The impact of Abbott v. Burke on community -based preschool teachers' education, employability, and pedagogical competencies

The purpose of the study is to determine the effect Abbott v. Burke had on preschool teachers' education, employability, and pedagogical competencies in community-based centers in one Abbott district in northern New Jersey. Preschool was one of the supplemental programs the Court identified in the 1998 Abbott v. Burke decision as necessary in order to ensure children in the poorest districts in New Jersey would enter school ready to learn. The Abbott v. Burke decision had an impact on teachers in private providers causing a shift in intrinsic and extrinsic benefits; this paper focuses on the benefits. The investigation intends to find that mandated credentials for Abbott preschool have improved opportunities for the Abbott provider teachers. This qualitative study analyzed in grounded theory consisted of teacher and director surveys, as well as in-depth open-ended interviews of 6 community-based provider teachers in an Abbott school district.;The teachers in the study recognized the higher standards of teaching credentials not only improved their quality of life, but more importantly their quality of teaching. They viewed their improvement in the professional domain rather than in their personal domain. They have seen their growth as educator and their increased improvement in performance, thus confirming the literature that higher credentials result in higher quality of preschool.