 All right, so good morning everyone and welcome to New America. I'm Abby Lieberman, a senior policy analyst on our early and elementary education team. Thank you all for joining us today, those of you here in person and those of us following along online for this important discussion. If you would like to participate in the conversation on Twitter, please use the hashtag Diverse ECE Workforce. For those of you who are not as familiar with New America, our organization strives to explain and uncover challenges and opportunities inherent in a time of tremendous change in our society. In our elementary and our education policy program, we focus on equity for underserved students while also taking a broad view. We examine learning environments and public education systems of all kinds, starting with our littlest ones and continuing up through adulthood. Over the past several years, our early and elementary education team has focused much of our work on the adults who care for and educate children from birth up through third grade and the adults who provide supports for those working with young children. I encourage you to check out our program page at newamerica.org slash early ed. And especially relevant for today's conversation is a blog series we've been running for the last year and a half called Moving Beyond False Choices for Early Educators. It is edited by Stacy Goffin and has included commentary from early childhood educators, researchers, advocates, and others on the complexities, frictions, and mistrust embedded in the interplay among the preparation and education, compensation and status, and diversity and inclusion of the workforce. Goffin notes these strands have come together as a difficult knot to untangle. On your way in today, you may have picked up a postcard showing how to access one of our more recent projects, Transforming the Early Education Workforce, a multimedia guidebook. The guidebook includes key takeaways from each chapter of the National Academy of Medicines 2015 Transforming the Workforce Report. It also includes videos, interactive tools, a glossary, and more. We designed it with three doorways for three different but overlapping audiences in mind. Educators who work with young children, those in higher education who prepare early childhood educators and policymakers interested in improving early learning settings. Now to today's event. We are here to zoom in on the issue of cultivating and maintaining diversity in the Early Education Workforce. The nation's population is more diverse than ever before. Children of color are a majority among the birth to five population and one-third of children under eight speak a language other than English at home. A growing body of research is finding that students benefit from having access to teachers that share their cultural, racial, and linguistic background. For instance, a North Carolina study found that black boys who have just one black teacher between third and fifth grades are less likely to drop out of high school and more likely to attend college. And dual language learners experience long-term academic benefits from participation in programs that support the continued development of their home languages. There are various explanations and theories for why students excel when teachers share their racial and cultural backgrounds. Students may be more likely to view teachers with similar backgrounds as role models or may be more comfortable building strong relationships with teachers who have had similar experiences to them. Teachers with similar cultural backgrounds may be better equipped to understand the situations their students face or provide more culturally relevant teaching. And some research shows that teachers of color have more positive perceptions of students of color. And yet in K-12 public schools, our workforce fails to reflect the students it serves. 77% of teachers are female, 80% are white, and 80% of elementary school principals are white as well. The birth to five workforce more accurately reflects the diversity of the children it serves. While almost exclusively female, it is racially, ethnically, and linguistically more diverse than the K-12 workforce. 37% of center-based teaching staff are people of color, and 27% speak a language other than English. However, when digging deeper, there is significant stratification within the birth to five workforce. Just because it is more diverse does not mean it is equitable. The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley is a great source for data about the early education workforce. Analyzing the 2012 National Survey of Early Care and Education, they find that teachers, aides, and assistants or a pair of professionals are more likely to be, are more likely to be linguistically diverse and speak a language other than English than lead classroom teachers are. This figure and the few that follow are taken from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment's 2018 workforce index. Nationally, Hispanic workers are more likely than white and African-American workers to be assistant, inassistant, or a pair of professional roles, and while not depicted in this graphic, center directors are also more likely to be white. There's also stratification based on the age of children served. African-American early educators and caregivers are more likely to work with younger children. This is especially important because we know that working with younger children, people working with younger children tend to be paid less. So then it follows, taking a look at wages by race. African-American early educators working in childcare centers are more likely to earn less than $15 per hour than their white or Hispanic peers. And African-American caregivers and educators still earn less than their white counterparts even after controlling for educational attainment. So we want to frame today's discussion in the context of recent calls to professionalize this workforce. The Transforming the Workforce Report recommends that all lead teachers working with children from birth to age eight have a bachelor's degree with specialized training in early childhood education. In a workforce already plagued by extremely low wages and high turnover, what are the implications of increasing qualification requirements? What barriers need to be broken down to reduce stratification and create pathways in this profession? This morning, we will learn from practitioners about their experiences and get a better understanding of the latest research and discuss how the field can ensure that as it changes, we are able to maintain existing diversity and encourage diversity at all levels. Thank you again for taking the time to join us today for this important discussion. I'd now like to invite up our first panel to share their experiences as practitioners. Laura Bornfren, director of our Early and Elementary Education Policy Team will be moderating this panel and introducing today's panelists. Thank you. Thank you to Abby. Abby set up, you know, why we're here this morning and made a case for why educator diversity is important across the entire learning continuum from birth up through higher education. I'm going to introduce our panel in just a moment, but first I want to just make a couple of comments. As states and localities establish policies to increase the education and qualifications of early childhood educators, it is essential that they also consider how these policies might impact the diversity of the early childhood educator workforce. And think about what to do to ensure that early childhood educators of color are not just retained, but also equally compensated for the work that they do and afforded opportunities and pathways into leadership roles, at the same time while increasing compensation for all early childhood educators, which is sorely needed. Several of our Moving Beyond False Choice authors have discussed issues of diversity and inclusion, and I wanted to quote Velora Washington, CEO of the CDA Council for Professional Recognition, who wrote in her post, Silence About Race and how professionalizing our field could impact the diversity of our workforce is not productive to resolving early childhood education's thorny knot. A focus on equity matters and we must be intentional and dogged about achieving it. For decades, practitioners of color of all educational levels have reported concerns about inclusion and isolation. Within our field, there are demonstrated racial differences in wages and hiring preferences. Consequently, along with the field's growth in recent years, concern is escalating that are expanding numbers adequately reflect the demographics of the children and families served, especially among new roles, such as coaches, mentors, state specialists, and assessors. These are important words that should guide workforce efforts as they move forward. Now, I'm really thrilled to introduce to you today four early childhood educators to share with us their experiences working with young children and with expanding and deepening their knowledge and competencies in early childhood education. First, to my left is April Torrance. She is the founder and executive director of the Zion Education Center in Sharon, Pennsylvania. Sharon Pennsylvania just want to make sure I said it's got the city right. To her left is Maria Potts, who is a co-owner of Kids World Child Care, a home based Montessori preschool in Fairfax, Virginia. To her left is Maria Martinez. She is an early childhood educator working as an infant toddler lead teacher in the Greenbelt Children's Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. And finally, on the end is Danny Vasquez. He is a lead teacher at the ACCA Child Development Center in Northern Virginia. And I'd like to start our conversation with each of you just sharing a little bit about where you work and why you entered the early childhood education field. And whoever wants to start. Sure, I'm to your left. I'll start. I entered the field of early childhood education in 1995 after being inspired by a mentor of mine who is now my co-owner Monica Avery. And what I saw is her ability to upload this information into infants, toddlers, and preschoolers at the speed of a 5G network. And had these amazing outcomes. And I had just left the steel mill industry and the banking industry. And I said, I want to be a part of that. What that required me to do to get started as a family daycare provider was just fill out some paperwork and get started. But in order to grow my organization and move from a group to a center, it required me to further my education. And that's what I did. And that's what we continue to do. And she and I worked together. And now the city of Feral, we just moved there six months ago. But to do whatever we can to change and transform the lives of young children and their families. What started me was my mother, actually, she began our family home daycare and growing up, I was around it the whole time. So as I got older, I helped her, we, I played teacher. And it was just