Early Ed Watch

A new paper by Joseph G. Antolji, Prashant Bharadwaj, and Fabian Lange looks at whether or not American youth have responded to increasing economic rewards for skills and education by investing more in skills and education:

We examine changes in the characteristics of American youth between the late 1970s and the late 1990s, with a focus on characteristics that matter for labor market success. We reweight the NLSY79 to look like the NLSY97 along a number of dimensions that are related to labor market success, including race, gender, parental background, education, test scores, and variables that capture whether individuals transition smoothly from school to work. We then use the re-weighted sample to examine how changes in the distribution of observable skills affect employment and wages. We also use more standard regression methods to assess the labor market consequences of differences between the two cohorts. Overall, we find that the current generation is more skilled than the previous one. Blacks and Hispanics have gained relative to whites and women have gained relative to men. However, skill differences within groups have increased considerably and in aggregate the skill distribution has widened. Changes in parental education seem to generate many of the observed changes.

Plan Underway to Consolidate California Preschool Programs

California State Superintendent of Instruction Jack O'Connell joined California lawmakers on Tuesday to unveil a legislative package that would combine the state's five early education and family programs into one, to be called the California State Preschool Program. The new program, which would include the existing California State Preschool Program, Full-Day State Preschool, the Pre-Kindergarten and Family Literacy Program, Pre-Kindergarten and Family Full Day, the General Care and Development Program would have an $816 million budget, making it the largest preschool program in the country. Local government officials praised the plan, which is designed to help streamline services and cut administrative costs. Currently some local educational agencies administer all five programs at once; with the new umbrella program they say they can redirect funding once used for paper-pushing towards instruction.

It's National Teacher Appreciation Week, the time of year when we thank teachers for the hard work they do to educate the nation's children. But which teachers are we talking about? Research shows that early education is just as important the K-12 years, providing an important and fundamental base for success in the later grades. Yet our early education teachers rarely get the amount of recognition they deserve. Here are two ways to appreciate the nation's pre-k educators:

It's become a cliche among politicians and early education supporters to argue that the United States needs new early childhood investments to prepare our youngsters to compete with workers in India and China--or "Beijing and Bangalore" as Barack Obama recently said. But, as a recent article about preschool franchising in India reflects, parent demand for quality early education options is growing in India and China as well.

Currently, the preschool industry in [India] is estimated to gross about Rs4,004 crore ($985 million). The sector is likely to cross Rs13,821 crore by 2012, a growth of more than 28% per year, according to estimates from brokerage firm CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets. With nearly three-quarters of the country’s population under the age of 35, the demand for quality preschools is expected to only intensify.

Voters in Indiana and North Carolina cast their presidential primary votes today--a big day for Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who are battling it out for the Democratic presidential nomination. Over the weekend, both Clinton and Obama gave significant speeches in a final push to make their case for the presidential nomination to Indiana and North Carolina voters. Both mentioned early education.

At the North Carolina Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Raleigh, N.C., Hillary Clinton said:

This week, May 4 through May 10, is National Charter Schools Week. Charter schools, charter school authorizers and charter school associations across the country are holding events to raise awareness about charter schooling and celebrate the successes and growth of the nation’s 4,300 charter schools, as well as the 1.2 million students they serve.

We’ve written previously about the often overlooked potential charter schools have to improve early education. Charter schools are independent public schools of choice that are publicly funded, free of charge to students, and accountable to the public, but operated by organizations other than local school districts. Many charter schools are already delivering high-quality early elementary school programs, and are a valuable source of potential capacity as states seek to expand pre-kindergarten programs.

Last week the Institute of Education Sciences released the first report from an ongoing national evaluation of Reading First. And, as a front page Washington Post story (and plenty of other newspaper articles across the country) reported, the news wasn’t good. Researchers found no evidence of statistically significant improvements in the reading comprehension of students in Reading First schools, compared to students in similar schools that did not receive Reading First funding. Since the point of Reading First is to improve students’ literacy skills, that’s a disappointing result.

Increased Funding for Early Ed in Michigan

Lawmakers in Michigan are planning to direct $5 million in additional funding to Head Start Programs in the state. Though the funds are meant to increase enrollment in the program, some of the money will go to reopen Head Start centers that closed this year because of a decrease in funding last year. Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm's budget for FY 2009 also proposes to increase funding for the state pre-k program, the Michigan Great Start Readiness Program, by 26 percent.

On Tuesday, the Hawai'i legislature passed legislation to lay the foundation for a pre-k and early education system in the state. Senate Bill 2878 authorizes the creation of a state Early Learning Council, also known as "Keiki First Steps," that would work to expand and improve the quality of early education services in the state and serve as the governing body for Hawai'i's early education system. The legislation also authorizes the Early Learning Council to make grants to early education providers and provides support for pre-k facilities.

Twenty-seven governors mentioned pre-k or early education initiatives in their State of the State addresses this year, but how many followed up their rhetoric with action? Pre-K Now takes a look in the just-released "Leadership Matters: Governors' Pre-K Proposals Fiscal Year 2009," their annual barometer of governors' priorities when it comes to funding pre-k and early education.

This year the awards go to Alabama governor Bob Riley (R), who proposed a 174 percent increase in the state's First Class pre-k program, and Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick (D), who hopes to increase funding for the state's universal preschool program by 22 percent. Pre-K Now offers further recognition to governors in Virginia, Florida, Iowa, and New Jersey, rounding out a bipartisan team of state leaders pushing for pre-k in the face of mounting budget deficits. All in all, twenty-one governors have either proposed or secured increased funding for pre-k in FY 2009. Eight more governors propose flat-funding existing pre-k programs.