SVP Dives Into the Early Childhood Workforce Gap
When considering the issue of early childhood education, we know that there are three big roadblocks to universal preschool: lack of facilities, lack of spots available, and the workforce gap. While we’ve spent a lot of time and resources over the years addressing the lack of facilities and lack of spots, we had yet to dive into the workforce gap problem until recently.
Understanding the workforce gap and creating a plan around addressing this problem is a priority identified through our recent strategic planning process. Before jumping to solutions, we conducted a landscape analysis in order to first understand what the main problems are, who’s doing what, where the gaps are, and what could SVP be doing to potentially address some of these gaps.
Tiffany Hsieh, an SVP Partner, took on this task. She spoke with a number of organizations, including Multnomah County Preschool for All, Washington County CCR&R (Community Action), Clackamas Community College Early Childhood Learning Department, Kairos PDX, Worksystems, and Wonderschool.
Our research clarified the scale to which the supply of childcare is not keeping up with demand: Both Multnomah and Washington Counties are considered childcare deserts for children 0-2; for 3-5 year olds, only half of children have access to childcare. This is largely due to insufficient early childhood educators. We now understand the actual rate of turnover, and approximate year-over-year increase in teachers needed in Multnomah and Washington Counties. Additionally, this research identified the pain points around the workforce:
Individuals struggle with low wages & benefits, and cost & time of certification,
Providers find it difficult to provide competitive pay and benefits, find qualified staff (especially those reflective of the student population), and recruit new teachers.
We also identified best practices for addressing these challenges in order to strengthen our early childhood workforce: attract, prepare, support, and retain, as well as specific actions for implementing each of these. Finally, we mapped key players doing work in each of these areas, as well as critical gaps, by county.
As Tiffany put it, "Conducting this landscape scan has been helpful to have a centralized resource for SVP Partners (including myself) to orient ourselves to all the stakeholders and work being done around expanding the early childhood workforce in Multnomah and Washington Counties and identify where SVP can play a unique role. Finding ways to get more early childhood educators into classrooms is such a central component to accomplishing our goal of expanding equitable access to early childhood education for all kids. One of the key takeaways for me from this study is the need to invest in more early childhood educator training programs, and to invest in organizations that can provide supportive solutions (e.g., career coaching, teacher recruitment, pooled cost models) that build on the great work being done already in the region."
Tiffany presented these findings to the Portfolio Management Team last month. They’re currently determining implications of these findings in order to inform SVP’s priorities and roles for addressing the early childhood workforce gap moving forward. We’re also planning to deliver additional presentations to key stakeholders, including Children’s Institute and Business Oregon, in order to gain further insights, brainstorm solutions and coordinate efforts amongst leaders in the space. Based on stakeholder feedback, SVP will plan next steps to address these findings. If you or someone you know is interested in collaborating in this effort, contact Carolina at carolina@svpportland.org.
We are tremendously grateful for Tiffany’s work on this research and analysis. When asked about the engagement, Tiffany shared: "My experience in being an SVP Partner has been incredibly rewarding. I feel grateful to be able to bring my professional experiences in the workforce development space to this important topic, which is top of mind for me as the parent to an almost three year old. On top of that, working with the other Partners and staff members has been a very collaborative and supportive experience!"
