Transitioning into early childhood education - where do I start?

My wife is a early childhood director - she runs a center for one of the big national daycare chains. Teaching preschool will top out at about $12 an hour (in a high cost of living area) and you'll need several years of teaching to move up to Asst. Director (woo hoo, $14 an hour!) and then eventually Director. I don't think you'll be able to get into management in a Head Start program without building experience in the private sector first. Head Start management does pay better, so those jobs go to experienced Directors from the private sector. Also, the job is probably not what you think it is. It's basically retail management, in an environment where you are under state regulation, and dealing with other people's kids all day. My wife spends all day dealing with cranky parents that try to sneak sick kids into the daycare, teachers calling in sick, labor hour utilization, food budgets, curriculum budgets, etc. If you actually want to work hands on with kids, you have to be a teacher. And then you are dealing with criminally low pay. I'm pretty sure my wife would not recommend early childhood education as a career path. It's high stress, low pay, and the stories I hear about the parents some of these kids are stuck with just breaks my heart.

Talk to the public preschools in your area (they might be called Early Education Centers). They are always looking for good paraprofessionals, and while the pay isn't great, it'd be an in into the system. You could also get yourself listed as a sub for paraprofessionals. I'd just start calling the school systems in your area and asking about working in their preschool settings. The public preschools also run close to school hours, so you'd still have time to pursue the MPA degree in the later afternoon and evening hours.

Can you start volunteering to work with kids at the Head Start program you previously worked at, with an eye on getting a job there if one opens up? Even if ia job doesn't open up, it would give you good experience to get hired as a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraprofessional_educator at a pre-school or elementary school.

I agree with Rock Steady and zizzle that trying to get in the door as a teacher's aide or similar paraprofessional degree will probably be fairly easy to do. Consider charter schools and private schools in addition to public schools. If you're trying to find an early-childhood ed job right now that you can take while you work on your MPA maybe consider trying to get a gig at a church daycare on Sundays? Usually church daycares aren't known for their cutting-edge pedagogy or anything but it would be experience nonetheless and it would fit in with your class schedule.

The only way Early Childhood anything is going to pay is if you get a government job in it (and even then, it's debatable.) Here's a listing of things on the https://www.usajobs.gov/JobSearch/Search/GetResults?Keyword=early+childhood&Location=&AutoCompleteSelected=False&search.x=24&search.y=10 page. The good thing about working for the feds is that the benefits are pretty great, and you get a foot in the door to move up and make more money. Also, they'll pay for continuing education. Getting on is a whole thing, and it's a completely different job search than random private industry. Your resume needs to be a book, you're scored on skills, you'll be asked to answer ridiculously long series of questions, it goes on and on. BUT. Once you're in, you're golden. So as you'll see, most of the money mentioned in these postings is garbage, but, remember you get great benefits, so there's that. Other than that, come up with a different plan, because you'll NEVER get a good ROI on a degree in Early Childhood Development (although you can get hired with just 3 classes at some of the posted jobs, so...yeah...that)

Teaching preschool will top out at about $12 an hour (in a high cost of living area) and you'll need several years of teaching to move up to Asst. Director (woo hoo, $14 an hour!) Paraprofessionals in my son's public preschool are paid $14/hour, and we live in a high cost of living area. The teachers get paid significantly more than that. I'm not sure early education is always low-paying and unrewarding. But it probably helps that my son's preschool treats the staff and faculty all as professionals.

Consider looking into Montessori.

Start looking at taking some early child development/education classes now at your school or local community college. Most ECE jobs are looking for at least 3-12 units. Keep CPR and first aid certifications up to date. Do you speak any other languages? Maybe start learning whatever language would be most useful for your area's preschool programs. I have a BA in Child Development and have a hard time truly qualifying for positions because I don't speak Spanish.