BU WEPC Awarded Federal Grant for Partnership on Early Education Workforce
Boston University’s Wheelock Educational Policy Center (WEPC) has been awarded a planning grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, under the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agency Data and Research Capacity Grants program. This grant will support efforts to build research capacity and develop data-driven solutions to improve the recruitment, retention, and sustainability of the early education workforce in Massachusetts.
Dr. Pia Caronongan serves as PI on this grant and leads partnership efforts with the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care. Through this grant, the project team will support the assessment of existing administrative data, identify gaps in workforce information, and develop strategies to improve data collection on educator qualifications, working conditions, and workforce dynamics. This foundational work will be used to create a research plan for the next phase, ensuring that future policies and workforce strategies are data-driven and aligned with the needs of early educators.
“Robust administrative data supporting rigorous empirical analyses are a significant missing component in our current understanding of the early childhood workforce in Massachusetts.” said Jocelyn Bowne, Deputy Commissioner at the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care “By focusing on the collection and coordination of state administrative data, this project will offer opportunities and insights needed for large-scale innovations in Massachusetts.”
The early education workforce is the backbone of high-quality early childhood education, yet early educators remain among the lowest-paid professionals in the U.S. High turnover rates and a fragmented system of funding and standards have created significant barriers to building and sustaining a stable and well-supported workforce. This grant aligns with the state’s recent investments aimed at strengthening the ECE sector, such as the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) program, which provides non-competitive funding to child care programs to support operational costs and workforce development. The project will not only benefit Massachusetts but also contribute to national discussions on how state data systems can be improved to better support the ECE workforce. By identifying barriers to data collection and developing solutions to address them, this initiative will provide valuable insights for other states and localities working to strengthen their own early education workforces.
“The partnership we have formed between BU WEPC and EEC is unique, both in the scope of questions we can pursue and in the dedicated capacity embedded within our respective organizations to move urgently towards answers. Receiving this award is an important early signal about the potential of working together across government and higher education to address a critical need in our state.” said Meagan Comb, Executive Director of WEPC.
The Lead Agency Data and Research Capacity Grant grant begins October 2024 and will provide partial support for this partnership for 18 months, at which point the grantees will be eligible to apply for a second round of funding to support full execution of the research plan.
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