Work climate is a broad term that encompasses all facets of the work environment, other than training and education, that support or detract from employees’ ability to succeed (Whitebook, McLean, Austin, & Edwards, 2018). In this brief, we use a sample of center-based child care classrooms in Georgia to examine how different aspects that affect work climate (e.g., wages, employee benefits, teacher turnover, children per teacher, and educator stress and commitment) are related to classroom quality. More fully understanding this relationship could help states collect information about work climate as part of their own quality improvement efforts.
To date, 29 public pre-K1 programs in 23 states and one U.S. territory have established salary or compensation2 parity policies to address low and disparate levels of workforce compensation in the early care and education (ECE) field (Friedman-Krauss & Kasmin, 2018). These policies aim to raise the pay or compensation of ECE teachers to the level of similarly educated or qualified teachers in K-12 settings.
