Funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families, this project sought to build knowledge about what drives workforce turnover in the child care and early education (CCEE) field and to evaluate promising strategies to support recruitment and retention of a qualified CCEE workforce. MEF served as a subcontractor to MDRC and played a central role across multiple components of the project.
Knowledge Review Series
The Knowledge Review Series documented factors contributing to high turnover in the CCEE workforce, an issue driven by low wages, challenging working conditions, and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The series synthesized evidence from a review of the literature, an environmental scan of existing recruitment and retention strategies, and an assessment of available data sources. It also introduced a conceptual framework describing workforce dynamics, including entry, recruitment, retention, and advancement. Findings were presented across five research briefs. MEF supported this work by leading partner engagement and co-writing a brief that summarizes strategies for influencing CCEE recruitment and retention.
Theory of Change Series
The Theory of Change Series presented theories of change and related research for two workforce development strategies: wage supplements and scholarships. This series was informed by a literature review and an environmental scan and were refined through additional follow-up interviews with leaders from agencies implementing various workforce development strategies. MEF supported this series by leading the wage supplements brief.
Evaluation of the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program (CCCAP) Teacher Salary Increase Pilot
The project team evaluated the CCCAP Teacher Salary Increase Pilot, developed by the Colorado Department of Early Childhood to address low pay and high turnover among lead and assistant teachers in center-based child care settings. The evaluation included an implementation study, impact study, and cost study.
MEF led the implementation study, which examined aspects of pilot program implementation—participant reach and engagement, system and infrastructure, and context—as well as the perceptions and experiences of participating directors, teachers, and program implementers.
Key findings from the implementation study suggest the following:
- The pilot program application and payment processes generally worked well and were easy to navigate.
- Directors and teachers were excited about participating.
- Program implementation was facilitated by several factors: (1) strong collaboration between State and external partners, particularly during the pilot program’s design phase; (2) a simple program design that included a clear scale for the salary increase amounts across centers and teacher roles; and (3) direct communication from CDEC to centers during the application process.
- The long-term sustainability of the salary increase, given the pilot program’s temporary nature and ongoing funding constraints, was a key concern of directors and teachers.
- Pilot program implementers described data and quality assurance challenges. For example, the vendor’s existing database was not built to support a program that disbursed funds monthly and calculated funds at the teacher level. This issue required work-arounds to collect data outside of the vendor’s system and manually enter data.
- Many directors noted pay parity concerns about increasing pay for teachers but not for staff members in other roles, such as administrative staff members, floaters, or substitutes.
More detailed findings from the full study are available within the evaluation report.