Dr. Marcy Whitebook is the Director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at U.C. Berkeley. LillianMongeau/EdSource Today

Marcy Whitebook, the director of the Middle for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley. (Photo: Lillian Mongeau/EdSource Today)

Dr. Marcy Whitebook has been part of the early educational activity world since the early on 1970s, when she graduated college and went to piece of work every bit a preschool teacher. Today she's the manager of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley. Every bit function of a new, occasional Question and Answer series with leaders in California instruction, EdSource Today's Lillian Mongeau sat downwards with Whitebook in her office in Jan.

The chat delved into several bug, merely dwelt on the current fence over how much training and educational activity should be required for preschool teachers. About early on educational activity classrooms have a "classroom teacher" or "lead teacher" also every bit one or more "assistant teachers." Right now, the merely requirement for pb teachers is that they have a document, called a Child Evolution Acquaintance, that requires a few semesters of coursework and some feel in the classroom. Head Offset has been pushing for more than of its lead teachers to earn a bachelor's degree and, every bit we reported, that push button has gained traction in California. At that place is not much give-and-take about requiring available's degrees for banana teachers, though many of them pursue the degree in social club to move up and become a atomic number 82 teacher.

Separate from the bachelor's caste question is the event of having a teaching credential that requires extra schooling and student teaching. This is required for 1000-12 teachers, but is not currently mandatory at the preschool level. Some early childhood educators call up such a credential – for teachers of preschool through third class – should be required.

Hither are the highlights of Whitebook's conversation with united states:

EdSource: What do you remember are the biggest issues in California right now for early childhood pedagogy?

Marcy Whitebook: The one very big effect in California right now is that we've lost services for nearly 100,000 children over the final few years considering of cutbacks. And then we know that in that location are a lot of families out there who qualify for subsidies and aren't getting them. There are a lot of families struggling to pay for childcare and we know that people working in childcare are working with reduced budgets and limited resource. This all contributes to whether or not we tin have the kind of organisation nosotros want.

EdSource: There's been a lot of talk recently in California and elsewhere about a credential for teachers who teach preschool through tertiary course. Do you lot think there should be a credential for that historic period grouping?

Whitebook_disjuncture Whitebook: I actually accept a California credential for teaching preschool through third grade, which was something we did in California for many years. It was discontinued in the late 1970s, which gives y'all a little sense of how long I've been doing this. And I'one thousand not saying that every single person who is teaching or working with immature children needs that credential, but that option should be there, that we have a role articulated with a clear sense of the expectations for people who are working in preschool and early-elementary classrooms.

We tend to dissever and think of 0- to v-year-olds and then think of kindergarten through third grade, although evolution would say information technology's a continuum from birth through age eight. I remember it would be very helpful if we thought of preschool as a continuum into early-unproblematic … instead of a disjuncture.

EdSource: Within the credential, what are some of the things that would be really helpful to know that you might get in a pre-Thou to third grade credential that y'all don't go far a generalized elementary credential?

Whitebook: I recall in that location'southward sort of this notion that academics start in elementary school and in early-childhood, kids play. I would question that to say, "Well, actually children learn through play."

And play doesn't cease at 5. You don't want to sit 6- and 7-twelvemonth-olds downward with picayune things where they're just filling out workbooks.

Whitebook_understanding But, in fact, mathematical agreement and understanding the building blocks for literacy – all those things start long before kids go to kindergarten. So people need to sympathize what early literacy or pre-literacy and early-mathematical understanding look similar and what are dissimilar means y'all can facilitate that kind of learning with children as they progress across that chronological age span.

In California, nosotros have a new program chosen "transitional kindergarten," which is for iv-year-olds. If I'm didactics transitional kindergarten, and I've been working with vii- and 8- or possibly x- or 11-year-olds, I need to brand sure I understand what'south appropriate learning and expectations for children who are 4 years erstwhile and how do you lot facilitate that learning that is going to be meaningful and helpful to that child.

EdSource: As transitional kindergarten rolls out in California, is there any training that you remember is needed for the teachers who are taking on total-time TK classrooms?

Whitebook: I call back role of it depends on what their groundwork was to brainstorm with considering I don't know how many of them will already have some kind of specific early-babyhood grooming. Simply I do think that if they haven't had specific early-childhood training, it would be good. The programs are going to be meliorate if they empathize what are advisable expectations for four-year-olds in terms of their relationships with each other and their human relationship to the instructor.

I disagree with the idea that you tin can but take a teacher who has been didactics 3rd course, or even 2nd grade, and just popular 'em into a preschool and say, "Okay, go! Get ready, set, go!"

Preschool isn't similar starting time class with small-scale[er kids]. Preschool is a different stage in children'south development and so you desire to make sure that you can grapple with the same areas of learning, simply you accept to brand sure you're doing information technology in an appropriate fashion for younger children.

EdSource: Practice yous think that there should be a four-year caste required for early on-childhood educators and what should that degree consist of?

W hitebook: I recall that'south the wrong question. I remember the correct question is: "What is information technology that people who are working with young children need to know and be able to exercise to facilitate children's learning? And what are the different roles?"

Whitebook_underpaid You have to recall early childhood is a much more collaborative teaching experience than 1000-12 educational activity considering in that location's more than than ane teacher in a classroom considering of the age of the children.

Yeah, I do call up in that location should be a four-twelvemonth degree. There should be teachers who have gone to college who are working with young children and I think there should be more of them. I think that we really wouldn't ask that question of teachers of any other age grouping. You wouldn't say whether y'all recall a kindergarten teacher needs a college caste. Everybody would go, "Of course."

Is college the only mode to set up people? No.

Is it sufficient? No.

We don't retrieve that higher pedagogy is sufficient for K-12 teachers, either. That's why nosotros accept mentor teachers. That's why we do student pedagogy. We take ongoing professional development.

I think, when we ask that question about the degree, we kind of shut the conversation downwardly, because everybody starts thinking about, "Well, can we afford it?"

If you lot desire to heighten the expectations and the qualifications for people working with immature children and you want people who are currently doing that work to keep to do that work, and so y'all need to think, "What other kind of supports [do] I demand to have in identify then people tin can access the instruction they need, succeed at it and actually meet those new standards?"

Only that single question ends up masking a lot of other worries and concerns people have, including the issue of compensation, and I would but say that people know that Thou-12 teachers are underpaid. You haven't seen anything until you see how the early-childhood teachers are underpaid. And so I think we actually practice demand to be thinking about non just teaching for early-childhood teachers, simply rewarding piece of work environments where their well-beingness is taken care of, that they tin beget to feed their families, feed themselves, have ill days, actually have a moment in the day where they can talk with the other teachers they're working with and on and on so that they can actually apply what they're learning and get better at what they exercise.

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