Indications that high quality preschool education in the US is a good long-term investment mean that there is pressure on research to show exactly what makes a good program good.

Early childhood programs have been shown to improve later performance, particularly for children at-risk for school failure. An obvious measure of program quality would relate it to the quality of teaching, but different studies define quality in different ways, and so far the evidence is mixed and murky on whether teachers with higher degrees, for example, are better at their jobs.

To clarify whether teacher education matters, the authors of a recent article in Child Development based predictions of classroom quality and children's academic outcomes on the educational attainment and specialism of the teachers of four-year-olds. They founded the work on an analysis of the data collected in seven major US studies of early care and education.

Led by Diane M Early from the University of North Carolina, the research teams found that having a higher degree was not generally associated with indications of classroom quality, including measures of children’s language, prereading, and math skills. Moreover, the type of degree – whether in early childhood education, child development, or any other subject – did not appear to matter, either.

Should policy makers therefore pay less attention teachers’ education requirements? The authors say no. Instead, they note that teacher training may not prepare teachers adequately to teach preschoolers. Alternatively, teachers may not receive the support they need to implement what they know.

Another plausible explanation for the lack of relationship between teacher education and child outcomes is that talented educators without degrees might be attracted to preschool positions.

In the short run, “A policy of using teachers' educational attainment and/or major will not substitute for selecting teachers with the skills needed to teach at this level,” according to the authors. In the long run, they call for more research on curricula and instructional practices so that training of preschool educators focuses on the aspects of teaching that will most likely lead to good outcomes for children.