Pre-K

What it Takes to Remain A Pre-K Leader in Georgia

Christina Satkowski — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:50:00 -0400

Yesterday we wrote about a new report on southern states' efforts to improve early-education. Another new report, on Georgia's pre-k program, shows that that there is always room for improvement, even for states at the head of the pack. Georgia was the first state in the country to offer universal pre-kindergarten for every four-year-old, beginning in 1995. In doing so it helped launch today's national pre-k movement. Now in its 13^th year, Georgia's Bright from the Start pre-k program needs to refocus on improving both enrollment and quality if it wants to remain a pacesetter for the national pre-k movement.

The report, prepared by the Southern Education Foundation (SEF), found that while all Georgia four-year-olds are eligible for the state pre-k program, many currently lack access to it. Georgia's pre-k program currently enrolls just over 54 percent of four-year-olds, with enrollment rates as low as 42 percent in some metro Atlanta counties. Georgia's pre-k program is voluntary, but low enrollment rates aren't due to a lack of demand: Atlanta-area parents are known to camp out on the sidewalk overnight to reserve pre-k spots for their children. Rather, low enrollment rates are due to lack of slots in pre-k classrooms, as well as weak outreach to parents of children who most need pre-k.

The report raises partiuclar concern about relatively low pre-k enrollment rates for low-income and "at risk children," who currently comprise 50 percent of total pre-k enrollment in Georgia. In many Georgia counties, only half of low-income four-year olds are enrolled in pre-k, meaning that many of the children who most need an extra boost from pre-k are missing out. The report's authors recomment increased outreach to boost enrollment rates to 80 percent within the next five years. (The goal reflects what SEF estimates actual statewide demand for pre-k to be, after factoring out parents who don't want to enroll their children.) Today only 19 of 159 Georgia counties have met that goal. The report also recommends that Georgia establish a pilot pre-k program for 3-year olds. Several states, including Illinois and the District of Columbia have committed to provide universal pre-k access for 3-year-olds in the near future, and Georgia, which doesn't serve any 3-year-olds in pre-k, is falling behind.

The SEF report also raises concerns about the quality of Georgia pre-k programs. Georgia pre-k already rates pretty well in terms of quality, meeting 9 of 10 NIEER quality benchmarks. But the one benchmark it's missing is a big one: Georgia doesn't require pre-k teachers to hold a B.A. degree. The state also needs to do a better job of providing professional development to raise the skills of teachers and administrators and keep them up-to-date on new research about what works in early education. Georgia does require all programs to use an approved pre-k curriculum, but the report suggests that curricula and parent involvement programs are implemented unevenly, leading to variation in quality and outcomes. We'd add that Georgia could do a better job in aligning pre-k teaching and curricula offered by its diverse providers with the standards and curriculum in the public schools children will attend after pre-k. Arkansas, just a few states over, offers some useful lessons on how to do that.

SEF recommends improving better focus and organization to improve quality in Georgia's state-funded pre-k program. Another recommendation is more money. The Georgia pre-k program, which is funded entirely by lottery revenues, spends $4,010 per student, down from $6,827 in 1995 (numbers are adjusted for inflation). Annual allocations for pre-k statewide have increased by just 3 percent a year since 2000. Yet the lottery fund has quadrupled since 1998, and the portion of the fund set aside for unrestricted funds has grown by $570 million since 2003, indicating that there is plenty of money available to fund and enhance the state pre-k program.

The SEF report is a good reminder that even leading states can't rest on their laurels when it comes to early education-maintaining high-quality programs and improving outcomes for children requires ongoing effort and investment. This report has also sparked some lively discussion in Georgia and nationally, and we'll continue watching the state to see if it generates and policy changes as well.

Debunking Bad Analysis on Oklahoma Pre-K

Sara Mead — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:18:00 -0400

The Cato Institute's Adam Schaffer is much too smart to believe that his latest argument that pre-k is ineffective holds water. Schaeffer argues that Oklahoma's pre-k program isn't improving student achievement, because Oklahoma's performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has declined, relative to the national average, since the early 1990s.

