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Staff Shortages Continue as Primary Challenge Facing our Field

July/August 2008
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Article Link: http://www.exchangepress.com/article/staff-shortages-continue-as-primary-challenge-facing-our-field/5018257/

On our web site, www.ChildCareExchange.com, we periodically survey early childhood professionals on the threats confronting their organizations in the Exchange Insta-Poll. A comparison of the results of these surveys in 2008 and 2004, offers these findings:

• “Shortages of qualified teachers” continues to be the largest challenge facing our field. In both 2004 and 2008 nearly two-thirds of respondents rated this as a major threat.

• The “State of the economy” continues to be the second most common threat with nearly half of the respondents in both surveys citing this.

• “Competition from the public schools” is increasing as a threat, ending up as the third most serious threat this year as compared with #6 in 2004.

• “Pressure from parents to teach more academics” and “lack of work ethic of recent hires” continue to be high concerns in our field.

New threats, high on the list, include “Staff turnover,” “Children with challenging behavior,” “Move to require teachers to have a BA,” and “Lack of subsidies for middle class parents with kids.”



Threats to your Organization

2004 Rank 2008 Rank

Shortages of qualified teachers 1 1
State of the economy 2 2
Competition from Pre-K in public schools 6 5 3
Staff turnover NA 4
Pressure from parents to teach more academics 5 5
Decreases in public subsidies 3 6 6
Lack of ...

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