By a Thread How Child Care Centers Hold on to Teachers, How Teachers Build Lasting Careers Book

	Acknowledgments	ix
Part I	Staff Departures and Center Quality
1	An Overview of the U.S. Child Care Industry	1
	A Growing Demand	1
	A Growing Industry	2
	An Expanding and Diverse Workforce	4
	An Imperfect Market	7
2	Here Today, Gone Tomorrow	11
	The Consequences of high turnover for Child Care Centers	13
	A Profile of Centers in Our Sample	15
	The Dimensions of Job Turnover in Child Care Centers	18
	Center Characteristics Associated with High Turnover	21
	Changes in Professional Preparation of Teaching and Administrative Staff, 1994-2000	27
	Summary	29
	Notes	31
3	The Role of Staffing in Improving and Sustaining Center Quality	33
	Improving Center Quality	34
	Achieving High-Quality Ratings	38
	Barriers to Improving Quality: Baseline Quality and Staff Stability	39
	Sustaining Quality: The Role of Teaching Staff Background and Stability	40
	Summary	43
	Notes	45
4	Turnover and the Quality of Child Care Services	47
	Turnover As a Challenge to Achieving and Maintaining High-Quality Care	47
	Turnover Begets Turnover	49
	A Shortage of Qualified Staff	50
	The Role of Wages	52
	Summary	53
Part II	The Experience of Child Care Employment
5	Who Leaves? Who Stays? Who Joins?	57
	Workforce Characteristics	59
	Professional and Demographic Characteristics of Leavers and Stayers	64
	Characteristics of Newcomers	65
	Where Do Directors and Teachers Go When They Leave?	67
	Summary	69
	Notes	71
6	Work and Family Issues as Factors in Career Decisions	73
	Profiles of Individual Career Decisions	73
	Summary	80
7	Rewards and Stresses of Child Care Work	83
	The Rewards of Working with Young Children	83
	Colleagues as a Source of Support or Stress	86
	Cultural and Linguistic Diversity as a Reward or Stress	90
	Invisibility of Professional Skills	93
	Teachers and Directors as Advocates for Professional Recognition	97
	Summary	98
8	Conclusions and Recommendations	101
	Conclusions	101
	Recommendations	107
Appendix	Study Design	111
	References	131
	Index	141
	About the Institute	145