something that naturally built up. I went to school, my undergrad was in business management and marketing. I worked in the corporate world. And it wasn't for me. I just saw such a disconnect as well as just there was not much of a connection. I didn't feel fulfilled. But working with my mother, it was just, I felt like a purpose. So as we grew as our program grew, I got my education and studied in Montessori, I got my CDA as well. And now we have two locations, she's focused more on the infant side and myself is the primary side. And now I handle the business end. But even then it's for small, which is great. So we have that personal connection with the children and the families as well. But we do see still a lot of hurdles that we have to go through. Okay, my name is Maria Martinez. I am working in Greenville Children's Center. I started working in that center in August 2018. My experience over there in the center is wonderful because I, I work in with infant elders. I working with creative curriculum. And I like share my work with two more teachers and two assistant every day. I'm sorry, every day we planning activities in the morning for every kids. And we golf every end day is the provide the kids more skills for your life. Um, I started straight from high school. I was given the opportunity to be kindergarten teacher's aid. And I my my own experience with school, I didn't like school. I didn't like any of it. And as I started working with kids, I realized that like, I'm sure there was a lot of kids that felt the same way, going to school as well. So I kind of wanted to give them the opportunity of like, not feeling like that or kind of like, making it a little more fun, as opposed to kind of feeling like I'm the teacher, you're the child, you listen to me. And the more I started learning about the influences that I had, just not even trying, being unintentional. I used to like, put gel in my hair, and kids would come to school with gel in their hair, and their parents would be like, What is happening? And I, you know, I didn't know at the time. And I was like, I don't know, like, I didn't tell them to do it. They just started to and it's like boys and girls and like their hairs all messed up. And realizing that and seeing man, like, I wasn't even trying to be influential. And they just kind of grabbed that. Imagine what I could do if I was being intentional with everything I was doing. And that was kind of the spark that created everything else. And I've been in education for about 15 years. And yeah, it's really good. April, the jump from corporate to what you're doing, what you're doing now, can you talk a little bit about, you know, a little bit more about why you wanted to make that switch and, and just talk a little bit about your, your center and, you know, how you, you feel about the work that you're doing there? Absolutely. I would reflect back on the PowerPoint that Abby shared earlier, and the, the outcomes and the disproportion of incomes in the early childhood education field. As a black female, those results carry over into many areas. So in in banking, same situation, and found myself in able to move up from the Teller line. And with a representation of colleagues who looked nothing like me. And so there I was on a Teller line, actually the first black African American female on the Teller line in Sharon, Pennsylvania. From there, I moved back to Farrell to be closer to my family. And the steel mill just completely collapsed. And I worked in the, the personnel office. So I had the strong business background. And when I teamed up with Monica, I said, you're doing amazing things. You have great outcomes with the children. You go in the classroom and let me do the business side of things. And from that on, I continue to pursue my, my education and business business administration, human resource management, master's of science and organizational leadership. But here we are growing a team at Zion Education Center with teachers with certificates to teach and this great team. And I couldn't speak the language. And that's why I went back and obtained my, my doctorate in instructional management and educational leadership, because I felt in order for me to grow my team, grow my staff, and to better serve the families within our community, which are low income, disadvantaged, economically disadvantaged families. I needed to know what was happening at every level, local, state, county, county, state, federal, that would invest in our kids. And so having that team, a great team in place, same mission and same focus to shape the lives of those children and pull them out of poverty, pull their families out of poverty through early childhood education with a diverse workforce, both Caucasian, African American females, some with Asian descent. And yes, we have some male representation too. We needed our workforce to look like or my team to look like the children that we serve. And that's how we best identify with them. So that's, that's what we're doing in Feral Pennsylvania. Danny, you, you said you're a preschool teacher currently, right? And so, and I've been doing that at your center for about nine years. What were you doing in, in education before that? I worked at another center. I was doing, I was in a three year old class. I was in a pre K class. And then we were doing like, computer and physical education, if we had little blocks of that, so I would go to like from class and then I left because I couldn't afford to like pay for everything. I couldn't live like a comfortable life. It was very tight. And I was given the opportunity to work at a corporate job and make like about double what I was making. And I did that for about a year and a half. And I wanted to die. Because it was just not the environment and who I am. It didn't mix. And that's when I realized like, all right, I need to go back to education because like this is where I feel the most comfortable. But I also feel like I can make up for what I'm not gaining with like the interactions and the impact and how I feel and the energy that I get back from working with the kids. So I went back and now at the center that I work at now, you know, they're, it's an amazing center, like from the director all the way to, you know, the assistant teachers, I mean, you know, the opportunities of being able to grow and really develop your style of teaching and connecting with the kids and not working with like at risk families. And yeah, Maria, both of you, I'd like to hear more about about your centers and your your classrooms and the work that you're doing there. If you could, whoever wants to go first, I'll go first. So we're we're in home, which is nice. We're private. So a lot of our families are upper class Americans are able to afford the care that we offer. We when we first began, we actually started with early head start. And we found that it was very difficult just to meet the requirements with the county. And they were always pushing us paperwork to say we need x, y and z from this child and the amount of paperwork that would sum up to like two hours of the day. So whereas my time with the children, giving them that quality care that that connection that they need, because a lot of their families, they were working 12, 13 hour days. So they were with us for that amount of time. I just didn't see that us, our teachers being able to fulfill what the county was requiring from us. So unfortunately, at that point, we stepped out. And we started with the private. So we offer the private care for our families, which is wonderful, because we build a community with everyone, their expectations we have for our families, that they need to spend at least an hour with us, throughout the month, that we can do they can see what their kids are doing at school. And a lot of parents, they love it. They love being able to see, hey, like my two year old is like doing a puzzle. They are starting to use a magnetic sound objects. So it's very interesting for them to see that connection and seeing their children involved. Now that's with our preschool side. And then our infant side, you know, infants and toddlers are brilliant. They absorb everything that you give to them and provide for them. So that's, that's how our environment is right now. And it's beautiful about my classroom. Okay. About my classroom, I can talk and every piece in the classroom, when they do your activities, I like play with day and focus and all the time, guiding the kids for learning something about, about language, about numbers, about any experience where they play. I like my favorite, my favorite area in the center is when they, when they share with me what they think when construction something when playing the housekeeping. I like, know everyone what team when building something, when get some things in the kitchen. I like, I like stimulate your language and Spanish and English. The kids, the kids for in my experience is, is very, let me see how I express this, this part. The kids in the classroom, when, when I, I know my English is not very good, but my, my effort for day is, that's a matter, I feel in my brain, that's a matter, I know is, I know can a communication clear in English, but I like the kids when they, they never say about my language, they feeling comfort with me when I'm, I'm valuable for listen and play with a, because the kids in that age need more attention, more comfort, emotional, and I'm focused on the kids when somebody is sad, when somebody is angry. I cooperate in my classroom with a and every morning is some kids, everybody know they cry, right? And it's hard for my mommy. Sometimes need do many things for feeling for they feeling comfort. And, and sometimes I do maybe my, my activities say, oh, I live in the teacher outside and I do the cloud right now for day because they, they like it when we understand it's hard for separate about parents for, for I is very important. The kids know when go to the center, the teacher is available for comfort, your feelings. Thank you. You're welcome. All of you have, have received education and training and early childhood education. And what I, I'd like for you to sort of reflect on that education and training that you've received and going through as you pursue different levels, what has been challenging? And what supports have you received along, along the way, if you could talk a little bit about, about that, who'd like to start? Okay, transition this way. When I first started reaching out to, again, I didn't like school. So I didn't want to go back to school. But once I decided, all right, I need, you know, a degree saying that I know what I'm doing, because at that time, on my resume, it was just experience. So somebody looked at my resume, nobody's going to really be like, okay, whatever. It was only if I was able to present myself and have the interview, then I could have the opportunity to kind of show what I can do. So I decided to go back to school. And I tried to get grants, and I made too much money. And everybody wanted to give me loans. And I