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A comprehensive 2015 statewide survey of North Carolina’s early care and education workforce was conducted by the Child Care Services Association with funding from the Division of Child Development and Early Education through a Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grant. The study collected data from January through September 2015 on teachers, assistant teachers, and directors working in licensed early care and education centers, obtaining useable responses from 761 directors (representing about 19% of all programs in the state) and 3,378 teaching staff members from participating centers. The survey used a stratified random sampling design across 14 Child Care Resource and Referral regions, with data weighted to reflect statewide populations and account for response bias based on factors like location, size, sponsorship, and star rating, ultimately enabling statistical generalization to an estimated 30,355 early childhood teaching staff across 4,095 centers serving children under six. The study builds on similar surveys conducted from 2011-2014 to track continuities and changes in the ECE system over time, and includes the establishment of a longitudinal panel for future analysis.
