“Are our preschool teachers worth more than they were two months ago?”

Assistant Professor Andres Bustamante and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek (Temple University) have published an article in the Brookings Institute Education Blog.

The title of their article is “Are our preschool teachers worth more than they were two months ago?” 

Bustamante and Hirsh-Pasek assert that current shelter-in-place experiences underscore how important it is to recruit and retain high quality early childhood educators. 

"Providing high-quality care requires excellent educators who are well versed in child development, early childhood teaching and learning practices, and have a bachelor’s degree or a specialized certification in early childhood," Bustamante and Hirsh-Pasek write. "We must compensate them in a way that signals the respect and gratitude we feel for how they nurture and cultivate the future citizens of our society."

Bustamante researches early childhood science education, Head Start, approaches to learning, and community-based intervention​. He is director of the The Social, inTegrated, Engaged, & Meaningful (STEM) Learning Lab, which explores STEM learning opportunities in the places children and families spend time. Recent projects include a basketball court painted to emphasize fraction and decimal learning, a life-size board game for math and science learning, and a science professional development program for early childhood classrooms.

Hirsh-Pasek is the Stanley and Debra Lefkowitz Faculty Fellow in the Department of Psychology at Temple University and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Her research examines the development of early language and literacy as well as the role of play in learning.