School-Age & Out-of-School-Time Workforce Landscape Analyses

Workforce Registries and the
School-Age Workforce:
A Report to the National Center on
Afterschool and Summer Enrichment
(NCASE)

The Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) approached The NWRA to partner on a project to conduct a comprehensive mapping of school-age credentials, training, Core Knowledge and Competencies, and workforce data tracked in registries and specific to the school-age workforce population. The overall goals of this project were to:

1. Provide NCASE with useful and reliable information on the state of the school-age workforce to be used in future publications and other TA services;
2. Research the state of the field through engagement with state-level leaders and advocates and help foster a better understanding of NCASE’s role and services;
3. Build a deeper working relationship between The NWRA and NCASE to better serve the field.

To learn more, The NWRA developed a survey for its membership in order to better understand how registries include the school-age workforce. The survey was developed using Survey Monkey and was sent to primary contacts for the 40 registries that are members of the Alliance. The initial survey invitation was sent on 9/12/17 with two reminder emails approximately a week later and a final reminder on 9/25/17. A total of 18 registries completed the survey, representing 16 states and 2 regional registries.

1. State Registries
2. Alaska
3. Colorado
4. Illinois
5. Iowa
6. Maine
7. Michigan
8. Missouri
9. Nevada
10. North Dakota
11. Ohio
12. Oklahoma
13. Oregon
14. Texas
15. Utah
16. Virginia
17. Wyoming
18. Miami-Dade, Florida (Regional Registry)
19. Palm Beach County, Florida (Regional Registry)

As a complement to the survey data, The NWRA also conducted analyses on its 2017 workforce dataset specific to the school-age workforce. The focus of these analyses were on the education, employment, and wages of individuals who work with school-age children, and were also examined in comparison to colleagues that work with infants/toddlers and preschoolers.

While most workforce registries are inclusive of the school-age workforce, participation by those professionals is often minimal. One reason is that there have not been the same policy levers to encourage participation that there have been for the early childhood education workforce, such as licensing regulations and QRIS. In addition, school-age professionals may not readily see themselves as part of state career lattices, as they are often based on training and coursework in early childhood education. This likely is due to the fact that degrees related to afterschool are varied and less defined as those related to ECE. Less than one-quarter of registries we surveyed for this report are able to categorize degrees as “School-Age”, but nearly three-quarters can categorize degrees as “ECE.

Given the current limitations, workforce registries are poised to be a valuable source of data for the school-age workforce and related policy organizations. A key to enhancing the value of the data registries can provide is to increase school-age professionals’ participation. The Alliance is committed to continuing to support registries in their collection and analysis of data related professionals in afterschool programs and look forward to future conversations that will lead to a better understanding of the characteristics of the school-age workforce.

Download the Report.