Pre-k not at the top of Indy’s reform agenda

Indiana has long trailed other states when it comes to public support of pre-kindergarten; it’s one of just eight in the U.S. that don’t fund it at all, according to NIEER. In addition, the Indianapolis Star reported recently, Indiana’s state laws don’t even require children to begin school until the fall when they turn seven.

While there’s new legislation introduced that would lower the age, financial issues could interfere.

“I would always say I support early childhood education, and when the economic climate affords itself, we must afford ourselves the opportunity to finish the job,” Bennett said in a recent interview with the Courier Press.

A recent piece by Scott Elliott in the Indy Star called pre-kindergarten “the missing piece in Indiana education reform.”

Gov. Phil Bredesen has been pushing to expand voluntary pre-kindergarten to every county in the state for years, leading to the state’s ranking as among the top states in the percentage of children enrolled, according to the National Institute of Early Education.

What will the legacy of Gov. Phil Bredesen and his pre-k push be?

Initially, the Tennessee comptroller’s report found the impacts of pre-k diminish after the second-grade, and supporters used the report to argue that the foundation provided in the early grades is particularly important in helping young children succeed. The latest report found that “despite an early academic advantage, pre-k participants did not perform measurably better beyond the second grade.”

With Bredesen poised to leave office after two terms, pre-k has become an issue in the governor’s campaign — especially as the state grapples with a budget shortfall.

“More than 18,000 Tennessee 4-year-olds considered at risk are enrolled in state-funded pre-K.  Its effect has become an issue in the gubernatorial race. Democrat Mike McWherter supports expanding the program, while Republican Bill Haslam says the state lacks funding to do so,”  The Tennessean reported.

Supporters of pre-k will be watching the election closely.  They say the comptroller’s report underscores the value of pre-kindergarten. The Tennessee Alliance for Early Education, for example, issued a statement noting:

“The state’s nationally recognized voluntary pre-K program is successful in preparing children for kindergarten and first grade. … While pre-K is proven to help children succeed in school and in life, it should not be seen as the only means of preparing a child academically for second, third, fourth and fifth grades.”

“A substantial number of Head Start programs are so ineffective that they do little or nothing to boost child development and learning,” said W. Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Ron Haskins, co-director of the Brookings Institution’s Center on Children and Families, co-authored the op-ed with Barnett.

Center leaders have not entirely welcomed the proposals. Some are worried that competition would be costly, and could create more uncertainty and possibly chaos.  Large centers have expressed concerns that they’ll be singled out simply because their size could lead to more problems.

The Post piece comes as a new, must-read collection of papers assessing federal policies for early childhood education and child care was released by NIEER,  entitled “Investing in Young Children: New Directions in Federal Preschool and Early Childhood Policy.”

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, once the star of "Kindergarten Cop,'' has signed bill raising the age students can enter

The motivation in the cash-strapped state is surely helped by an estimated $700 million in savings for delaying about 120,000 children each year, according to the Associated Press. However, the plan signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also adds another grade level before kindergarten, out of concern for parents who were counting on a free year of public school instead of having to pay for childcare or a private preschool program.

The move was applauded by the advocacy group Preschool California, and its president Catherine Atkin . The new bill comes after numerous studies have shown that younger children aren’t ready for the academics of kindergarten.

“Study after study has shown that these younger kindergartners are the ones most likely to experience difficulty in schools, Atkin told the Associated Press. “We know that when you give them an additional year of preparation it helps them become confident learners.”

The state will phase the change in one month at a time over three years starting next fall, in a move to make sure all children are 5 by Sept. 1 instead of the current date of Dec. 2.

Big push on in Minnesota to get more kids ready for kindergarten

Lots of states in financial stress are struggling with ways to maintain pre-kindergarten programs — or any publicly funded programs at all that help parents and children get the skills they need to start school. Minnesota is one of those states with a budget deficit and big ambitions.

