IDEA

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.

Campaign Watch: An Early Ed Agenda John McCain Could Love?

Sara Mead — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:41:00 -0400

We've spent a lot of time over the past two weeks talking about the Democratic presidential candidates' early education agendas, so today we're going to devote some time to the Republican candidate, Senator John McCain. So far, McCain hasn't said much about education issues, and hasn't offered any sort of education policy agenda. That's hardly surprising, as McCain has never been particularly involved on education issues in the Senate, and education issues were not a major issue in the Republican primary campaign. Richard Whitmire reports that McCain's advisors are about to start unrolling a series of education proposals-but predicts they won't include a significant early education component.

There are lots of good reasons for McCain's advisors to incorporate an early education component in the education agenda they're formulating. For starters, it would be counterintuitive, and it would also help cast a more positive light on some of the areas where McCain is weaker.

Further, it's probably easier for Republican politicians to support innovative ideas on early education than on K-12 reform right now. Conventional wisdom within the pundit class holds that teachers unions make it difficult for Democrats to advance compelling school reform ideas. But the politics of school reform are equally fraught for many Republicans. The conservative base loathes NCLB with a passion to rival that of the most strident teacher unionist and strongly opposes any expansion of the feds' role in schooling. Moderate Republicans know that the suburban parents they represent aren't thrilled by NCLB or reforms that might shake up a status quo that works pretty well for them now. And, as the Sol Stern controversy demonstrates, the conservative constituency for education reform is increasingly divided between choice-niks who think vouchers are the only answer, and devotees of curricular reform. In other words, for a politician who's never evinced a particular passion for education issues, the waters can't look too appealing in K-12 reform.

Early education looks much more favorable. Because we have a diverse delivery system in early education, new early education investments can flow to a variety of providers-including private schools, for-profit providers, and faith-based organizations-not just the existing public school system. Economic arguments have convinced leading business conservatives, such as CED president Charles Kolb, to support early education. And Republican governors, such as Bob Riley in Alabama or former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in Arkansas, have been leaders in fighting to expand pre-k funding at the state level.

To be sure, fiscal conservatives, including McCain, are unlikely to embrace large federal universal pre-k programs. But there are plenty of things that McCain-or other candidates-could propose to improve early education without huge new expenditures. Last fall we released 10 low- or no-cost proposals to improve early education in the No Child Left Behind Act. We've thought of a few more early education ideas that might fit in well with a McCain education agenda:

Provide pre-k for children of active duty military personnel: Today, in our all-volunteer, professional military, more than 40 percent of active duty service members have children-and 40 percent of those children are under age five. The military has created an impressive system to provide high-quality childcare for children whose parents serve in the military. But military preschoolers should also have access to high-quality pre-k aligned with early elementary programs-something many currently don't get, or have only sporadically due to high mobility and differing state pre-k eligibility criteria. Both Texas and Kansas have policies that make children from military families eligible for publicly funded pre-k, and Maryland is considering similar legislation. Senator McCain could encourage more states to do the same by offering one-to-one matching grants to states that expand pre-k programs to serve children from military families. This investment would support quality education for military children and complement the military's current investments in childcare, and might cost around $500 million annually.

Support charter schools that provide high-quality pre-k: Charter schools can play a valuable role in delivering high-quality, aligned early education programs in diverse settings. Senator McCain's education advisor, Lisa Graham Keegan, supports charter schools, and his home state of Arizona has the highest percentage of students in charter schools in the country. So it would seem natural for McCain to promote charter schooling as a strategy for improving early education and expanding access to pre-kindergarten. McCain could propose policies to expand the number of early education charter schools by: amending the federal charter schools program to support pre-k charter schools, encouraging states to remove barriers that prevent charter schools from offering pre-k, and requiring the Secretaries of Education and Health and Human Services to work together to help charter schools access federal funding streams for child care and early education.

Support parent choice in early education: Senator McCain supports greater parent choice in K-12 education. Parents already have a diverse array of choices in early education-but they often have trouble finding good information to help them make the best choice for their child. A growing number of states are creating online resources that provide parents with lists of childcare providers in their area, as well as access to quality ratings, inspection records, and other information to help them judge the quality of providers. And the privately operated Savvy Source for Parents offers profiles of local pre-k providers to help parents make informed choices. Senator McCain could support parent choice in early education by offering grants to states and private groups to create or improve online resources that help parents access reliable information about the quality of child care and early education providers.