This argument is seriously flawed. For starters, the comparisons Shaeffer is making are invalid because he's comparing NAEP results for different cohorts of students--and there are real differences between those cohorts. Since the early 1990s, the proportion of Oklahoma children who are Hispanic and who are English language learners has risen dramatically, a difference that needs to be taken account when comparing performance of current and past cohorts of Oklahoma students. Similarly, Schaeffer's analysis doesn't consider other factors besides pre-k--such as changes in standards, curriculum, or funding--that may or may not have occurred in Oklahoma's public schools during this time period, potentially affecting student performance. Schaeffer has training in research methods, so he has to know that using NAEP score changes to draw conclusions about the effects of Oklahoma's pre-k program, without controlling for other factors in play, is totally meaningless.

Moreover, the data Schaeffer is using don't even support his own argument. Oklahoma's performance on the 4th grade reading NAEP--the most relevant data point here--declined substantially between 1998 and 2002, but has been improving since 2002. Oklahoma didn't begin offering free voluntary pre-k to all four-year-olds until 1998--and any impacts from that program wouldn't have shown up in NAEP data until 5 years later, when those children were 9. While it's true that Oklahoma funded a targeted pre-k program for low-income children starting in 1990, the greatest expansion in pre-k occurred after 1998, so any results wouldn't be reflected in NAEP results until after 2003.

Schaeffer is correct that the overall evidence of long-term academic benefits from pre-k is much weaker than the evidence for short-term educational effects, which is strong. But that doesn't mean there's no evidence of long-term effects from high-quality early education programs. The now famous Perry Preschool found study, a randomized controlled trial of pre-k programs, found significant positive impacts on pre-k participants' educational attainment, earnings, and other indicators into middle age. Similarly, longitudinal research on participants in Chicago's Child Parent Centers program, a large scale, federally funded program that provided low-income children with high-quality pre-k and additional services through grade 3, also found similar long-term benefits. Both of these programs focused on poor children, however, not middle income students. Recent studies by Georgetown University researchers indicate that Oklahoma's quality pre-k program does improve the skills and knowledge of both low-income and middle-class children entering kindergarten (and does so more than Head Start centers do). But these studies don't include long-term follow-up. Previously released studies by the same researchers looked at children who attended Tulsa pre-k programs for the 2003-04 school year. Those children should be entering 4th grade this fall, so a follow-up study on how they're doing now would be quite informative.

More broadly, no one should look at pre-k as an "innoculation" that, administered once at age four, delivers improved academic performance without further follow-up through children's schooling. That's not how learning works. High-quality elementary schools must build on the base of improved skills and knowledge children bring with them from pre-k. If elementary schools are poor quality or otherwise unable to provide supports and curricula that build on pre-k learning gains, those gains will be squandered. That's why efforts to improve early education can't stop at pre-k, but need to continue through the early elementary years and indeed throughout a student's K-12 education. But that doesn't mean quality pre-k doesn't make an important contribution in getting that process off on the right foot. Oklahoma has done a good job in putting a high-quality pre-k program in place for the vast majority of its students. Now it needs to work to improve its kindergarten and elementary programs in order to sustain the documented gains children are making in pre-k.

Early Ed Roundup: Week of June 23 - June 27

Christina Satkowski — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:43:00 -0400

Secretary Spellings Defends Reading First

The disappointing results of the May IES report on Reading First impacts haven't dampened Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings enthusiasm for the program. On Monday, Spellings released the results of several state evaluations of Reading First that show that the program, which found gains in reading comprehension, as measured by state assessments, for children participating inthe Reading First, including English Language Learners and students with disabilities. Louisiana reported that fewer students need special education after participating in the program, Arkansas said that Reading First schools did better on a third-grade benchmark exam than did non-participants, and California reported that gains from the program continued through grade 4. President Bush proposed to restore funding for Reading First to $1 billion next year, but the House Subcommittee that oversees education appropriations voted earlier this month to eliminate Reading First funding altogether.

Study Shows Performance Gains By Pre-K Over Head Start in Oklahoma

Oklahoma enrolls a higher percentage of 4-year-olds in its universal pre-k program than any state in the country, mostly in public school-based programs. But some Oklahoma youngsters attend pre-k in Head Start centers that also participate in and receive funds from the state pre-k program. Oklahoma's school-based and Head Start pre-k programs both have relatively high standards, including a low teacher-student ratio (10-1) and a requirement that all teachers have a B.A. degree in early education, yet student performance assessments show that the programs are producing very different results. A study by William Gormley, Deborah Phillips, and Ted Gayer published this month in the journal Science finds that low-income students in Tulsa pre-k classrooms showed a gain of 9 months progress in pre-reading tests compared to 5 months gain for Head Start students of similar backgrounds. Tulsa pre-k students made greater gains on on pre-writing tests (8 months compared to 3 months in Head Start) and students in both programs made similar progress on pre-math tests. The study's authors suggest program design and curricular focus may contribute to the differences. For example, Tulsa school-based pre-k programs placed greater emphasis on practicing letters, while Head Start programs emphasized fantasy play in Head Start. Another issue may be alignment: Because the school-based programs have a better sense of the skills and knowledge children will work on in kindergarten, they may focus more on developing the foundation for those skills in the pre-k year.