already heard about the nightmares of loans from years before, like, all my friends, I was like, no, I'm not going to do that. And then I couldn't pay full, because I couldn't afford it. So I fell into this gap of like, I couldn't get help, but I also couldn't afford it. And it was kind of just like, all right, well, you know, it is what it is. And then my mom actually was curious about this other program that had just opened up. And it was from Virginia Early Childhood Organization. And they had foundation, right? And they had set up the Pathfinders, the project Pathfinders grant. And it's specifically for teachers that are working with at risk families. And that was like a blessing, because like they pay full everything, they pay books, they pay fees, they pay the classes like everything. And I started taking classes with my mom. And ever since then, we've been working towards getting our associates. Also, where I work now, they, my director has always pushed for trainings and kind of getting the teachers to raise the quality of the center, and also kind of getting more educated on like either newer tactics or new information that we might have, you know, that have come to the educational field. And that has also helped with, you know, being able to kind of create a better experience in the classroom for the kids and for the teachers. We don't have to go in order. But if you'd like to go. Okay, it's fine. I started in Mexico, psychology. And I working over there with early childhood. I working now in the school, I working in the rural community, that is very different for working there. It is not have resources over there. And when I come in America, my, it's hard for me because the first time I don't have a papers, but after 2015, I get my papers and immediately looking for a preparation for working in daycare, because my friend and know about that job. And I do my 90 hours, hours. And later I, I do the CDA and bilingual way. But it's a little bit hard for translation, Spanish and English. But on my way, I have many barriers for for my sexual. But I like it. I recognize this is very important. And starting about what I can do with the kids in America, because in Mexico is very different. After on my way for do the CDA, somebody tell about the credential. And I get my credential and the level three. And this is not easy for me because some trainees, I need to get in English. And when get the exam, it's not easy for me. But I like starting vocabulary. This is very important for me because when I read, I understand a little bit more than speak when I read. Many, many days I sleeping three o'clock in the morning, I just started some work. But in the end on my education, I feeling very happy. Because I know when I go to the center with I working right now, my director is very great. She support me for training for many things. I feeling very comfortable in that center. Because my director is very professional. She focus on the kids. I learning a lot in that center. Because the teacher support not only for my education, she focus on the kids they need to grow. When the kids need something, any situation, she all the time is available for help. And in my experience with my director, I say thank you so much for supporting my feelings, my education. I like every day learning something in that center. Thank you. For me to get my CDA and then my Montessori credentials, I had to take out a loan. That's the only way I could have gotten that for my Montessori credentials. I have to close my business for four months in order to go there. So it wasn't easy. If I really want to do it, that's what I had to do. Thinking of like my staff, it's difficult to get them training because English isn't their first language. So we're always hunting for training where they can actually fully understand the content. So that's kind of the hurdles that we've always gone through. And even with my other organization with the Hispanic Association of Child Care, most of them who've been working with children for over 30 years, and some as more as like 40 years, they want to continue their education. But it's just the language barrier. So it's not an easy, not an easy path for them to continue. I'll make it quick. So I echo the sentiments of my colleagues here. And when it comes down to the challenges, I can I can identify three. And that is the time, the finances and the support. And I spoke with my team before I left to see exactly if they experienced some of the same things that I did. And I would say initially, my challenge was not the student loan, because everyone who lost their jobs at Sharon Steel qualified for the Trade Readjustment Act. So my tuition was paid in full for my associate degree. So that was a blessing. In addition to that, I was able to obtain some scholarships because of my GPA, which allowed me to move forward and get my certification and children and youth and family studies. However, when I went forth for my bachelor's, master's, doctorate, I only did cohorts, because I remember the time I almost hit a guy crossing the street trying to get to classes Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday, Thursday, in run a facility. It was it was crazy. So I only focus on cohorts one day a week with intensive writing needed to get those other three degrees. So that student loan debt for PhD, we won't even talk about that whether it's at the the undergraduate level or doctorate level, you're going to have some. And I think that support that I receive from people, you know, cheering you on having coaches, have a mentors, having someone to just get in your ear and continue to tell you, you can do it, you can do it, you can do it is critical. And it will it will it will allow you to forget about the challenges and look at the goal. You both talked about your Danny and Maria talking talked about your directors being supportive of you increasing or of other teachers, increasing education levels. And so could you talk about how what those supports look like at by the center director? And then I have one more question for everyone before we turn it to audience. Okay, my director support they she paid for all my trainings. And I renew my CDA last month and she paid for that one. I'm very happy over there because it's my first job when they pay for holidays. You have need something to do in the center. For example, every Friday, when when finish one subject with the kids, she paid for everything we need for a cooking project. Anything we need the director provide for us any any any with I need something I need pay for my pocket. The director pay for everything and other and other support for my director when when I know feeling fine in my health. The director all the time is the first year is the person know know. And I have the experience in other centers. I tell with another centers about my feelings. And they know know no interesting. I say, that's a matter you seek if that's a matter you and you can come to work. I need you you you person over here. That is that is hard sometimes because I am looking I working in that's a place. But over here in this center, that is very different. All is I feeling very happy over there. Everything I deal with my director. Sometimes I say, thank you so much for feeling a do feel me I person in this job. She understand the work with the kids is is hard and and and she understand not only the work she understand the person who's working there. And she interesting in the feelings. I like I say, thank you so much for that one because sometimes it's the working is hard. The my feelings sometimes is no is no happy every day because every every everybody have some things back right. But I like a start my job every morning because I know if something is wrong with me, somebody think up on me. This is very important. Thank you so much. When I went from my interview to where I'm at now, my director let me know off the bat like look, you know, you're going to work a certain amount of hours and these are the schedule and stuff. But it doesn't stop there. Like there's going to be weekends where you might have to come in. We do a lot of things for like families and the community. So there's going to be a lot of like extra. And if you know, if you're not available for that, then we understand and that's fine. But her dedication to the families. So it's not just the kids, but the families is contagious. The school that I work at is a nonprofit school. So she's getting grants, you know, here and there. She's writing proposals up while running the school while also trying to stay in budget for the board. So she's wearing a lot of hats and doing a lot of things. And still has the time to let like, Miss Maria said come into the classroom and say, Hey, how's it going? You know, you're all right, because having that personal, like human experience is important, not just for the kids, but also for the teachers because it's, you know, it's all a circle. She definitely invests in the teachers as far as we like about 80% of us at the school are involved with the apprenticeship Virginia apprenticeship for Virginia Labor Union. And majority of us are math certified. We've all had the opportunity to have the training to be class observers. And a lot of us, I want to say we have about 30 class observers, like certified class observers, which help because we know when we come to get observed, we already know what they're looking for. So we have everything in mind. That kind of mentality of supporting us and giving us the tools to be able to create a quality environment and be able to be effective with the kids, I feel like is something that not only comes from somebody's intention of having a high quality center, but also with their intention of being effective to the kids, I think if everybody has the same mentality of like, we're all there for the kids. And what's the best way that we can support the kids? I think, you know, you can definitely have a strong center. Thank you. I'm gonna I'm supposed to stop, but I'm going to take moderators prerogative to ask my last question. And then I'll promise I'll turn it over. But try to keep your answers tight. So, you know, a lot of policymakers at the state level are considering, you know, efforts and other state leaders to increase the requirements for lead teachers and others in, you know, early childhood development centers. And so if you had, you know, just say a short elevator ride with a policymaker in your state, what would you want them to know about the importance of, you know, of the supports needed to be able to reach different education levels? Or maybe you might want to tell them something different. But but but if you just had a short elevator ride, what would what would you want them to know? If I was in the elevator with one of the legislators that was shaping policies, I would do my best to get them to focus on what we all know is that those first 2000 days of life are critical. And if I can go back to that 4G 5G network, we have to do everything that we can to upload information into the