Career Study Findings: Commitment and Satisfaction in the Texas Early Childhood Workforce

What This Means

Many early childhood professionals remain committed to the field because the work aligns with their initial motivations to enter it—including practical considerations (e.g., time for family, job security), their sense of purpose, and desire to make a positive difference in children’s lives. Our findings indicate that early childhood professionals’ commitment to the field was predicted more by their intrinsic motivations and practical considerations than by the perceived status or financial benefits of the profession.

This finding aligns with themes emerging from interviews with early childhood professionals, who frequently describe their work as meaningful and child-centered. Many reported staying in the field because they care deeply about supporting children and families, even when compensation does not meet their needs or expectations.

Compensation still matters. Interviews and survey data indicated that wages were still perceived to be low and posed challenges to professionals, but the relationship with commitment was slightly weaker. In other words, while financial stability is important, a sense of purpose appears to be a key factor in why many professionals choose to remain in early childhood education.

Finally, professionals who viewed career supports such as mentoring, professional learning opportunities, and financial assistance for education as an important part of their careers also reported higher levels of commitment to the field. These supports were more strongly associated with commitment than wages alone.

Interestingly, there were no meaningful differences in commitment level across early childhood settings in our sample—center-based child care, home-based child care, public school, and Head Start/Early Head Start respondents shared similarly high commitment levels (average of 8.9 on a 10-point scale). (Please review our Limitations sections for a discussion on how this finding compares to turnover.)

The study did find that the relationship between career supports (e.g., mentors, supportive supervisors, learning opportunities, financial support for education) and commitment level varied slightly across sectors of the workforce. For public school educators, commitment to the field was more closely tied to the perceived importance of both individualized supports (e.g., relationship-based supports, financial support for education, opportunities to take on new job responsibilities) and systems-level supports (e.g., trainings, PLCs, professional networks), which may reflect greater access to high-quality professional supports and pathways. In contrast, center-based child care educators appeared committed to the field regardless of how they rated individualized supports, suggesting that factors such as practical considerations, passion for the work, or other motivations may play a larger role in sustaining their commitment.

What This Means

We interviewed 174 early childhood professionals about their career trajectories, including up to 5 unique roles they have held in the early childhood field. Our interviews focused on what they liked and disliked about each role, their key job responsibilities in each role, and what motivated them to change roles throughout their career. Our coding team rated each role that each interviewee described in terms of organizational factors (e.g., perceived organizational support and person-organization fit), work-life balance, and role satisfaction. The coding team also rated each interviewee’s career overall in terms of the interviewee’s perceptions of their career performance (e.g., self-efficacy, adaptability, employability), the extent to which the interviewee engaged in individual career management strategies (e.g., career planning and exploration), and overall career satisfaction. Preliminary data from 43 interviews, covering 123 roles is presented below.

Our interview results align with the survey results in that interviewees reported high levels of satisfaction with their careers and each of their roles. They also expressed positive perceptions of the organizational support available to them and their fit within the organizational they worked in (i.e., “Organizational Factors”).

Interviewees described highly positive perceptions of their career performance, which included how well they were able to engage in the behaviors necessary to succeed in their careers (e.g., complete their day-to-day tasks, obtain required certifications, etc.); how well they could cope with changes and unpredictability in their careers; how employable they are; and how likely they are to initiate change within their career (e.g., finding a new job that aligns with their skills and motivations). In other words, interviewees expressed that they felt very positive about their ability to succeed in their careers.

Interviewees generally made statements that suggested they have thought deeply about their early childhood careers, which includes individual career management strategies such as intentional career planning and career exploration, along with positive attitudes about the early childhood field.

In general, interviewees also report that they are able to achieve work-life balance in their roles. Many described that their families benefited from their roles in the early childhood field (e.g., their schedules aligned well with their children’s school schedules, they had access to discounted child care, etc.). At the same time, they also described some drawbacks of these roles for their families, such as low pay or limited access to traditional workplace benefits (e.g., insurance, retirement, etc.).