Head Start Reports Show State Funding, Teacher Salaries Down

New fact sheets from the Center for Law and Social Policy use data from the Head Start's Program Information Reports to paint a portrait of Head Start participants, programs, and staff in the 2005-06 school year (the most recent for which data is available). Head Start served 1,080,627 children and 10,825 pregnant women (through Early Head Start) in 2006. 13 percent of children participatin in both Head Start and Early Head Start were diagnosed with a disability, half during their time at Head Start. About a quarter of children in both programs come from Spanish-speaking homes, and 56 percent of Head Start children come from single-parent households. The fact sheets also show that 36 percent of Head Start teachers and 23 percent of Early Head Start teachers had B.A. degrees in 2006. 72 percent of Head Start teachers and more than half of Early Head Start teachers had A.A. degrees. The average salary for a Head Start teacher was $24,737, down 2 percent from the year before.

Eloise Returns to the Plaza

Fans of the children's book series Eloise at the Plaza shed a quiet tear in 2005 when the landmark Plaza Hotel in New York City shut its doors for renovations. Eloise's departure could have been viewed as part of a long downward trend in Manhattan's under-5 population, as young families moved to the suburbs. Yet as Bloomberg reports this week, the number of children in Manhattan is on the rebound, increasing at a rate of 20 percent a year. This in turn has increased competition for spots in the borough's pre-kindergarten classrooms, both public and private. Meanwhile, the Plaza Hotel reopened to Eloise and other guests in March of this year.

House Education Committee Advances Federal Support for Pre-K

Sara Mead — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:30:00 -0400

Earlier today we wrote about legislation that the District of Columbia passed last month to establish universal pre-k here in Washington, D.C. Today D.C.'s other legislative body--Congress--took a small step towards helping more states follow the District's example here.

The House Committee on Education and Labor today approved H.R. 3289, the PRE-K Act, sponsored by Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai'i), which creates a partnership between the federal government and the states to improve pre-k quality and access.

Hirono's bill gets it right by focusing on pre-k quality first and foremost. To be eligible to receive funding, states would have to have pre-k programs that meet certain quality standards--including standards for curriculum, class size, and teacher qualifications. States that don't already have such programs in place could also receive funding to help them get to higher quality. Once states have high-quality programs in place, they could use up to 50 percent of funds to expand pre-k access in low-income communities, but the majority of investment would go towards quality. The bill also recognizes that any federal effort to improve pre-k quality and access has to be in partnership with states, and seeks to use new federal investments to leverage increased state pre-k spending. That's essential because states must be the primary player when it comes to pre-k--but the federal government can help by giving them a nudge, combined with help. Hirono's bill does exactly that.

While we think this bill is a step in the right direction, there are a few changes we'd like to see to it. In particular, we'd like to see an increased focus on PK-3 alignment, which currently receives scant attention in the bill. The definition of quality that Hirono and her staff have incorporated is good, but to be truly high-quality pre-k programs must have curricula, standards, and teaching strategies aligned with those of the early elementary programs that children will enter after pre-k, so that what children learn in pre-k feeds seamlessly into the early elementary years. But there's still time for Congress to address that ommission.

Committee passage is just the beginning for the PRE-K Act. It order to become law, it would need to pass on the House floor, it would need to pass the Senate, and the President would need to sign the legislation. That's a lot of steps--particularly in an election year, when it's harder to move legislation; when it's not attached to a larger vehicle, such as NCLB reauthorization; and when it's looking increasingly unlikely that we'll see a Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill pass this fall. Further, the PRE-K Act doesn't currently have a companion bill in the Senate, although Senators Hillary Clinton and Kit Bond have introduced the Ready to Learn Act, and Senator Robert Casey has introduced the Prepare All Kids Act, both of which also support similar pre-k investments in partnership with states. That's a lot of obstacles. But it's still exciting to see pre-k legislation moving in Congress, which has too long left states to do the heavy lifting on improving pre-k, with little federal help.