minds of those young children with experienced staff who have the passion in the heart to see those children strive and excel. And if we could see more apprenticeships, as he had mentioned, and support for professionals, power to the profession to grow our team and increase the numbers of children that we are reaching with their support, we could change the world. And I think that that's critical. So bring on the support, increase the AmeriCorps numbers, National Service, Ed Siegel Awards, whatever readjustment act, we want the same privilege that they have as headstart teachers, pensions, higher rates, health benefits, dental vision. We want that in child care. We don't have that. Absolutely. I'm all for it. It's definitely important. I think if I had that small that elevated right, I would say, look at the details, if we're going to have these requirements, then the time of the classes need to correspond with the teacher's time that they're in the classroom, they need to be accessible to all meaning that language needs to be accessible. It means that the cost needs to be accessible. Those grants need to come in. These teachers, these educators in early childhood are in the prime time of these children of the future. So we need the funding, we need the support in every aspect that we can, we can get. But I think in about the elevator, this is very sure. Very sure time for speak about about my request, right? But I say, well, I come from Mexico, I do the provide and child care care. And I, I like to do everyday good decisions. Please, you're thinking about that. If I was in the elevator, I'd probably press all the buttons. Be like, you'll listen to me today. Yeah. What I would probably say is, they already know the importance of early education. That's why they're starting to focus on it more. It's gotten more more light. They're starting to give more money to early education, but they're giving it to up the quality, right? So like the money is there so that people can go back to school and, you know, get their degrees and get the trainings and all that stuff. But the teachers are still being paid the same. So we're sacrificing more by going to school and investing more into, you know, the the schools and even into our own classrooms. We're barely making ends meet, yet we're still buying supplies for the kids. You know, like, it's hard sometimes because you care so much, well, especially like the people that are there. If you're in education, you care. You're not in there to make money realistically. And it's like, it's frustrating sometimes because you want to do so much, but you also have to live. And especially if you live around here, it's hard. It's hard. It's not, you can't find anything comfortable and live comfortably out here. I think that if I have that elevator ride, I would definitely focus on letting him know the reality of what being an educator in the United States is. Thank you. Thanks to all of you. And smart words from our panel. Questions from from any of you from the audience. One up here. Thank you guys so much. My name is Erica Lee. I'm with the US Department of Education. This is really interesting. So thank you all for your work. I have little ones. So thank you very much for the work you actually do. And I'm curious kind of Danny, is that you so you've obviously had to sacrifice quite a bit to kind of, you know, you kind of left went to the corporate world came back and just wasn't right for you. And and certainly you guys have all had to sacrifice some in terms of money or loans or time. And yet you're still here because you love the kids so much, which is what you said. And I'm just curious. Do you have any examples of of somebody who you worked with who thought was a really good teacher. And yet who and yet who just had to leave because they really could not make ends work. And I'm curious, where did they go? I just kind of like to hear. Thank you. Yeah, I definitely have someone. So I mentioned earlier, my co founder Monica has sacrificed so much in early childhood education. But she wanted that taste of corporate corporation. She wanted the 401k. She wanted the benefits, all the things that I couldn't provide her. And she left for about six months and took a job with the housing authority. And so had all the benefits of HUD. And every month she realized, I'm just not that administrator. I belong in the classroom. And each month I continue to have this one position available that I couldn't feel I try. And I kept saying that position is still open. And after six months she ended up coming back in December after being in the field for like 27 years, she just knew she belonged in the classroom with those children. So she gave up her health insurance. She gave up the 401k, the pension, everything that went with the housing and urban development government agency, she gave back up to come into the classroom, where she belongs. We've had a few like I've had a few teachers at the school that I worked at that were great teachers. Like, like you can tell you can see the potential in somebody, especially with their interactions, like things that they weren't taught, you're just kind of doing it. And that but they had family, like I don't have a family, I'm not married, I don't have kids. They she had kids, you know, and she couldn't make ends meet. Like her kids couldn't even go to the center. Like, what is that? So she had to leave. And when she left, she got into the medical field. And like with nursing, it's up, you know, you can get you can make pretty good money. And so you know, I mean, she's doing well now and everything. But, you know, it's I like I could feel like man, we lost somebody that could have been huge, you know, working with kids. Other questions. Thank you. I'm Lindsay Falconberg, Manthee. I work with whiteboard advisors in DC. We do education policy and research. One thing I'm interested in is the different resources and tools that you've all mentioned, that there's varying levels of investment or providing that that the center does. What do you feel are you know what in your experience? What is necessary to really get everything out of that investment? Do you ever see that maybe the center has invested in something and then you don't use it? And, you know, there's that appropriate training? Or do you find that, you know, the investments in maybe it's curriculum or assessment or other tools are fully utilized? Or what could be done to help them be be better utilized, if that makes sense? She's like, no. Basically, you know, we'll often hear about a center or a program investing in a curriculum set or something, and then it's not getting used very well, because you know, there's not training or there's not professional development around it. So I'm just thinking about the limited funds that the center does have, or the program does have to invest in a tool, what can be done to make sure that you're really getting everything out of it and the teachers are prepared to fully utilize that investment? I would say it's a gamble, because what it comes down to is the teachers implementing that in the classroom. Like you can have a great training, but you know, if like 20% of the teachers are actually getting it in and then practicing it in the classroom, that's what you're going to get. What happens is people will go and get their degree and have, you know, a bachelor's or an associate's degree in education, but then when they go into a classroom, their classroom management skills, you know, they don't have them. And yet you have people that have been in classrooms for a while, but they don't have that piece of paper that says, hey, I know what I'm doing. So what it comes down to is really the teachers investing in making the time and putting it in, because, you know, a lot of the trainings that we get and a lot of the certifications that we get, like, for example, the class observation certificate, to take the class and to take the test. To take the class is a thousand. To take the test is about seven hundred. And mind you, we have about 30 teachers that are certified. So what we do with that really matters to being able, when VQI comes to observe our school, that it doesn't matter what classroom they go into, they're going to hit a class with a teacher that has the qualifications to be able to do that. But the teachers have to be invested in it, too. And then it all comes back to, like, well, if I'm getting paid crumbs, it's hard to keep that motivation up, you know? VQI, Virginia, Quality Management. Quality Management. Yeah. If I could capitalize off of Danny, and I'll make it quick. Yeah. So people often ask, are you using creative curriculum? Because either you love it or you hate it. And we love it. And it all boils down to what I call the four eyes. If you have a certified teacher, right, and she has, she's done the instruction, she's individualized it, right? And you go into the classroom and implement it. That's great. It looks good on paper. But if you don't have those strong interactions with those students and connecting with them, you aren't going to get the outcomes that you're looking for. So implementate, I'm sorry, instruction, individualization, implementation, and interaction will go a long way. I think with the family child care field, it's a bit different. We have wonderful programs that are saying, hey, we'll give you guys the portage curriculum, we'll give you the creative curriculum, we'll give you the class curriculum, we'll give you all these curriculums underneath the sign, and we'll send out a specialist to teach you how to do the curriculum. Great, but our structure is different within the centers and classrooms. A lot of these kids come to our homes at 6 a.m. and they don't leave until 7 p.m. Everyone's program is different. So we have to first meet the needs of those kids before we can imply a curriculum. And for those specialists in those programs that are developing this, these curriculums, if they were to understand that first, it may be find a model where it's like, hey, this curriculum is going to fit the family child care programs, this one's going to fit center-based programs that meet those needs, and this curriculum is going to fit bigger K programs. Because all those programs, all those schools are different, children are different. They absorb information differently. Everyone's environment is different. So I think at first, those who are implying those curriculums need to figure that out first. Because not one curriculum is going to be set for all children. And unfortunately, we're going to have to stop there to transition to our next panel, but join me in thanking our expert panel for sharing their experience with us. And our next panel, I'm going to introduce Shaina Cook, our moderator, and she is, and I'm looking because she used to be here at New America on our early and elementary ed policy team and learning technologies team, but she is now with the Baynem Foundation, and she is senior manager for early learning systems there, and I'll invite her up, and she can