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News / Northwest

WA needs more early childhood educators. But the pay is a problem

By Jenn Smith, The Seattle Times
Published: January 12, 2025, 5:53am

SEATTLE — Each weekday morning, Savannah Stewart commutes to her classroom on the University of Washington campus.

While Stewart has a master’s degree from UW, she doesn’t work with college students in a lecture hall or lab. She’s a head preschool teacher in the Penguin Room at the university’s Experimental Education Unit at the Haring Center for Inclusive Education.

It’s a rigorous role that requires extensive movement, years of training, months of planning and an infinite reservoir of patience.

On any given day, Stewart and her assistant teachers could have academic specialists, graduate students and volunteers visiting the classroom. There could be a trip to the bookmobile or a fire drill. Stewart delegates bus, dish and toilet duties in addition to planning how to incorporate literacy, math and science into movement, songs, games and play.

All for less pay than other educators.

While early childhood educators in the state have seen wage increases in recent years, data from 2022 showed that those with bachelor’s degrees earn substantially less than their colleagues in the K-8 system, according to the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. The median hourly wage for a Washington state preschool teacher was $16.15, which is less than the state’s new minimum wage. That’s compared with $39.23 for an elementary school teacher.

Washington is in need of more early childhood educators. But 45% of early educator households in the state participate in one or more public assistance programs.

“We are not the best-paid and it’s hard,” Stewart said. “It’s hard for people who maybe do care about it and would love to be in a field like this, but the reality is that they may not be able to live well. Especially in a city like Seattle. It’s really expensive.”

Advancing early childhood

Preschool instruction and early childhood education, in general, have changed dramatically due to an evolving body of research on early childhood development and academic, social and economic outcomes. Experts and educators alike have perpetually argued it is not babysitting.

While playful, preschool is a critical stage in a child’s life. The early childhood educators who guide them play a pivotal role in shaping their journey.

The daily bustle inside the Experimental Education Unit, which also houses research scholars and helps educators throughout the Puget Sound region refine their teaching skills, provides insight into early childhood education’s promise and problems.

Stewart has spent the past decade there. After working in various child care programs, she went back to school at UW to get her master’s degree in early childhood education, working her way up from assistant teacher to a head preschool teacher role.

Early childhood educators actively plan curricula, conduct assessments and talk with families. They also monitor language development, pattern recognition and the social skills children will need to learn and cooperate in kindergarten.

During a recent class, she crouched at a kid-sized table with five students, coaching a tearful child to a calmer state while encouraging the other four to match tiles to images on a bilingual bingo board.

“Being a preschool teacher is hard on your body,” Stewart said. “You’re on the floor. You’re up and down. … You’re just using your body a lot, sometimes having to pick kids up. … You kind of don’t stop moving during your day.”

A matrix of learning

As an inclusive education center, the EEU uses individualized practices to teach children with differing abilities.

In head preschool teacher Seth Essmeier’s Turtle Room, a wall arrangement stands out amid the bins of Lego blocks, piles of coloring pages and tot-sized chairs. It’s a matrix of sticky notes outlining expectations for the day’s routines.

The neon pink notes prompt staff to remind the children to take turns when asking questions, wash hands and take the “just right” amount during family-style meals. They instruct how to “slide down feet first” and keep each other’s bodies safe when using the outdoor play equipment. And to keep your voice quieter than the gentle music that plays during rest time.

Nearby, another matrix reminds staff that some children may need extra support: verbal reminders to help them better transition into the next activity, access to a fidget toy or animal to help them self-soothe, and noise-canceling headphones for children who can become overstimulated by the classroom cacophony.

After volunteering at his own children’s cooperative preschool 14 years ago, Essmeier earned an early childhood bachelor of applied science degree from North Seattle College and a master’s in early childhood special education from UW.

Less than 5% of early childhood educators are men. Essmeier said issues like viewing child care and early education as a less noble profession might deter candidates. But pay is still a top problem.

“It would be next to impossible to work anywhere for a minimum wage while also pursuing a graduate degree without financial assistance,” he said.

While volunteering and training as a graduate student assistant, he realized “You’re not just teaching to a group, you’re also very much needing to focus on what type of supports the individual needs, regardless of their abilities.”

The universal approach to reaching children is to adopt a play-based method and incorporate a child’s interests, he said.

“I’m basically kind of sneaking in learning while we’re just having a good time. I don’t know about you as a learner, but I had the most fun and learned the most when my mind was open to having a good time,” he said.

“A chance to be heard”

Tyiona Destiny Watkins entered her first year as head teacher of the Elephant Room this fall focused on families. A former UW women’s basketball player, she pivoted majors, from psychology to education, after engaging with young fans.

Watkins, who goes by “Teacher T” in the classroom, sends photos to families every day to show them how their children are doing and what they’re learning. During drop-off and pickup times, she checks on families’ well-being, too.

In preschool, some kids come from informal care settings or part-time day care and the transition to a full-day program can be challenging. For families, learning about early childhood structures and curricula can be a learning curve, too.

“We’ve got a lot of moving parts,” she said, “and I think with families it’s about giving them a chance to be heard and for me to say, ‘I understand you. I hear you. How can I support you?’ “

Watkins and Savannah Stewart, the Penguin Room head teacher, both described negative experiences some families have early on in early childhood programs, such as their children being disciplined or kicked out for behavioral issues.

“I get them in my class … and they’re 4 years old and already have this negative view of school. That’s so sad,” Stewart said. “So if I can just make school be a place that they want to be, that feels like their place, I feel very, very happy about that.”

Haring Center Director Kathleen Artman Meeker said that while playing a critical role in a child’s life is a strong recruitment pitch for early childhood workers, “getting the pay increase for it and the recognition for it” is needed to slow the profession’s attrition.

Over the past decade, Washington’s early childhood worker turnover rate has been cited as high as 43%, as pay remains low and burnout is prevalent.

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The demand for highly skilled early childhood educators is projected to increase as Washington plans to open more public preschool slots over the next decade.

While early childhood credentialing, training and scholarship opportunities have become more abundant, Artman Meeker said it’s also important to show early childhood workers where opportunities to advance exist and “can lead to the next thing.”

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