This Site Has Moved
The posts found here are still available for archival purposes and to avoid broken links, but comments are now turned off and there will be no future updates. For all the latest from New America, please go to www.NewAmerica.net
Education Policy Program Links
Spotlight
Head Start, the largest federally funded program for children under 5, has been around for nearly 45 years. Given the Obama Administration's interest in using federal funding to support young children, one might think that Head Start was poised to enter one of its most expansive periods ever. But there are several huge unanswered questions about Head Start's future -- from how it should be coordinated with state-funded pre-K programs to whether it should put even more of its energies toward serving children younger than 3.
Our seven-part blog series explains how Head Start has changed over the years and considers where it may be headed. It is also available as a downloadable PDF, which includes the transcript from a public web chat on this topic hosted by Politico.com.
_________________________________
So what exactly Is PreK-3rd? Learn more in this short video (7 min) that makes the case for comprehensive reforms that begin with high-quality early childhood education programs and build on the benefits of those programs through the elementary school years and beyond.
Early Ed Writers
Topics
Blogroll
Featured Reading
The Case for Investing in PreK-3rd Education: Challenging Myths about School Reform, by Rima Shore
PreK-3rd: What Is The Price Tag? by Rima Shore
Promoting a Pre-K to Three Vision for Early Learning, The State Education Standard
Building Blocks, by Gene I. Maeroff
Resources
Policy and Research
- Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning
- Chicago Longitudinal Study
- U.S. Department of Education
- Foundation for Child Development
- Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute
- HighScope Educational Research Foundation
- Institute for Education Sciences
- National Association for the Education of YoungChildren
- National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force
- National Head Start Association
- National Institute for Early Education Research
- Office of Head Start
- Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation at ACF in HHS
- Research Connections
- Society for Research in Child Development
Data
- Login to post comments
User login
Signs of Success from PreK-3rd Strategy in Bremerton, Wash.
An initiative to help children prepare for school has been quietly underway in Bremerton, Wash. over the past several years -- and we're starting to see signs that it's working. Linda Sullivan-Dudzic, the Director of Special Programs in Bremerton, WA, explained the underlying philosophy of the Early Learning Program in a recent interview with Public School Insights, a website maintained by the Learning First Alliance for discussion of "what works" in public schools.
In the interview, she touches on a number of ingredients that appear to have played a role, including partnerships with community-based providers, "friendly accountability," and PreK-3rd alignment.
The program focuses on creating partnerships with numerous community-based preschool providers: "We've had deep relationships in the community," Sullivan-Dudzic said. It was important, she added, that the district partner with existing schools to make curricula more rigorous and offer district-provided literacy coaches. Working with faith-based and community-based organizations allowed the district to reach almost 600 students immediately.
The Early Learning Program encourages preschools to use data and research-driven curricula, which it pays for. The program doesn't require that programs measure up to narrow data benchmarks, but instead, employs what Sullivan-Dudzic calls "friendly accountability." The early childhood group hosts monthly staff development meetings at which school leaders "showcase" how they are using the new curricula provided by the district.
The most important component of the Early Learning Program's success is aligning what happens in preschool with what is taught in elementary school, according to Sullivan-Dudzic. "Preschools need a consistent curriculum that is aligned with K-3," she said, "and K-3 needs to align with preschool." Sullivan-Dudzic concluded: "You can't talk about preschool unless you talk about K-3."
Bremerton is yet another district that is catching on to the need for PreK-3rd alignment, and we'd like to see more follow in its path. The successes at Bremerton (measured in the graph below) show that collaboration between preschools and elementary schools, between public and private pre-K programs and between teachers and administrators leads to long-term benefits for all students.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| bremerton2.JPG | 58.58 KB |
- Login to post comments
Further evidence of
Further evidence of Bremerton's success is that the district's former superintendent, Betty Hyde, is now the head of the state's Department of Early Learning.
I am a kindergarten teacher
I am a kindergarten teacher in a district where last year was the first year of full day kindergarten. Throughout the year the twenty kindergarten teachers met five times to discuss the new full day K program. During the course of the meetings, the topic was constantly turned to the gap between where students were when they showed up on the first day of Kindergarten and where we were expected to be. The discussion was always met with much passion and the stress that the teachers were feeling was incredibly apparent. As a result, our district is attempting to bridge the gap between preschool and Kindergarten. We are reaching out to many community organizations and private preschools, but we are finding that many of the students that we are concerned about did not attend preschool due to finances. There is a large group of preschool students that do not qualify for Head Start, but cannot afford preschool. I feel that our district could learn from this program.