introduce the panel. Thank you. Thank you, Laura, for introducing me, and I'm just going to take a moment to introduce all of our panelists here. This is the panel that's now talking about policy and practice implications, and each of us sitting on this panel is very privileged to write about policy and be able to influence policy makers and decision makers, and I really appreciated how the first panel were practitioners and folks that work with children every day, and we need to start thinking about how we can get practitioners voices into the ears of policy makers, and what each of these panelists have done is they've really done a lot of qualitative research where they're capturing the voice of teachers, practitioners, owners in early childhood education, and have tried to uplift those voices so that it can be, it can help inform policy makers and their decisions, so I really love the question at the end about trapping policy makers in the elevator, maybe we should do that some more, as an early childhood field. So it's my pleasure to introduce each of our panelists. To my immediate left is Carrie Gillespie from the Education Trust. She is a senior analyst and she's focused on early childhood education at Ed Trust. Next to Carrie is Lucy Ressio. She's at the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and she's a senior analyst there, focused on public policy and advocacy, and then finally is Amaya Garcia, who is the Deputy Director of English Learners right here at New America. All right, so my first question really focuses on the National Association for the Education of Young Children, so I'm just going to say Nacey from now on. Nacey at Education Trust has an upcoming paper that will be released, and it's focused on black and brown teachers, and really hearing from them, because as we heard during Abby's presentation, we know that the field is diverse, but it's stratified, and we really need to start thinking about, so the field is diverse, but you know, we know it's majority women of color, and what does that mean when we're not compensating those folks appropriately for the worthy work and meaningful work that they do with young children that we know is very important from all of the brain research. So Carrie and Lucy, would you tell us a little bit more about the focus groups that you both conducted with black and brown teachers around the country, and really hone in on what the focus of the paper was, which is to really ask them what they thought about policy makers interest in moving towards higher credentials in early childhood education, and what does that mean for folks on the ground? So we partnered with NAEYC and we're so grateful for that partnership. We conducted five focus groups in New Jersey, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. The New Jersey and North Carolina practitioners of color were mostly in center-based preschools, and the Milwaukee folks were home-based family care. So we asked them about these policies that they had lived through where they were increasing educational requirements. We asked them about their experience of facing that and how that impacted them both personally and professionally, and then we asked them if they were stuck in an elevator with a policy maker for just a few floors, what they would tell them. No one came up with pushing all the buttons. I love that. And we really wanted to hear from them about specifically their experiences as people of color and really women of color. We only unfortunately had one male and we mostly found that there were four areas of support that they needed. They either received or they wish they had had. So that was in funding. So paying for school, not just tuition, but all those hidden costs that come with higher education like textbooks, transportation, child care, all of that. Also support from their workplaces. So having supportive supervisors is not a given. Being able to leave work a little early one day or during your break work on your school work is not a given. Having substitutes available is not a given. The third area of support they wanted was from the higher ed institutions and there was a lot to unpack there about what that means. And then the fourth was of course compensation. So not only right now being compensated more fairly, but knowing ahead of time and having a guarantee that once you put in all this work and personal sacrifice you will actually get a raise at the end of it, which is also not a given. Absolutely. And I just want to take a second to acknowledge the expertise of the panelists who were here before we sat down. Honestly, we at NAC and we're so fortunate to be able to have found this partnership with Ed Trust, we know that the practitioners, those individuals who are in the classroom day in and day out have the expertise to be able to inform the policies that are happening and the policies that will be created to impact their lives. We are far beyond the point of creating policies for the profession without input from the profession. And so that is really where we started really thinking about how do we collect these pieces, how do we make sure that we're engaging educators to then inform and be able to use their voices and rather elevate their voices when having conversations with policymakers. Because truth be told, we haven't always gotten this right. There have been many instances where we have made requirements and demands from the workforce without putting in all of the supports that Kerry just mentioned, especially around compensation. And so for us, as we look at particularly our leadership within the Power to the Professional Initiative, which was mentioned earlier, about creating the shared framework of what it means to be an early childhood educator. What's the skill set? What are the capacities? What is it that we, when we say someone is an early childhood educator, what are they able to do? What are they responsible for? Creating a shared understanding, as we are talking about that shared framework, then we could not create that without speaking to the educators themselves. And so as a result of that, we were able over the course of last year and this year, we've actually facilitated 21 focus groups and community conversations, engaging over 500 educators, most of them from communities of color, from communities where English is not their first language, tribal and indigenous communities, across 12 states, 12 states, Washington, D.C., and the island of Puerto Rico. Why? Because we recognize, to Maria's point earlier, there are different needs for educators depending on where they are. And for us, it really meant how do we dive deep into what that means. And across the board, we heard a lot of similarities, right? There wasn't, in any instance, a desire to defend the status quo because educators themselves are living this difficult reality. They understand the challenge of making, trying to make ends meet when the average wage for an early childhood educator is $10.60. When an early childhood educator graduates with an early childhood degree, they are expected and projected to have the lowest earning potential of all college graduates, right? So we don't need to tell them that this is a difficult reality. What they want to make sure and really in demand of politicians, of policymakers, and of us as advocates who are championing this, is that those supports are in place. Supports like what Kerry mentioned around transportation, that Maria mentioned, of making sure that classes are available during the hours that educators are able to attend, that they're in their communities, that they're in the languages that they're able to understand, that they have resources for things like interpretation and translation, right? That it's not just a scholarship, but really thinking about how do we create these comprehensive financial aid in ways like the Teach Early Childhood Program that provides that cohort model, right, where you have the support of your peers. And so all of these different needs surface and it was exceptional for us to then rely on that information in thinking of how do we create this framework and how do we have conversations with politicians, as Dany mentioned, when there's so much interest in early childhood education right now, for how do we get this right this time around? And how do we make sure that we no longer create a system that does not benefit the educators themselves, who are ultimately going to be impacted most by it? Right, right. And Amaya, you also conducted focus groups with multilingual and bilingual paraprofessionals, some of which were early childhood educators. One unique thing that I found in your paper, which full disclosure I supported Amaya on, was that one of the questions in the focus group also had to do with formulation of policy. So if practitioners could be at the table and formulate policy, what would they say that they wanted? And it was an every practitioner in the focus groups valued education and valued the promise of education, but they wanted, just as Lucy and Kerry eloquently explained, they wanted supports. And can you talk a little bit more about the findings and how those providers were able to talk about policy? So a lot of our findings really echo what we heard from the expert practitioners who are just up on the stage, especially when you think about the language barriers that people who don't speak English as a first language base. So it's not only about the financial cost of a higher education, it's not just about accessing it, it's also about trying to learn something when it's in a language that's not necessarily the one that you're the most comfortable in. I think that in terms of what they thought about education, most of them felt this was their calling, right? They maybe entered the profession unsure of whether they were going to like it, but many of them, this is what I was meant to do, this is what I'm here to do. And so for them, they were like, I understand the need to get more credentials, I want to learn more, but I need support in order to do so. And so one thing that we asked them to do is, well, what are the policies that would actually help you get the support you need to keep going? So many of them actually proposed to change this to the licensure and certification process for those who are working in like pre-K to 12 education systems because they saw those processes as being very rigid and not aligned with what they were doing in their day-to-day practice. If you think about the role of licensure exams and certification, those have become a big barrier, particularly for individuals of color. And part of those barriers are due to the fact that for people who aren't born in this country, they're expected to take tests that assess history that you might never have learned, right? But for them, they're like, what does that have to do with what I'm doing every day in my classroom? The other issue is actually that licensure exams are in English, right? And for those who are working in bilingual settings, we don't actually need