Staffing a universal preschool program will be no small task - by Marcy Whitebook
by Marcy Whitebook
But Should be Profitable :(
President Obama’s rhetorical plea for universal preschool has yet to be translated into an actionable policy proposal, but we can reasonably assume that any expansion of early learning services for young children will create a demand for more preschool teachers. And not just more teachers but trained ones: Twenty-nine state-funded preschool programs currently require educators with a bachelor’s degree, and many of them demand additional teacher certification. Two days after the State of the Union, the president called for programs staffed by “highly qualified, educated” teachers, saying, “This is not babysitting. This is teaching.”
Prospective teachers may find their way to the preschool classroom via multiple pathways, depending on their educational and work experience. Each pathway, however, will require specific professional development opportunities and attendant resources to ensure that teachers, regardless of their route to preschool, can effectively promote children’s learning. For instance, some teachers currently working in kindergarten and the early elementary grades might choose, or find themselves assigned to, a classroom of 4-year-olds. Because these teachers would likely only have student teaching experience in the elementary (K-3) grades, additional practice and coursework on earl
