May 25, 2016 By Daphna BassokLuke MillerEva Galdo The Effects of Universal State Pre-Kindergarten on the Child Care Sector: The Case of Florida’s Voluntary Prekindergarten Program Over the past two decades states have drastically increased their investments in pre-kindergarten programs. One major question about state investments in early childhood education programs is to what extent these initiatives create new child care options rather than crowd-out existing private child care options. We investigate this issue using Florida’s universal pre-kindergarten program (VPK), a national leader with respect to preschool access, as a case study. Leveraging a 9-year panel of data we find that the introduction of Florida’s VPK program expanded the size of the state’s licensed child care market by 13% relative to the predicted market size. Using a synthetic control difference-in-difference approach we also show that VPK led to an increase in the percentage of 4-year-olds enrolled in formal care but a drop in the percentage of 3-year-olds enrolled in these settings. Implications are discussed. Economics of Education Review Economics of Education Review Areas of focus Education Daphna Bassok Daphna Bassok is professor of education and public policy at the University of Virginia and associate director of EdPolicyWorks, a collaboration between the School of Education and Human Development and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Her research focuses on early childhood education policy and efforts to improve early childhood education at scale, particularly policies aimed at supporting the early childhood education workforce. Read full bio Luke Miller Eva Galdo Related Content Daphna Bassok Hard-to-staff centers: Exploring center-level variation in the persistence of child care teacher turnover Research High rates of teacher turnover in child care settings have negative implications for young children's learning experiences and for efforts to improve child care quality. Prior research has explored the prevalence and predictors of turnover at the individual teacher level, but less is known about turnover at the center level––specifically, how turnover varies across child care centers or whether staffing challenges persist year after year for some centers. This study tracks annual turnover rates for all publicly funded child care centers that were continuously operating in Louisiana from the 2015-16 to 2018-19 school years. Measuring the Quality of Teacher-Child Interactions at Scale: The Implications of Using Local Practitioners to Conduct Classroom Observations Research Bassok Wins Award to Study Childcare Access News UVA Batten Professor Daphna Bassok and her team were awarded a $1.2 million federal grant for a new project to accurately measure the number and quality of childcare options in communities across Virginia – a critical first step towards improving childcare access. UVA | Batten Faculty Excellence Award Winners News Each year, Batten’s Executive Committee selects the Batten Faculty Awards Winners in four areas of review -- research, teaching, service and engagement -- in recognition for the faculty members’ contributions throughout the previous year. We congratulate this year's winners: Ashley Jardina, Andy Pennock, Dan Player and Daphna Bassok.
Daphna Bassok Daphna Bassok is professor of education and public policy at the University of Virginia and associate director of EdPolicyWorks, a collaboration between the School of Education and Human Development and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Her research focuses on early childhood education policy and efforts to improve early childhood education at scale, particularly policies aimed at supporting the early childhood education workforce. Read full bio
Hard-to-staff centers: Exploring center-level variation in the persistence of child care teacher turnover Research High rates of teacher turnover in child care settings have negative implications for young children's learning experiences and for efforts to improve child care quality. Prior research has explored the prevalence and predictors of turnover at the individual teacher level, but less is known about turnover at the center level––specifically, how turnover varies across child care centers or whether staffing challenges persist year after year for some centers. This study tracks annual turnover rates for all publicly funded child care centers that were continuously operating in Louisiana from the 2015-16 to 2018-19 school years.
Measuring the Quality of Teacher-Child Interactions at Scale: The Implications of Using Local Practitioners to Conduct Classroom Observations Research
Bassok Wins Award to Study Childcare Access News UVA Batten Professor Daphna Bassok and her team were awarded a $1.2 million federal grant for a new project to accurately measure the number and quality of childcare options in communities across Virginia – a critical first step towards improving childcare access.
UVA | Batten Faculty Excellence Award Winners News Each year, Batten’s Executive Committee selects the Batten Faculty Awards Winners in four areas of review -- research, teaching, service and engagement -- in recognition for the faculty members’ contributions throughout the previous year. We congratulate this year's winners: Ashley Jardina, Andy Pennock, Dan Player and Daphna Bassok.