to use English in their day-to-day practice. Again, they're like, I know the content, I know the material, my barrier here is the language. It's not what I know and can do. So they were interested in having tests available in more than just English, which I think is a very fair and appropriate request. They're also interested in models that we're calling grow your own, but or cohort models or models that are going to provide a systematic way to address the barriers that they face in achieving their education goals. So if you think about growing around, growing around the concept is basically you're taking people from the community and you're giving them the preparation they need to stay in the community and become teachers there, right? Because they know the community best and so they're best in the best position to really be effective educators for those children. So one thing that you can think about when you think about grow your own is that there are policies that are designed to, well, not only get financial support, but they give tutoring support. They do cohort models where people are going in together and they create opportunities for on-the-job learning so that you're not going to have a situation where you have someone who maybe just has a degree but has never actually been in practice. So you're actually being able to be in a classroom for two years while you're pursuing your degree, working with a mentor or teacher, really getting that support you need to become an effective professional. And I think one other thing that's interesting is thinking about how localities who are implementing really strong education requirements. Like so here in D.C., the regulations are that you need to have an associates degree by the year 2023. And that has been met with a lot of anger in some ways. And there have been protests and there have been lawsuits and not just from practitioners but also from families who don't understand what this is going to mean for them and they don't, they think the costs are going to become untenable. We already have some of the highest child care costs in the nation here in D.C. But I think one thing that's been interesting is to see how their advocacy has led to a response from higher education. And so we actually here in D.C., the University of the District of Columbia just launched a bilingual degree program, an infant and toddler education, an AA degree program as a response to what practitioners were asking for. And people in that program are really excited for the opportunity. They feel empowered. They feel, you know, let their skills are being viewed as the assets that they are and they're getting opportunity to learn and show what they can do in their native language. And I think that's a huge opportunity and something that more localities need to think about doing. It's not rocket science. Everyone knows that these barriers are. It's not a mystery what they are. So policy needs to be created in a way that's actually responsive to those up front as opposed to after the policies in written being like, oh, wait. Yeah, we forgot. It's really hard to like take time off of school to do this. It's really hard to pay for this. Oh, transportation. No, you need to pay attention before that happens. Right. So I mean, I think by having more policy makers and educators come together early on in the process, you can kind of avoid some of those pitfalls. Right. And so often in the policy space, after the policies already been implemented, we start to begin to discuss unintended consequences as if we didn't think about the tradeoffs before we implemented the policy. And, you know, I went to a event this past weekend. It was called the Anti-Racist Book Festival this weekend and Dr. Kendi explicitly said, you know, we can't think about the intent of policies. We have to think about the outcome of policies. And if the outcome is racist or it's creating barriers, undo barriers and stress to a community, we have to really think about why that was put in place, what we need to do as advocates to retain that power because policy is really about power as well. And so I think you know, with that being said, for each of the panelists, you know, your work moved towards making sure you're elevating that practitioner voice. But just like in the case, some of the cases that we've seen, we're implementing policies about credentials without having that voice at the table to help us think through all of those potential unintended consequences before the policies implemented. You know, how do we authentically engage practitioners and folks who are working directly with children every day, sacrificing, as we said, because they love children and they want to shape that those key moments of development? You know, how do we, instead of having a check box, you know, how do we authentically engage them? And how does that translate into informed policymaking? Well, in overarching theme, we heard in our focus groups was invite us to the table. We know better than most what's going on. And the people who are early childhood practitioners are from communities that historically have not been invited to the table. It's no accident or surprise that we're here talking about inequities in 2019 because of the institutionalized and systemic racism and sexism that we've had throughout our history. Women of color have been taken for granted as caregivers of children for, I could probably safely say, forever and haven't been paid or have been paid pitifully. So the same sexism and racism and intersectionality of those two that have existed forever are still here today. And another example of that is when I was listening to Danny talk about his own educational experience and I don't know the root of that. And so it just reminded me that a lot of people of color who've gone through the education system because of the implicit biases that teachers have had in the racism inherent in the education system has affected their own experience as a student and their own identity as a student. And so when faced with the idea of entering the higher education system, we heard that could be ambiguous and anxiety provoking because we haven't made higher education systems accessible, open, comfortable, welcoming places for people of color and women of color for a long time. So taking that into consideration when we're making these policies, looking at it through that lens and then again inviting the actual practitioners to the table is key. And I think one of the most effective ways we can do that is supporting practitioners and becoming advocates and that's something we heard from our focus groups is that as they went through specifically cohort educational experiences in higher ed where they had other people to talk to, they really felt that their voice was becoming more powerful and that they were becoming advocates. And ideally in my perfect world I'd love to see more women as policy makers and people of color as policy makers of course and practitioners really taking formal leads as policy makers but until we give them the time and space to do that that's going to be really challenging. Absolutely. I say for NAC really it's twofold. In a lot of ways it's how we are building up the capacity of the educators themselves to be advocates. This is decades of racism and elitism that have historically created barriers for individuals who will be impacted by these policies to be at the table leading conversations around the implications for these policies. That also means that these are individuals who are in communities that have historically and systemically been deprived of the opportunity to understand the ramifications of what this means. So there's a bit of that imposter syndrome that educators often feel of do I even belong? I'm just an educator. I was just like no you are an educator and that in and of itself is so powerful and important. And so we have dedicated really building up the skill set for the educators so that once they're at this table they're able to feel comfortable in having discussions with individuals. So then be able to speak truth to power to be able to have discussions around what it means to be part of the appropriations process and how you need to make sure that you're prioritizing investments in early childhood education. What does it mean that as you're considering the Higher Education Act you're including supports for the workforce entitled to funds and loan forgiveness, right? That they have the dexterity to spit out all of these different facts because those are things that we can teach them. But what they bring which is most powerful and I say that as someone who used to work for an elected official is the story, right? They bring the ability to articulate what does this mean for my community, for myself, for the district that you represent. And so we are continuously building that up. We through at NAAYC we host a public policy forum, this last forum that we had earlier this year brought over 357 advocates from across the country to have conversations around what does it mean to be a stronger advocate and then participate on a day on the hill. And all offices were visited, right? This is a non-partisan issue. This is about how do we invest in this workforce and therefore invest in the future of this country. So the work is happening with the educators themselves to create the space, their skillset to be able to do that. But the responsibility doesn't solely have to rely on them, right? We don't have to continuously push and demand marginalized communities to be the ones to step up. It's also challenging the policymakers and the legislators that you need to have individuals who represent these communities as part of your advisory committees. You need to think about how you're creating opportunities and spaces for individuals to genuinely engage, right? When you're having these meetings, how you're creating that opportunity if a person is not able to be there in person, we know that you're able to Skype in, we know that you're able to use some kind of other method and technology to be able to be there. So how do we also challenge the policymakers to be able to do that? And so when you think about it twofold, it really creates a dynamic of we're really trying to flip the script, we're trying to change the system, and we're trying to approach this in a very different way. Oftentimes it requires to someone like myself who has the privilege of being invited to these meetings and these conversations to say, I am giving up my seat because I am not the expert. So thank you so much for the invitation, but I am coming with a plus one, plus two, or maybe a plus two because of what I feel like doing. Right? And then having the conversation on the back end with the educators themselves, you got this. You have exactly the skill that you need to be able to have these conversations. And so it is a continuous process of doing both at the same time, but it's, it's, I think the work that is necessary if we're really able and going to create this process to be able