Controversy About Formal Education

The ExchangeEveryDay message of September 21 raised many questions and concerns. Our report was based on a third party summary of the study, “Teachers’ Education, Classroom Quality, and Young Children’s Academic Skills,” reported in Child Development (March/April 2007). To clarify matters, we decided to go to the original Child Development article. You can purchase this entire article (for $29) here. Two excerpts from the article…

“In an effort to provide high-quality preschool education, policymakers are increasingly requiring public preschool teachers to have at least a Bachelor's degree, preferably in early childhood education. Seven major studies of early care and education were used to predict classroom quality and children's academic outcomes from the educational attainment and major of teachers of 4-year-olds. The findings indicate largely null or contradictory associations, indicating that policies focused solely on increasing teachers' education will not suffice for improving classroom quality or maximizing children's academic gains. Instead, raising the effectiveness of early childhood education likely will require a broad range of professional development activities and supports targeted toward teachers' interactions with children...."

“Using seven recent, major studies of classroom-based educational programs for 4-year-olds, these analyses, taken together, do not provide convincing evidence of an association between teachers' education or major and either classroom quality or children's academic gains. Most of the analyses yielded null findings. Although there were some statistically significant associations, no clear pattern emerged. For instance, two of the studies indicated that quality was higher when the teacher had a Bachelor's degree or more, one study indicated that quality was lower when the teacher had a Bachelor's degree or more, and four studies found no association. Although the quick — and incorrect — conclusion might be that anybody can effectively teach preschool, we believe that the results from this study must be interpreted cautiously and that they raise more questions than answers.”

Note: An alert reader from North Carolina also sent along a report "Why the Education of Early Childhood Teachers Matters."

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