Expand programs for preschoolers, toddlers, and infants with disabilities: In the Senate, McCain has voted on multiple occasions for full funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. IDEA provides grants to local school districts to help with the costs of educating school-aged students with disabilities. But it also includes programs to serve infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities. These programs are important, because early intervention is key to helping children with disabilities-especially those with severe disabilities such as autism-meet their full potential. Senator McCain could propose to expand these programs and also to allow states to use up to 15 percent of funding from them to provide preventive services for young children who have not yet been identified with a disability, but are at high risk for one-something IDEA already allows school districts to do with funds they receive for school-age students. We could expand these programs substantially for relatively modest amounts of money, and the investment could ultimately save money by supporting early interventions that reduce the need for more costly services later on.

Create high-quality alternative certification models for pre-k teachers: Whitmire notes that McCain supports Teach for America, which recruits talented recent college graduates to work in high-poverty schools. McCain could support a Teach for America-like initiative to expand the supply of high-quality preschool and early childhood education teachers. As states across the country expand universal pre-k programs and raise quality standards for them, many are facing difficulties in recruiting qualified teachers. Many experienced early educators have valuable skills but lack formal credentials. In order to keep these individuals in the classroom, build their knowledge and skills, and ensure and adequate supply of high-quality early educators, we need new, streamlined models of early educator training that focus on developing the skills and knowledge research has shown affect young children's learning. Supporting the creation and expansion of alternate route programs-such as Teach for America-for pre-k teachers would be a great way for McCain to support states' efforts to improve early education.

These are just a few, relatively low-cost proposals for things that conservative candidates and legislators could support to improve early education. Stay tuned for more coverage of early education in the election as campaign 2008 continues.

Photo of John McCain by flickr user PaisleyPitbull, used under a Creative Commons license.

More Money, Lower Achievement in Durham, North Carolina

Lindsey Luebchow — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:00:00 -0500

Durham, North Carolina. It's a medium-sized, old tobacco and textile city best known for housing Duke University. Most national media coverage of Durham focuses on the ivory tower that is Duke, its highly-ranked undergraduate and graduate programs, and of course Duke's basketball team. Rarely does anyone outside North Carolina get an accurate (or any) picture of the city itself and its own educational issues.

In the shadow of an elite institution of higher education, Durham’s K-12 public education system is struggling and often failing to educate its students. Only six schools out of 45 made Adequate Yearly Progress (met No Child Left Behind achievement goals) last year. Some 19 of Durham’s 26 Title I elementary schools are in school improvement status, meaning they have failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress for at least two consecutive years. Only 56 percent of Durham students graduate from high school.

There are obviously a lot of factors contributing to Durham’s poor achievement levels and high drop-out rate. But let’s take a closer look at the money going into Durham’s schools and see how its funding compares to similar districts in North Carolina.

Durham is spending $8,269 per pupil, which ranks 29th out of 115 school districts in North Carolina. About $519 of that spending comes from the federal government in the form of a NCLB Title I grant and IDEA special education grant.

What’s happening in districts with a similar size and poverty rate? Using the Federal Education Budget Project’s Comparison Tool, available at Ed Budget Project.Org, you can compare Durham to other districts in North Carolina and other districts nationwide.

The most similar district to Durham in North Carolina—in terms of size and poverty rate—is Gaston County Schools, a district in the South-Central Piedmont region of North Carolina next door to Charlotte. Both have around 32,000 students, and 17-18 percent of those students live in poverty.

But Durham is spending $1,782 more per-pupil than Gaston County. And the money isn’t translating into higher achievement—Gaston County is doing better on North Carolina’s No Child Left Behind achievement test, the ABCs Test, with 82 percent of 4th graders deemed proficient in reading and 93 percent proficient in math, compared to 75 percent and 88 percent in Durham.

So what’s the story here? Well, it could be that Durham is experiencing a different type of poverty than Gaston County that makes teaching low-income students more difficult. Maybe Durham can’t attract high-quality teachers because of its location, run-down school facilities, or unattractive working conditions.

Or maybe this is an example of what President Bush likes to call the "soft bigotry of low expectations" for minority students: Durham’s schools are 72 percent black and Hispanic, while Gaston County’s schools are 28 percent.

Whatever the combination of factors causing Durham to perform more poorly than its peer school districts while also spending more money, it’s a question that should be raised and discussed by schools, parents, policymakers at the local and state levels.

There are conversations going on in Durham about teacher recruitment and retention, school choice, pre-kindergarten, and the achievement gap, among other issues. But action and results are another story.

Durham isn't the only community of concern. There are many places in the country where not enough of these conversations are taking place. Check out the funding going to your local school district, or any school district in the country, and take a look at their comparative performance by going to New America’s Federal Education Budget Project at Ed Budget Project.org.