Moving Towards Universal Pre-k in Washington, D.C.

Christina Satkowski — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:22:00 -0400

Last month, the District of Columbia Council took an important step towards making universal pre-k a reality in the District by passing Pre-Kindergarten Expansion and Enhancement Act. This new, comprehensive legislation seeks to provide pre-k to every 3- and 4- year old in the District whose parents want it by 2014. The legislation is good news for kids and parents in the District of Columbia, but it's just the first step. Now the District faces the even greater challenge of building a high-quality District-wide pre-k system out of the current network of disparate programs providing early education and care in the nation's capital.

Too often when it comes to education, Washington, D.C., finds itself at the bottom of the pack, behind all of the 50 states. But when it comes to early education, the District of Columbia has long been a leader in providing publicly funded pre-k to its children. The District enrolls a higher percentage of its 3-year-olds in publicly funded pre-k than any state in the country, and a higher percentage of 4-year olds than all but three states (Oklahoma, Florida, and Georgia). But despite relatively high enrollments, the advocacy group Pre-K for All estimates that at least 2,000 children whose parents want to enroll them have no access pre-k programs. With 61 percent who qualify for free or reduced price lunch, a risk factor for poor school achievement, there's a real need for high-quality pre-k to prevent children from falling behind before they even start school. Moreover, D.C. delivers pre-k through a patchwork of programs operated by the District of Columbia Public Schools, charter public schools, Head Start, community-based childcare, and the Department of Recreation, and quality varies dramatically across programs, so even many children enrolled in pre-k are not getting the full support they need to be ready to learn in kindergarten.

The new law seeks to expand pre-k access in the District by adding an additional 125 new, high-quality pre-k classrooms by 2014-serving an additional 15 percent of unserved children each year. At the same time, the law seeks to improve the quality of existing pre-k programs, setting a maximum teacher-student ratio (1to 8 for children age 3 and under, 1 to 10 for 4-year olds) and requiring all teachers to have a bachelor's degree by 2017. The law also requires the District's Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to establish guidelines relating to facilities improvement, parent involvement, and curriculum for pre-k programs by September 1. To help pre-k programs achieve the new standards, the legislation authorizes technical assistance grants, as well as an incentive grant program used to recruit high-quality college graduates to work in Washington, D.C.'s pre-k classrooms.

There's a lot to like about this plan. For one, it takes a systemic approach, seeking to improve quality across all sectors providing publicly funded pre-k in the District, rather than simply tacking an additional program atop the existing patchwork. Second, the law focuses on quantity and quality, to ensure that the investment in increasing pre-k enrollments produces real results. Third, the law allows for a diversity of pre-k providers, including the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), public charter schools, and community-based organizations, including Head Start. This is important to provide parents a choice, and also to foster innovative teaching approaches. Fourth, the program's funding, which comes through the District's uniform per-pupil funding formula, in the same way that DCPS and charter schools receive funding, is much more stable than pre-k funding streams in many states, and should help guard pre-k from the perennial budget chopping block. Fifth, the law stresses accountability, mandating an annual baseline quality assessment and program capacity audit to gage how universal pre-k is progressing. Finally, the law emphasizes that D.C.'s new investment in pre-k is educational, rather than just childcare, by moving oversight of the program from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. The legislation also promoted PK-3 alignment by explicitly requiring OSSE to ensure that standards and teaching practices in the pre-k program are aligned with those for kindergarten through third grade.

As is the case with any complex piece of legislation, this one leaves many questions - especially concerning quality - for OSSE to answer in the coming months. Here are a few things to keep an eye out for:

Alignment - This new legislation gave OSSE responsibility to oversee pre-k programs across an incredibly diverse array of school- and community-based providers. And D.C.'s public education system, where more than one-in-four children attend charter schools, is also incredibly diverse. Aligning PK-3 curricula and teaching practices across such a range of providers, while also respecting their diversity, will be incredibly difficult-but it is doable. OSSE will need to work closely with DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee and the Public Charter School Board, which oversees public charter schools, to develop and implement a PK-3 alignment plan that will straddle pre-k and elementary school and assure that learning continues uninterrupted during these years, while also preserving the individuality of diverse providers.

