LOS ANGELES — February 7, 2023 — Los Angeles County is facing an infant/toddler educator workforce crisis resulting in educational inequities. The Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is taking on the problem with a new, equity-centered early childhood workforce development program, Ready2Teach.
For at-promise children, early childhood education changes outcomes. Research shows that high-quality early childhood education can prevent academic achievement gaps, while a lack of access leaves children unprepared for kindergarten and less likely to graduate from high school.
Yet there is a shortage of qualified teachers and space for infants and toddlers in family childcare homes and early childhood care centers, especially in low-income areas. LAEP’s Ready2Teach program aims to address the shortage in two ways.
First, it will reduce barriers to entry to the early childhood workforce. Participants in the one-year pre-apprenticeship program will take college coursework, participate in paid internships and receive wrap-around supports like laptop loans and transportation vouchers. At the end of the year, they will have an early childhood teaching permit.
Second, LAEP’s Ready2Teach will support partner family childcare homes and early childcare centers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 10,000 California childcare programs closed, and many early childcare educators have left the field. Ready2Teach will provide partners with interns and business coaching to ensure their model is sustainable and their workforce is supported.
“Early childhood educators are critical, but they are often undervalued,” said Michele Broadnax, LAEP president and CEO. “We look forward to supporting the early childhood workforce to create stronger opportunities for jobs in our community as well as to ensure that high quality early childhood educators are entering the workforce quickly. Our youngest learners cannot wait any longer.”
The three-year Ready2Teach pilot program is made possible by a $3M grant from lead funder Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and additional funding from the Tikun Olam Foundation.
LAEP will gather data on the effectiveness of this program approach to share with the broader early education field and inform best practices.
LAEP has a long history in early childhood education in Los Angeles County, including a home-visitation-based school readiness initiative in the northeast San Fernando Valley launched in 1997. Now, the organization provides Early Head Start services for families under the age of three in Hawthorne, Inglewood and South LA. LAEP is also the Northeast Valley Best Start Community manager, facilitating capacity-building and outreach for young children and their families. LAEP’s CORE (Cultivating Organizational Resilience & Empowerment) program coaches educators at all levels, including early childhood educators, to promote equity- and wellness-centered learning environments. All of this programming will be leveraged for Ready2Teach.
About Los Angeles Education Partnership
Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is a nonprofit organization that advances educational equity. Together with families, schools and the community, LAEP facilitates access to and opportunities for quality educational and wellness practices so that children thrive from diapers to diplomas. Founded in 1984, LAEP was the first nonprofit in Los Angeles to focus exclusively on educational equity and among those at the forefront of the educational transformation movement nationwide.