Abstract
Staff education is considered key to quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs. However, findings about associations between staff education and children’s outcomes have been inconsistent. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of associations between ECEC staff education and child outcomes. Searches of Medline, PsycINFO, and ERIC, websites of large datasets and reference sections of all retrieved articles were conducted. Eligible studies provided a statistical link between staff education and child outcomes for preschool-aged children in ECEC programs. Titles, abstracts and paper reviews as well as all data extraction were conducted by two independent raters. Of the 823 studies reviewed for eligibility, 39 met our inclusion criteria. Research in this area is observational in nature and subject to the inherent biases of that research design. Results from our systematic review were hampered by heterogeneity in how staff education was defined, variability in whose education was measured and the child outcomes that were assessed. However, overall the qualitative summary indicates that associations between staff education and childhood outcomes are non-existent to very borderline positive. In our meta-analysis of more homogeneous studies we identified certain positive, albeit very weak, associations between staff education and children’s language outcomes (specifically, vocabulary and letter word identification) and no significant association with a mathematics outcome (WJ Applied Problems). Thus, our findings suggest that within the range of education levels found in the existing literature, education is not a key driver of child outcomes. However, since we only explored levels of education that were reported in the literature, our findings cannot be used to argue for lowering education standards in ECEC settings.
Highlights
Over 60% of children under age six regularly attend some type of out-of-home child care program in the USA [1,2,3]]
The finding that staff education is associated only with language outcomes may reflect recent emphasis on language in literacy in early childhood education and care (ECEC) staff training programs or it may reflect the predispositions of the individuals who are drawn to careers in ECEC settings, who may be more oriented towards language than math
Results from our systematic review were hampered by heterogeneity in the definition of staff education, variability in whether all or only some staff’s education was measured, as well as variability in the child outcomes that were collected
Summary
Over 60% of children under age six regularly attend some type of out-of-home child care program in the USA [1,2,3]]. Exposure to early childhood education and care (ECEC) is thought to positively influence children’s pre-academic skills including improvements in cognitive, language and social/emotional abilities [4] exposure to ECEC programs can reduce gaps in academic performance caused by social inequalities [5], as exposure to high quality environments has been shown to be most beneficial for children who come from at-risk backgrounds. Research findings suggest that these benefits are only realized when quality of care is good [6]. Others have shown links between the quality of care and positive social outcomes for children [8,9]. High ECEC utilization rates and the frequently inadequate quality of programs have raised questions about which aspects of ECEC programs are important to child outcomes
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