Teacher Credentialing in Early Care and Education: Prospects for Universal Preschool in California, and Lessons from Other States

This report examines the impact on the early care and education workforce engendered by California’s movement towards universal preschool in 2004. At this critical time the attention of policy makers and program planners turned increasingly toward how to ensure a well-trained, stable, and linguistically and culturally diverse teaching workforce to staff high quality preschool programs. This report discusses the appropriate education and training standards for preschool teachers, the capacity of higher education institutions in the state to meet the growing demand for B.A. trained early childhood educators, and reports on the experiences of other states