Research Report

The Impact of Teacher Education on Outcomes in Center-Based Early Childhood Education Programs

A Meta-Analysis

Summary

With the expansion of state-funded preschool education programs, ensuring that those programs are of high quality is a paramount concern for policymakers, child advocates, and educators across the nation. The authors of this NIEER working paper point to a key policy question: To what extent can classroom quality be improved by raising requirements for teacher education qualifications? The findings of the meta-analysis indicated that effects on quality outcomes from teachers with a bachelor’s degree were significantly different from those teachers with less education.