to support the educators and create policies that are going to positively impact individuals who are in the field. So I really want to echo what all the points that Lucy made, but I think what I take away from what you said is, you know, policy making is a largely a very bureaucratic process and can be intimidating to look at from the outside. So policy makers do really need to consider how you make it a more community oriented approach in a way that's authentic and meaningful. Right now, I mean, theoretically the policy making process has a big public part, right? Like they have, they open comments for, you know, public comments, right? And it's like a 90 day window and you can read the policy and you can write them all the comments that you want about that, right? But that is just a checkbox and that takes a significant amount of time also an energy to just even write something like that. Why not try to make policy making more inclusive of communities? And that includes if you're having meetings, making sure that you have translators there who can speak the languages of the practitioners and the experts, right? Because that's one way that people really get shut out is you're not being inclusive in that way. And I think that the more that policy makers actually look at who they're trying to serve and who the people in their community are, the better job they can do in trying to incorporate their views into their process. So let's talk about compensation and the promise of higher education. So clearly what we found on the previous panel and some of the focus group work, early educators want to develop their craft. Their professionals, they want to grow, they are into continuous learning. But they don't want to take on additional debt when compensation remains stagnant. Do you think the current move toward higher credentials is also pushing compensation or are we falling into the same pattern of asking educators to attain qualifications first and compensation is still a nice to have. And I think we can look at head start and we can see that there was a lot of movement towards getting that bachelor's degree. But at the end of the day, compensation is still suppressed for head start teachers. And they still are having challenges and maybe they need subsidies, government subsidies. Maybe they need to take on another job. You know, we're promising something with that piece of paper, as Danny said. And are we really creating the dynamics to actually ensure that educators are getting the compensation they deserve? So I'll take this and I'll start off the conversation in thinking about power to the profession, right? This shared this initiative that is really trying to create a shared framework for what it means to be an early childhood educator. We deeply reject the notion that this country does not have the funds to be able to appropriately compensate early childhood educators. We have the money. What we lack is the political will to be able to invest in early childhood educators as opposed to the systems around them. Every single one of our panelists spoke about the deep value in the interactions that they have with their children, right? The children in their classroom, how important it is for them to be able to have this relationship, to have the supports around them to bring their best selves when they are in a classroom. And so when we talk about compensation, absolutely this is front and center. We no longer are interested in repeating errors of the past where we ask the field to step up in terms of getting their educational requirements without also having compensation on the table. This is both and, right? This is not something that we are not going to advocate for and I will reiterate because of the fact that Power to the Profession is not just an initiative that NAACC is a part of. This is also in collaboration with 14 other national organizations that represent other sectors of the early childhood fields collectively saying this is where we stand and this is what this means. And so it has been about compensation and will continue to be a compensation. And I think for us really when you think about a system out of the field that has been historically and systemically this invested in, there is this notion that we just want just enough, right? So we say yes, a minimum wage is a starting point but these are individuals that are literally shaping and building the next generation. And so that is a baseline but it is not the end. And so we're talking about compensation parity, right? At least for the child, early childhood educators that work with Infinite and Tollers that 2 million plus workforce that works with children zero to five, it's they are getting compensated and rumoration is comparable to what is happening in the K3 space because the work is the same in terms of the impact that it's having on the lives of young children regardless of the setting, right? And so at the end of the day it really is that push and we recently saw a report that was released by the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine Transforming Financing of Early Care and Education that said they gave a number so what does it mean to fully fund this system? 140 billion dollars. What we are currently investing in early childhood education about 25 billion. But guess what? The early childhood system as a field is creating and generating for this nation 163 billion dollars. 163 billion dollars. And so that means that this is an investment that pays for itself that is worth it and so if it is generating so much revenue right for this country I think it's about time that we also start investing in the workforce that is doing it. I would just build off what you're saying with talking about some of what we heard from the practitioners in our focus groups. I don't think policymakers often realize just how low compensation is and how different it is. So with our focus groups with home-based providers in Milwaukee many of them do not have any benefits and when they learned that other home-based providers some of them had benefits like retirement and health insurance they were shocked. They didn't realize that was even an option for them. If you think about what that means for someone someone who's nearing retirement age that they have not had retirement throughout their lives and we are depending on them and leaning on them to do this really important job that's just not okay. And I would just also say if you think about the effects of compensation and the stress that people go through trying to make ends meet we have all the science we need that children need warm responsive stress-free caregivers that is part of brain science and if someone is desperately trying to make ends meet and doesn't have the compensation to be you know to have healthy mental health and rest and physical health then that we know is affecting brain development so there is no excuse now for not raising compensation. One thing I think about is the extent to which families are aware of the low wages of child care workers and how it affects them. I think most families feel under water when it comes to child care costs because they continue to rise and so the extent to which you could have some kind of public awareness campaign that actually explains how the system would be financed at the rate that it needs to be financed and that it's not going to incur a large cost on families because I think what was interesting to me as an observer here in DC is the fact that families are leading a lawsuit against these regulations because they're like I already pay so much and what is this going to mean for me and I think at the bottom end like the teachers and the families are partners in this and so we need to do just as much to make sure that families understand what this really means and why it's important for the people educators who are working with their children to have these credentials and skills. Absolutely I would absolutely agree with that and what we often say is that financing the system cannot happen on the shoulders of a workforce that is already making such low compensation and on the backs of families that are already paying such incredibly high amounts for child care right. This is a public financing system. This is a public good. We know that high quality early childhood education pays for itself because of the return on investment really when we're talking about disrupting the school to prison pipeline where we're talking about high reading rates for young children when we're talking about breaking cycles of poverty right. These are all things that we know have had a positive correlation with high quality early care and education and so if we know this and we recognize that as a society we are benefiting from this kind of a system then it's time for us to also invest collectively in the system right and so that's why we're really pushing for this to be a public good that is financed through public dollars and that there is a mechanism through the budget process and through the federal government to be able to finance this and again placing compensation for the educators as front and center in that investment. Right. We're going to get transition to questions soon but one last question for the panelists. A lot of you mentioned systems change and a lot of your responses. How do we get to systems change? I mean there are a lot of mindsets that need to shift. A lot of people need the space and time to be at the table particularly practitioners. How do we get get there and I know that that some of you have thought about this. I mean Lucy do you want to go first with them. Absolutely. Honestly this is a complex problem that doesn't have a simple solution. Right. At the end of the day this is really trying to address this from all angles. Oftentimes what we are trying to create is a sense of belonging for the educators to be part of these conversations just like they create a sense of belonging for the children in their classrooms. We are also creating a sense of belonging as you have a space and a place here to be part of these conversations. And that collective ownership I think is instrumental in terms of how we create the spaces for educators to be front and center of these policy conversations. Danny mentioned that his program director is someone who's passion for this work is contagious. I've had the pleasure of meeting Maria Isabel and working with her and it's absolutely true. It is contagious. It also means that she is able to then infect that same level of energy to those around her right. This is about also movement building while you're trying to disrupt these systems. And in many ways that's the work that we are continuously doing. That's why it was so important for us to partner with Ed Trust and other partners across the country to elevate these voices so that individuals also know you are part of something larger because this is a field that oftentimes in a profession that feels deeply isolating. And so for me to hear from an educator in San Francisco another one in