NYC Pre-K Leadership Study

Bank Street College was one of eight New York City colleges/universities that were funded by the Foundation for Child Development to explore the early childhood workforce in New York City. Together we make up the New York City Early Childhood Research Network, a group that has been meeting monthly over the past two years to discuss cross-university issues related to recruitment, data collection, and analysis, and share results and policy recommendations.

The New York City Department of Education has been gathering information on the early childhood workforce where initial efforts have focused on classroom teachers and assistants and their supervisors. To date, there is little understanding of who now fills this critical instructional leadership role, how they see their role and spend their time, and how they engage on a daily basis to support high-quality classroom instruction.

The CCRE study documents the types, amount, content, and delivery of instructional supports from school leaders to teachers in pre-K classrooms. Thirty-six preschools were selected to represent identity-diverse communities and diverse program types and leadership models that provide 4-year-old pre-K services. Results of this study have generated practice and policy recommendations for the NYCDOE, DOHMH, ACS, and other public and private institutions.

This study provides a portrait of EDs’ roles, activities, dispositions, and capacity for quality improvement and CRT across 36 sites. It will spotlight the key roles played by EDs; provide insight into the nature of their work supporting classroom personnel and delve into what ways they use their time; surface actionable recommendations for addressing the factors that help/hinder EDs’ quality improvement efforts, specifically in CRT; and lay the groundwork for additional research.