Early Childhood Educator Excellence and Equity Project (ECE³)

Early Childhood Educator Excellence

Early Childhood Educator Equity

“He lei poina ʻole ke keiki”

“A child is a lei that never wilts or is forgotten”

Vision Statement

All children—beginning at birth—and their families, are served by high-quality, accessible early care and learning programs, staffed with well-prepared, well-supported, and well-compensated early childhood educators.

Mission Statement

To transform early childhood education (ECE) lead teacher preparation programs and compensation/financing systems
To build a statewide integrated early childhood workforce and professional development system

Learn more About Us

early childhood classroom

Key Fact 1:

Early care educators are brain builders.

Key Fact 2:

Hawaii’s early educators earn around $13-17 per hour, which is well below the living wage estimate of at least $28.50 per hour for the state.

Key Fact 3:

Hawaiʻi is struggling to find educators to fill early care programs.

Explore Our Initiatives

Recruitment and Retention of Diverse ECE Students (opens in a new window)

One way to address staff shortages is to build capacity....

Elementary education students

Early Childhood Educator Pathways and Programs (opens in a new window)

Creating more educational pathways also....

UH Manoa College of Education class

Job Embedded Professional Learning (opens in a new window)

Supporting ongoing PD for EC educators...