Florida someone in the Bronx in New York City which is my hometown you guys are talking about this? Someone is actually discussing compensation. It energizes them in a very different kind of way than just saying oh we're here to hear your thoughts right. It really is creating the sense of belonging to really place this in a different kind of context and it's larger than just this immediate conversation over the course of the last years since 2016. Nacey has been really invested in doing electoral advocacy. Right. What does it mean for you to have politicians that understand the deep value of this work in a way that is nonpartisan and we are a 501c3 so we do not endorse candidates but just that every person who is running for office should have a platform on what this means right on how they're planning to invest on how they're planning to support this. So that also is a way to change the system for educators who are trusted individuals in their communities to have conversations with their families and say it's important for you to register to vote. It's important for you to go out and vote right so that they're also able to exert and be able to use their voices through their votes right so that they're able to exercise that agency through the ballots. So it's multi-faceted multi-layered deep profounds at all levels but we're really thinking about it in that way and I know that partners as well are thinking in and approaching it in the same way. All right. So do we have any questions in the audience? I'll wait for the mic. I'm Karola Oliva Olson I'm an associate professor at California State University, Channel Islands and I wanted to actually share that California Department of Education has recently funded professional development for the ECE workforce for 18 months and hopefully continuing where it's all what we're doing is all focused on dual language learning it's for teachers teacher assistants coaches administrators or online tuition is paid for they get a stipend of $600 if they have excellent participation it's progressive it's both online so it's for statewide with communities of practice where they have to implement not only learn and understand new concepts but actually implement with their administrators so that it's a system and it's we're looking at sustainability but also making the teachers and teachers assistants in collaboration feeling that they own the practice so building professionalism and those who do take the courses in Spanish get a badge of biliteracy they're part of a pilot we're a California state of biliteracy for high school students so this is there are a lot of different examples where we have foundations and state departments that have listened and are beginning to do the kind of work that you're talking about great so thank you thank you so much for sharing that and that's something that I definitely want to elevate we know that states are at different points in terms of this trajectory and it's also very powerful for us to hear that with the right kind of pressure as we heard from Amaya in terms of how higher education is able to respond there is a capacity for the system itself to change and it's valuable to also see how that is being what kind of an impact that has right that you're also thinking about if we make this investment to the question that was made earlier how is it being utilized how is it being implemented and what kind of an effect is it having on the practice but also on the livelihood of the educators so thank you so much for sharing that good morning my name is Maurice Sykes and I am with the early childhood leadership institute and there are a couple of things questions and comments but I do the panel began with the unintended consequences of public policy but I think we have all public policy has unintended consequences because it's a compromise at best and so as we think about public policy we have to think about areas of leverage I would certainly add to the discussion that when the pre-K expansion act of 2008 was enacted in DC we made sure that there was money that's still there in perpetuity for people to get their degrees AA, BA rather in a community base center school based charter or traditional public school we pay tuition books and fees for all students the compensation issue was a part of that but if the advocates don't make sure that the legislation is appropriately implemented as so it's sort of to the side so this new requirement is something that is interesting two other things I want to make a point of it's interesting that women of color are overrepresented in the field because that was not always the case and it's interesting that as salaries get depressed who steps into those roles because many people traditionally who worked in this have moved on to other careers and finally I think it's important that we consider positioning we talk a lot about the science a brain development but I think we should consider high quality early childhood programs as a part of our issues related to national security and I we have to position it in the public policy arena where people will respond and to age and date myself I earned my master's degree under the National Educational Defense Emergency Act because there was an absence of teachers and teachers of color in particular in math science and early childhood education so I think part of our public policy is to position our stance in something that people can really embrace thank you Maurice thanks so much for both of these panels I'm Ellen I work at trust for learning the kind of false choice framing I find really valuable and inspiring and we got to this kind of additional layer of false choice around working families affordable child care so I would just love to hear you all talk a little bit more about that and how we kind of approach and frame fully that none of these have to be false choices we have the money right well I'll start sort of tangentially by saying that one of the things that we've heard from practitioners is that you know they have children themselves and if they cannot afford to attend the center in which they work or if they attend their own home based early childhood education center then that right there is a perfect intersection of those two issues we're relying on people who often have families a lot of the people we talk to started in this field because they were already taking care of their own children child care was a challenge for them and so they found that this was a relatively more logistically I don't even want to say easy but you know relatively easier path to take to continue to care for their own children and care for others as well so right there is an intersection of those two I would also say to Maurice's point about how do we make sure that different audiences are gravitating to what will most resonate with them right families are the ones who are carrying that burden the most and so really building the partnership with families to be the ones to have the conversations with elected officials with policymakers about how taxing and how stressful it is to have to constantly make these choices between do I pay for child care or do I invest that money in something else that is also equally important we see oftentimes going back to our public policy forum we had parents that came to support their educators and to lend their voice in having conversations with elected officials about the fact that it is so that affordability of child care is such a concern right we often say that we need all of the different voices that are impacted by the child care crisis that we are currently experiencing to be able to speak up and speak out and capitalizing on the ability of parents many of them who are working parents right who are able to say if I don't have reliable child care that means I am missing out on being able to contribute to this economy and also then what does that mean for the overall health of our country and so I think that capitalizing again on that partnership that is already existing between the early childhood profession and also the families to nurture also their advocacy skills and their ability to be able to have these discussions also counteracts the fact that parents want early childhood educators to get paid more we have market research that shows this they just don't want to be the ones that have to be able to cost that and so going back to this needs to be a public service right this needs to be a public investment because it's a public good I would just quickly add to that that a really good time to approach policymakers about this is when they have children suddenly this is a very real issue to them or even grandchildren and they're like oh I never thought of this and often they're much more privileged and they're still having a very hard time in DC finding affordable child care so that's a very good time to strike question great I'm Robin Hickey sorry Robin Hickey's school biz match we do school partnerships how close are you all to the public school systems in your in your communities yes Nacey we are the professional membership organization for all those who work with care for young children birth to age eight and so that for us implies then the K3 space we have a significant partnership with individuals who are in the public school setting we have a great working relationship with school superintendents and their early learning cohort who are thinking about how do they create more seamless avenues of support for children who are transitioning from child care into the K3 world right I think now there's a higher understanding that these are still the same children that you will eventually see and so it's important that you're starting to build that connection with the child's care community and I think legislation like the Every Student Succeeds Act really makes that even more formal because there is language within the act itself that requires principles to think about shared professional development with the child's care providers who are in their communities and also the educators themselves so we know that it's a challenge sometimes finding shared language that will resonate with both the child's care and the K3 space but it's continuous to our work because we understand that the early learning continuum is from birth to age eight Oh at the Education Trust we have deep connections to the public school system where traditionally we have worked in K through 12 we are now this is the beginning of a lot of work we're going to do in early childhood and we work with advocates on the ground many of whom are education advocates parent advocacy groups civil rights advocacy groups we support them in coming together and advocating in the public education system so we are excited to bring that momentum and that energy and help them focus on early childhood to see that long-term spectrum these are for the same children going through the system so that's something that's really important to us great and we're we're out of time now so I'd like us to thank all of our panelists for joining us today