Student teachers who work with mentors will have greater choice of time, location and type of field experience. Participating centers will benefit from increased staff professional growth. Mentor Teachers will improve their skills and their ability to communicate their knowledge to other staff, while other staff will gain greater access to college training through on-site field experience options. Young children and their families will benefit from improved child care resulting from reduced staff turnover, increased teacher satisfaction and more and better trained new teachers, Child care 'jobs are plagued by low salaries, poor working conditions and little professional status. These factors often cause good teachers to leave their jobs, resulting in unusually high staff turnover in the child care field.
Many centers lose more than half their staff each year.
Centers paying the lowest wages lose the greatest number of teachers. In programs with so much inconsistency children suffer. They spend less time using learning materials and build language and social skills more slowly than other children their age. Frequent staff turnover places the added burden on remaining staff of providing program continuity and training to new staff. Those who remain in the field are seldom rewarded for additional responsibilities by commensurate pay or status.