Assistance Grants / Professional Development - With all programs under a new pre-k umbrella, funding for quality improvement initiatives will come from a single source, the OSSE. Community-based providers and charter schools have expressed concern that this may limit their ability to develop unique curricula and contract with outside organizations for assistance. While the law does not specify exactly how these grants should be used, the criteria used to evaluate grant proposals should respect the diversity of D.C.'s students and pre-k providers, ensure providers have the flexibility to obtain quality services that meet their unique needs, and support innovation and customization while ensuring quality.

Community-Based Organizations - The law sets a target for 25 percent of programs to be operated by community-based organizations (CBOs). This is a completely arbitrary number (it was set as high as 50 percent in an initial draft) that may not match the actual capacity of community-based providers, or the types of pre-k programs that District parents want. The District needs to reconsider this number regularly to make sure it is realistic in the context of D.C.'s pre-k market.

Monitoring - The law calls for two annual assessments, a capacity audit and a baseline quality assessment. These two accountability mechanisms must be both rigorous and comprehensive, including site visits, student progress assessments, and, eventually evidence from longitudinal data systems OSSE is developing to monitor students' progress from pre-k through high school. At the same time, the District needs to make sure that penalties for failing to meet requirements do not unnecessarily restrict the diversity of pre-k providers or weed out programs that otherwise have great potential.

D.C.'s recent universal pre-k investment has tremendous potential and the increased access and quality it provides will benefit thousands of children. This legislation is also an important complement to DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee's efforts to radically improve the D.C. school system. Rhee's job is an incredibly tough one, but it will be easier if children enter DCPS with a strong academic base to build on. Now let's make sure the new pre-k programs actually build that base.

Rhode Island Should Empower Mayors to Expand Pre-K Options

Sara Mead — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:15:00 -0400

Last week the Rhode Island legislature passed legislation to allow the creation of "Mayoral Academies," a new type of charter schools that would allow Mayors to recruit high-quality, nationally proven charter school operators to open new charter schools in their cities. Its a great idea that should help foster quality growth in what's currently a relatively weak charter school sector in Rhode Island. Previously, all charter schools in Rhode Island had to be approved by the State Department of Education, and that, combined with a moratorium on new charter schools that is set to expire this month, have kept the number of charter schools small. Evidence from Indianapolis, where the Mayor is authorized to grant school charters, suggests that enabling Mayors to authorize charter schools can produce good results.

Here's an idea that would make it even better, though: Allow the new Mayoral Academies to serve pre-kindergarten students. Currently, Rhode Island is one of only 11 states nationally that don't invest in state pre-k programs. Nationally, Mayors, such as Denver's John Hickenlooper, or former San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales, have taken the lead in supporting quality early education when states fall behind. And, as we've previously argued here, charter schools are a natural partner in expanding quality pre-k. Charters have played an important role in expanding quality pre-k options in Washington, D.C., New Orleans, and elsewhere. Given all that, it would just be common sense for Rhode Island to allow its mayors to authorize charter schools for pre-kindergarteners. Allowing new Mayoral Academies to enroll pre-k students--and to receive state funds to do so--would be a great first step towards moving the pre-k ball forward in Rhode Island.

Early Ed Roundup: Week of June 16 - June 20

Christina Satkowski — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:03:00 -0400

House Panel Votes to End ‘Reading First'

A House Appropriations subcommittee voted on Thursday to stop funding the Reading First program, which brings scientifically-based reading instruction to children in grades K-3. Congress already cut the program's budget by over 60 percent --from $1 billion to $393 million--for the current fiscal year. President Bush hoped to restore funding to $1 billion this year.The vote comes after a preliminary federal evaluation of the program, released in May, that found no statistically significant impact on reading comprehension in Reading First schools. Committee chairman David Obey also pointed to an earlier investigation by the Department of Education Inspector General that found conflicts of interest and mismanagement of the program. Others, however, have raised important caveats about the evaluation, and the Department has also taken steps to address issues raised in the investigation. Congress should consider the potential impact on schools and students and support improvements in the program rather than eliminating it entirely.

Great First Year for Pennsylvania Pre-K

Students in the Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts program showed a 58 percent increase in meeting targets for early education language and literacy skills after one year of pre-k. An assessment of the year-old program, which serves 11,000 children across the state, also shows a 68 percent increase in the number of children showing age-appropriate social and emotional skills and a 51 percent increase in children showing age-appropriate use of behaviors to meet needs. Gov. Ed Rendell (D) proposed a $12.5 million increase in the program's budget next year, which would expand the program to 1,000 more children in the state. In addition to its impressive growth, Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts is a high-quality program that is focused on making sure all teachers have a B.A. degree by 2011.

