying in the field. The Ladder is proven to improve the quality of care by encouraging additional teacher training, reducing teacher turnover, and increasing teacher morale.
An independent, multi-year study of Washington’s Early Childhood Education Career and Wage Ladder by Washington State University found that in comparison to other child care centers:
The Wage Ladder is the only early learning program in Washington found to create statistically significant improvements in the quality of care - it's also essential to keep great teachers on the job. At a cost of about $250 per child per year, it represents a frugal, robust, and evidenced-based intervention that has catalyzed high-quality child care in Washington.
The Wage Ladder is the only program in Washington State proven to improve the quality of care.
Phase 1 Evaluation - Summary »
Phase 1 Evaluation - Full Report »
Phase 2 Evaluation - Summary »Phase 2 Evaluation - Full Report »
Post-Pilot Evaluation - Summary »Post-Pilot Evaluation - Full Report »
Improving
the quality of child care by enabling early learning teachers to earn
appropriate professional compensation, based on educational advancement
and achievement, as well as experience and job responsibility.
See what childcare teachers from across the state are saying about how the Ladder has helped them, their families, and their children.
Adopting a wage ladder for child care workers.
Establishing a wage ladder for child care workers.
This
work is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License
from the Economic Opportunity Institute. Liquid layout
thanks to Matthew James Taylor.

