Study of Higher Education Articulation Agreements Covering the Early Care and Education Workforce

The purpose of this study is to identify elements that states have in place to enable successful articulation as early care and education (ECE) workers progress from an associate’s degree to a bachelor’s degree and describe states’ successes and challenges in implementing the elements. Specifically, the study will use telephone interviews, focus groups, and review of extant documents to examine ECE articulation policies and their implementation in six focal states that have statewide articulation policies addressing degrees or coursework in early childhood education. This analysis will rely on three types of data sources: • Telephone interviews. One-on-one phone interviews will be conducted with 76 individuals including: faculty and college administrators from states’ two-year and four-year institutions of higher education; state higher education administrators; representatives from higher education governing bodies and ECE licensure bodies; and other individuals who are knowledgeable about development, implementation, and monitoring of ECE articulation policies and the ECE workforce. • Focus groups. Virtual focus groups will be held in each of the six states, including student focus groups (with 24 students total) and focus groups of institutional support staff (with 20 staff total). • Review of extant documents. These documents will include articulation policies, legislation, and governing body meeting notes.

The latest form for Study of Higher Education Articulation Agreements Covering the Early Care and Education Workforce expires 2021-03-31 and can be found here.