A group known as Ready 4 K is pushing hard for a new policy plan they want lawmakers to consider in the upcoming sesison, according to a story in the Manakota Free Press. The plan is asking lawmakers and three candidates for governor to support a range of initiatives, from home visits and parent education for first time parents to community partnerships around early childhood investments and a statewide quality rating system for programs. They would also like to see a statewide early education department.

Similar efforts are going on throughout the country with mixed results. Often, what starts as a small grass roots movement turns into a larger, more effective campaign and then into actual public policy. But only with funding.

“This is going to have to be public money,”  Karen Kingsley, Ready for K’s director of policy and civic engagement, told the Free Press. “It isn’t cheap.”

All this is one reason why EarlyStories is taking note of a new report that calls for increasing the compensation of early childhood workers and providing bonuses, earned tax credits, and loan forgiveness programs. The Boston Globe wrote about the report, sponsored by the Bessie Tartt Wilson Initiative for Children, a  Boston nonprofit that works to improve early education, especially for disadvantaged students.

The report comes at a time when the majority of child-care workers in Massachusetts earn less than $25,000, and as the state — like many in the U.S. –  confronting a compensation crisis, causing many child-care workers to leave the industry. How are states and municipalities handling this crisis? How can we improve education at all levels if we don’t start with our littlest learners and those who guide them?

Montgomery County  schools has been lauded by the Foundation for Child Development as an example of  “a system that has successfully built bridges from prekindergarten through third grade by aligning standards, curricula, instruction, and assessments both within and across the early grades,”  according to a U.S. Department of Education blog entry.

The Maryland school district says that creating clear and specific goals, with support from states and the federal government, is a model that all districts can use, and says that as a result:

• Almost 90 percent of kindergarteners [in Montgomery County] entered first grade with essential early literacy skills
• Nearly 88 percent of third graders achieved reading proficiency
• About 90 percent of 12th graders graduated from high school
• 77 percent of graduating seniors enrolled in college
• Achievement gaps between different racial and ethnic groups across all grade levels declined by double digits

What exactly took place in these schools and how did this district accomplish so much? Are parents clamoring to get their children into pre-kindergarten programs there as a result?  It would be interesting to speak with parents in the district and find out how satisfied they are with pre-kindergarten in the county, and with the quality of the teachers and the program.  It would be even more interesting to compare the offerings with neighboring districts to see how much the outcomes differ.

Special needs children need high quality childcare and early education

Finding high quality child care and early education programs is a huge challenge for most Americans, but those with special needs children find it so impossibly complex that they often don’t even send their children to any organized child care programs,  the excellent “Birth to Thrive,” blog notes.

“The availability of high quality child care is not anywhere near where people would like,”  Maureen Greer, administrative liaison at the IDEA Infant Toddler Coordinators Association, is quoted in the blog as saying.

“Birth to Thrive,” provides a tremendous public service in a new series that asks where special needs families fit in early learning, and is poised to explore everything from the federal budget picture to lists of national and local resources.  The stories are more timely than ever as a growing number of children are diagnosed with autisum and other learning issues, straining public schools and stressing families.

Many of the state’s preschool and early learning programs have yet to receive money from the state for their early childhood programs, and in some cases they are reducing the numbers of employees.  It’s a story well worth watching — as many media organizations already are.  The Chicago Tribune recently described how the program transformed the life of a shy 4-year-old girl.  The program has been considered a model — what will its demise mean?

Darling-Hammond recently wrote “The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future,” an alarming account of current education conditions in the U.S.  The book cites Finland, along with Singapore and South Korea, as models of equitable school systems, and on the radio show she describes why they get it right. Darling-Hammond says the success is due in part to the quality of training for teachers in Finalnd, which has a professional, unionized labor force.  Finland’s social democratic model provides the same services to all its citizens, Burbank has noted, with early childhood care and education considered a public good.

It was a good starting point to be reminded of the many quality issues surrounding early childhood education in the U.S.  and to think about w hat we might do differently.