Project Summary
Governor Jared Polis held a strong commitment to expanding quality pre-K opportunities for young children and recognizing that a high-quality early care and education (ECE) workforce was essential to fulfilling this goal. The state had no centralized information on the ECE workforce to guide its plans to roll out investments, such as the size of the workforce, where teacher shortages existed, qualifications earned by educators, and recruitment and turnover rates. Using LINC, the Office of Early Childhood was able to partner with the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab to connect data from the state’s workforce registry, background check, and early care provider systems to produce the first comprehensive look at the ECE workforce in Colorado. These data are now available in an interactive dashboard and a statewide snapshot report that will be routinely updated.
A second phase LINC project added wage data as well as data on postsecondary pathways from the Colorado Departments of Labor and Employment and Higher Education.
Data Partners
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Colorado Department of Human Services – Office of Early Childhood
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Colorado Department of Higher Education (anticipated in phase II)
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Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (anticipated in phase II)
Status
Access to these data has been critical for us. The dashboard is already informing the Governor’s Education and Workforce Cabinet Working Group’s goal to improve the ECE workforce to ensure all young children have an opportunity to succeed before they enter kindergarten.