Early educators in Washington, DC, earn the lowest salaries among early educators in the greater Washington region, at just $16,442 annually. Wage disparities also exist along racial lines: Black and Hispanic early educators, who make up three-quarters of the early educators in the District, earn $2.80 and $4.50 less in hourly wages, respectively, than white early educators in the region. Furthermore, because of the ongoing impacts of a long history of structural racism, women of color—who make up a large share of workers in early learning settings—are subject to pay inequities and resource constraints, such as personal debt and caretaking burdens. Systemic challenges are also present in postsecondary education settings, as these institutions have not always been accessible to people of color and have often made it difficult to transfer credits between institutions.
In January 2022, through the support of JPMorgan Chase’s AdvancingCities initiative, a partnership of local community support organizations and universities came together to create the Advancing Early Education Collaborative (AEEC), with the aims of enhancing early education career pathways for Black and Latina women in Wards 7 and 8 and improving the overall quality of early education in Washington, DC. This brief covers the AEEC’s efforts and achievements during the second year of the AdvancingCities grant. Key achievements over year 2 include reaching a cumulative total of 222 participants (across year 1 and year 2), 33 AEEC students completing degrees from Trinity Washington University, and 3 AEEC students completing their Child Development Associate (CDA) coursework at American University. In terms of service delivery, the collaborative has provided 43 participants with financial coaching services and 26 participants with free groceries, and efforts to improve service delivery are a key focus heading into year 3. Capacity issues continued to pose a challenge to the collaborative in year 2, especially for university partners that serve as the main points of contact for participating students. To assist with capacity constraints, the collaborative hired a full-time student support specialist dedicated to engaging directly with students on behalf of the collaborative.
