African, African American, and Black Educators’ Experiences in Preschool Settings
As part of the Denver Preschool Program (DPP) workforce study, evaluators from the Butler Institute for Families at the University of Denver surveyed 410 early childhood educators. Respondents included 44 African, African American, or Black (AAAB) preschool professionals, representing 19% of all the diverse educators Butler surveyed. This brief highlights AAAB educators’ pay disparities and job satisfaction and the workplace racism they experienced.
Job Role and Pay
Most surveyed educators were lead teachers (50%) and about a quarter were in a leadership role at their ECE program (23%). Survey data analyses found that race continues to significantly impact educators’ pay, particularly those who identify as AAAB.
African, African American, and Black educators earned
$3.58 less per hour than their peers, or $7,500 less per year
These educators earned $3.58 less per hour than their peers from other racial backgrounds, even after accounting for factors like years of experience, education, job role, and type of preschool. This pay gap means that AAAB educators make $7,500 less a year than their peers. One educator shared the impact of low pay:
“I feel like I'm in this weird place where we're in the middle of income margins, and I feel like the middle-class people don't just get any support at all. So with my children... I feel like it's easier to stay under the margin and poverty, because then I know I'll have medical insurance and we'll have housing support and stuff like that. Because being right in the middle, it's just very hard. So I feel like I need to make over $100,000 a year, or I need to just stay under the poverty line, which is sad.”
Job Satisfaction
Regarding job satisfaction, including workplace climate, collaboration, and decisionmaking, AAAB educators were only somewhat satisfied. Educators’ relationships with staff, students, and the community played a role in their job satisfaction. One educator shared that their relationships with their school’s leadership were “not really that good” because “we just don’t view things the same,” and they don’t feel comfortable asking their leadership for help. They added, “We can speak, we can be cordial and everything, and [the early childhood education director] checks in on me while [they’re] there but ... I wouldn’t say that I have a good connection with [them].”
microaggressions [that cause] various forms of mental, emotional, and physical strain.” 1
Eighty-eight percent of AAAB educators reported experiencing RBF symptoms such as strategizing ways to address the racialized experience, taking actions to try to improve the situation, and increasing spiritual or religious practices. Further, RBF’s impact extended beyond the workplace to affect educators’ home lives. Educators shared their racialized workplace experiences with family members, further highlighting the personal toll of RBF. One educator said: “I tell my family everything, I always tell them. We’re a close family, so that’s how we are. And my mom, she wasn’t happy at all, this is her grandson we’re talking about, so she was not happy at all. She no longer wanted me to work at the place. She got upset with me for continuing working at the place, but I had to tell her, ‘I don’t have any other options right now. I just switched jobs. I don’t want it to look bad on my resume.’ I got her to understand that this is where we had to be at the moment.”
“I wish more people would speak up and let them know that it's not okay to behave that way. I feel like I'm not a very outspoken person, but I'm known at work for being the one to be like, ‘Hey, that's not okay. That's not appropriate. You need to calm down.’ But I feel like a lot of times people don't say anything. They see it and they just kind of keep quiet about it or they continue with them. I really wish especially when I was younger, that somebody would've been like, ‘Hey, that's not okay. That's not nice. You can't say stuff like that and think that that's acceptable behavior, especially at work.’"
Conclusions and Next Steps
AAAB educators represent the second-largest diverse educator group in DPP’s early childhood educator workforce. Unfortunately, many of these educators reported moderate job satisfaction, negative views of their workplace climate, low pay, and racialized experiences that contribute to racial battle fatigue. Alarmingly, about half of these educators plan to leave the ECE field within the next two years.
Losing AAAB educators significantly affects youth, education centers, and the broader community. For children, losing these educators means less access to vital representation, role models, and culturally responsive teaching. AAAB educators are
1 Smith, W. A., Yosso, T. J., & Solorzano, D.G. (2006). Challenging racial battle fatigue on historically White campuses: A critical race examination of race-related stress. Faculty of Color Teaching in Predominantly White Colleges and Universities, 299-327.