Taken together, the findings suggest that supporting the early childhood workforce requires more than improving compensation alone. While wages and economic stability remain important, professionals are most likely to remain committed to the field and experience satisfying careers when they feel connected to the purpose of their work, supported in their professional growth, and recognized for the value they provide to children, families, and communities.

Overall, the findings suggest that people are most likely to build long-term, satisfying careers in early childhood education when they are able to connect their work to their values, receive meaningful support, see opportunities for growth, and feel that their contributions are recognized and valued.

Survey Sample

The findings presented here are based on our full sample of 2,612 respondents. This study engaged early childhood professionals across Texas, including both school-based and non-school-based roles. For school-based roles, we intentionally recruited a diverse and representative sample based on geographic region (using Texas’s 12 economic regions) and early learning program type (such as private child care, public schools, and Early/Head Start programs). We contacted early learning programs directly (using state databases) and indirectly (e.g., through interventionists) through email campaigns, postcard mailings, booths at regional conferences, and phone calls. For non-school based roles, we partnered with a diverse network of stakeholders (e.g., non-profit leaders, interventionists) who helped disseminate the survey across their communities and professional networks. Participants were provided gift cards for completing the survey and participating in follow-up interviews.

Interview Sample

We conducted interviews with 174 of the early childhood professionals who responded to the survey. Anyone who completed the survey was invited to complete an interview, and we aimed to interview a mix of educators and non-educators. From the 174 interviews, we gathered information about 597 job experiences. Of these, 307 were educator job experiences: 201 educator jobs in center-based child care, 51 educator jobs in public schools, 37 educator jobs in Head Start or Early Head Start, 10 educator jobs in home-based child care, and 8 in other educator roles (e.g., nanny/babysitter, camp counselor). Another 232 job experiences focused on pedagogical and instructional administrator roles, including 40 as assistant directors, assistant principals, or other administrators; 73 as director or principal; and 92 as mentors, coaches, consultants, or specialists. Twenty-nine of the job experiences were in business or operations administrator roles, including 8 center-based early learning program owners and 16 home-based early learning program owners. Eighteen of the job experiences were in family and child health and well-being roles (e.g., CPS case worker, foster care worker, early childhood interventionist, etc.), and 10 were in other roles (e.g., university faculty, advocate, speaker).

Limitations

These results come from surveys and interviews in which participants self-reported their level of career satisfaction and commitment to the field. Across our sample, early childhood professionals reported high levels of career satisfaction and commitment to the field. Although we recruited a sample that is geographically representative and includes professionals from child care, head start and early head start, public schools, and home-based settings, our sample may still be biased. For example, nearly half of our sample consists of early childhood educators; therefore, our sample may be more likely to reflect the perspectives of early childhood educators than professionals in other roles. Our sample may also be biased towards respondents who feel more positively about the field than their peers. Further, respondents to our survey may have reported higher ratings of career satisfaction and commitment to the field because of social desirability (i.e., telling us what they think we want to hear).

When interpreting these results, it is important to remember that these are correlations, and correlation does not indicate causation. We cannot say that any of the variables we identified caused participants to have higher career satisfaction or commitment to the field.

The questions about career supports asked participants to rate how important they thought each type of support was for their career. Participants may have given lower ratings to the types of support that they did not have access to (e.g., if they did not have financial support for education, they may have said that financial support for education was not important for their career). Therefore, increasing access to supports may have a more positive impact on career satisfaction and commitment to the field than our results currently suggest.

Thank you to the faculty, staff, researchers, and graduate assistants of the Children’s Learning Institute at UTHealth Houston whose contributions made this study possible. Their expertise in survey design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation provided valuable insight into the experiences of Texas early childhood professionals.

Special thanks to the Texas Workforce Commission’s Child Care and Early Learning Division for its continued support of workforce research and professional development initiatives that help strengthen the Texas early childhood workforce.

Suggested Citation

Children’s Learning Institute at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. (2026). Career Study Findings: Commitment and Satisfaction in the Texas Early Childhood Workforce. Houston, TX.