Louisiana Passes New Orleans Voucher Plan

The Louisiana Senate passed a new voucher plan for children in New Orleans, clearing a final legislative hurdle and ensuring that some form of the proposal will land on the desk of Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), who is expected to approve it. Currently the plan will provide $6,300 scholarships to 1,500 low-income children in grades K-3 to attend private, mostly Catholic schools. There are questions, however, whether private schools in the city will have enough capacity to accommodated that many students. Some estimates say that actual program capacity would not be able to exceed 600.

Pre-K Enrollment Bucking the Trend in Maine

School enrollment in Maine has dropped by 13,000 students in the past decade, but pre-k is booming. Enrollment figures even suggest that pre-k may be playing a role in keeping more families enrolled in Maine's public schools. The Kennebec Journal reports that state and district level pre-k programs, many of which began in the last two years, are gaining in popularity, prompting plans to expand quicker than expected. Next step for Maine: work on quality. The state pre-k program meets only four of ten NIEER pre-k quality benchmarks.

A Closer Look At California Preschools

Sara Mead — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:54:00 -0400

One of the side effects of our patchwork system of preschool early education is that it's incredibly difficult to get good, comprehensive data on the extent to which children are receiving early education services or the quality of those programs. That's why a new RAND Corporation report on preschool in California is hugely important.

The RAND researchers built a portrait of pre-k access and quality in the Golden State from the ground up: First, they interviewed parents of more than 2,000 three- and four-year-old children about their children's early education and childcare arrangements. Then they interviewed more than 700 preschool and childcare providers. Then they conducted in-depth observations in more than 250 preschool classrooms. That's a massive undertaking, but because California's early care and education landscape is so fractured--children are receiving publicly funded preschool through California's State Preschool Program, Head Start, childcare subsidies, school-based programs, and county-driven "First Five" programs, not to mention the significant percentage of youngsters whose parents pay for private preschool--it's the only way to get a true picture of what the early education landscape really looks like in the state. Key findings include:

Half of California three- and four-year-olds are enrolled in preschool, with another nine percent in center-based care, 16 percent in home care settings, and one-quarter cared for by their parents exclusively. Among those enrolled in preschool, slightly less than half are in publicly funded programs (22 percent of the total).
Preschool enrollment is not evenly distributed in California: Hispanic and low-income children, and those whose mothers have lower levels of education, are less likely to be enrolled in preschool. That's a problem, because these are the groups of children who are at higher risk for poor school achievement.
Preschool quality is mixed. California preschool programs do pretty well on class size and child: staff ratios, but less well on teacher credentials. Although preschool quality varies for all groups of children, children from disadvantaged groups attend lower quality programs.
Quality is especially poor for measures that look at what goes on in the classroom setting: Few programs were rated "good" or higer on the ECER-s, a measure of classroom environment. California preschool programs scored particularly poorly on measures of the quality of instructional support they provided--the measure most closely linked to the educational quality and outcomes of preschool programs.

What are the key takeaways from this study?

First, with only half of California three and four-year-olds enrolled in preschool, there's plenty of room to expand access--particularly for low-income and racial/ethnic minority children.

Second, there's even more room to improve the quality of California's preschool and early childhood settings. In particular, any effort to improve the quality of California's preschool programs must specifically focuse on improving the quality of instructional support in preschool programs.

That's illustrative of a broader issue here: Some elements of early education quality are much easier to achieve than others--and it's also easier to know when programs are achieving them. California's preschool programs do pretty well on class size and adult: child ratios because those things are relatively easy to accomplish, and they're also easy for parents and regulators to evaluate. Recruiting credentialed teachers is harder--and more expensive--and the relationship between preschool teachers' credentials and quality is more opaque for parents, so California preschool programs do somewhat less well on that front.

But where California preschool programs do the worst is on the quality of interactions that take place in the classroom between adults and children--because getting high-quality interactions between adults and children is really hard, and it's also very difficult for parents and outside regulators to judge the quality of classroom interactions. The problem, of course, is that ample evidence shows us that quality of interactions in the classroom is the most important factor in early education quality and outcomes.

That leads back into what we were talking about last week. The quality features pre-k advocates are fighting for right now--small class sizes, bachelor's degreed teachers, adequate funding--are an essential pre-requisite for quality. But they aren't enough, because they themselves are not quality. Getting to quality in early education requires building systems that include the structures, supports, and incentives to produce quality interactions between adults and children. That also requires ways of assessing early education quality that take both interactions and outcomes into account. And it requires attention to the content that's being conveyed to children in those interactions. Putting that in place from a policy perspective is much tougher than simply mandating minimum adult: child ratios or teacher credentials. But it's essential. Unless policymakers focus on quality of interactions, quality of educational content, and quality of results in the preschool programs they invest in, we're not going to see the results preschool advocates have promised.

Early Ed Roundup: Week of June 9 - June 13

Christina Satkowski — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:00:00 -0400

Study Finds Roots of High School Success in Grade 4

Teachers can identify students who are at risk of failure in high school as early as fourth grade, according to a report released Tuesday by the Public Policy Institute of California. The study analyzed the test scores of the Class of 2006 in San Diego and found that grades, test scores and behavior reports in grade 4 were accurate predictors for whether a student would pass the California High School Exit Exam, known as the CAHSEE. The report expressed concerns about the value of 11^th hour interventions for students who fail the exam. Instead, the report's authors recommended shifting funds to help build a strong educational foundation in the early grades, including universal pre-kindergarten and class-size reduction.

Growth and Variety of Pre-K for Disabled Students

Some parents of Bay-area pre-kindergarteners with disabilities have specialized programs available closer to home now that a new facility has opened in the Menlo Park School District. School districts are required to offer pre-kindergarten for children with disabilities as a part of their right to a free appropriate public education (FAPE) under the federal IDEA law--even in states that don't have state pre-k programs. This year, the federal government is spending $374 million for special education pre-kindergarten programs. Schools find many ways to use the funds. A pre-kindergarten in East Volusia, Florida reports success with a "blended" pre-kindergarten program, where disabled children make progress by learning alongside peers developing at a typical pace.

How Old For Kindergarten?

Children who are older when they enter kindergarten have better achievement in later grades, according to a recent report by the Public Policy Institute of California. California has one of the latest kindergarten cutoff dates in the country; children may start kindergarten if they turn 5 by December 2^nd of that year. The report, which surveyed 14 other studies on the topic, finds that fewer children would be retained or diagnosed with a learning disability if the cutoff date is moved to September. The report echoes a 2004 recommendation by the California Governor's Committee on Education Excellence, which estimated that 100,000 fewer children would enroll in kindergarten at age 4 as a result of the policy change. The report also noted that one benefit of moving up the cutoff date would be an increased focus on the quality and availability of pre-kindergarten programs.

Early Ed Roundup: Week of June 2 - June 6

Christina Satkowski — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:36:00 -0400

Navigating a Patchwork of Pre-K Funding in Louisiana

Some public schools in Louisiana may start charging parents to participate in the state LA4 pre-k program next year. Like many targeted pre-k programs, LA4 reimburses pre-k providers only for children whose parents' incomes fall below a certain threshold (for LA4, it's free and reduced price lunch eligibility). But such restrictions can shut out children from moderate income families that aren't eligible for free programs but also can't afford the full cost of pre-k.

Study Shows New Mexico Boosts Kindergarten Readiness

Students in the New Mexico Pre-K program made statistically significant gains in vocabulary, early math and literacy assessments, according to a study of the program by the National Institute for Early Education Research. Gov. Bill Richardson applauded the study, saying that it proves that investment in the program pays off. New Mexico Pre-K, begun in 2005, enrolls more than 2,700 at-risk four-year-olds and has one of the highest quality ratings in the country.

Hurry Up and Wait

The Philadelphia Enquirer covers the more than 5,000 Pennsylvania youngsters on waiting lists for childcare subsidies. The average cost of childcare for an infant in Pennsylvania is $11,200 in a center and $8,090 in a family childcare home--far beyond the means of many low- and moderate-income families. That means a lack of childcare subsidies can force parents to make a tough choice between staying at home--often putting their families' finances in jeopardy--or putting their children in potentially unsafe care. Pennsylvania children are not alone. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of children are on waitlists for childcare funding. In most cases, the subsidies are a mix of state and federal funding. President Bush froze funding for federal childcare subsidies for the past six years.

The Fed Chief Stops By Harvard

Ben Bernanke got a lot of press about his economic insights in a speech at Harvard University earlier this week, but did you know he also mentioned early education? Sounds like he has been talking to colleagues Rob Grunewald and Art Rolnick ...