Pre-K

Ever since the release of Reroute the Preschool Juggernaut, a new book by Fordham Foundation president Chester Finn, we have heard a growing chorus of rebuttals from leaders in the early childhood community to Finn's 123-page argument against universal pre-K. Yesterday, W. Stephen Barnett, co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research, published his own 14-point critique of Finn's reasoning.

Barnett writes that Finn "cherry-picks" evidence that discounts the value of universal pre-K. The book, he says, exaggerates the costs of high-quality, universal pre-K and ignores the research that shows positive long-term academic and social benefits of attending pre-K. Further, the book "seeks to generate fears that big government will mandate cookie-cutter programs in the public schools" when in fact all existing and proposed pre-K programs are voluntary.

One features caped superheroes who fly "into" classic stories like The Three Little Pigs, using their knowledge of letters and words to change the endings. (Don't worry, there's still plenty of huffing and puffing.) The other one puts words front and center, turning them into props and lead characters, such as the wooly wonder whose body is actually formed out of cushiony-looking, three-dimensional letters of S H E E P.

In 2007, when PBS launched these two new television shows for 3 to 6 year olds -- Super Why! and Word World -- most parents saw them as just another couple of programs trying to elbow into the increasingly crowded children's TV market. But they have another dimension. They are part of a federally funded, five-year program to determine whether electronic media can help children learn to read -- and if so how.

Researchers are now releasing data from the first studies of these shows. Results are promising, with SuperWhy! helping children make large gains on the majority of tests of pre-reading skills and Word World having a somewhat lesser, though still significant, impact.

By Louise Stoney

Nearly every state has, or is developing, an early care and education quality rating and improvement system (QRIS). But many states find that only a small percentage of providers participate and that parents often do not use the system to guide decision-making. Last year Louisiana enacted an innovative tax credit package designed to address these concerns by offering financial rewards for those who participate in Quality Start, the state's new QRIS.  Legislation authored by Senator Ann Duplessis, a banker who represents parts of New Orleans,  created four  separate, refundable School Readiness Tax Credits (SRTC)  available to families, child care providers, child care teachers and directors and businesses that support child care.

We've noticed that several early childhood sites have jumped into radio and podcasting recently. You can now download or stream programs that focus on everything from raising a self-motivated child to how childcare providers are navigating through turbulent times. Tune in to NAEYC Radio (for the National Association for the Education of Young Children), NACCP Radio (for the National Association of Child Care Professionals) and Head Start Radio, to name some of the more recent converts.

For educators and policy makers tired of reading dry reports, these podcasts are a great break. And for busy moms and dads with little time to read, here's a chance to asborb helpful new information while folding laundry. To this development we say: Hear, hear.

Here's a sampling of specific podcasts that have recently come across our digital desks:

Just before closing out their biennial legislative session, the Texas legislature passed new pre-k quality enhancement legislation that pre-k advocates have been pushing for in the state.

The bill, HB-130, establishes an "Enhanced Quality Full-Day Pre-Kindergarten Program" that allows the Commissioner of Education to make grants to school districts to offer high-quality, full-day pre-k programs that meet enhanced quality standards, including a maximum class size of 22 students, an adult-to-child ratio of at least one adult for every 11 children, and a requirement that every classroom have at least one certified teacher. These quality standards are higher than those for Texas' existing pre-k program -- the nation's largest -- which does not set a maximum class size or adult-to-child ratio.

Yesterday we wrote about how private organizations in Minnesota -- namely business groups and non-profit foundations -- have spearheaded a campaign for more public investment in early education in the state. In addition to advocating for policy, several non-profit organizations actively operate or finance programs to improve children's school readiness and overall well-being. Today we look at how these organizations can continue to play an innovative role in future early childhood policy.

While there are many private sector groups that advocate for an expanded, better-coordinated system of early childhood care and education in Minnesota, several of them practice what they preach. For example, the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF) and Invest Early, a program in rural Itasca County, operate programs directly, including early childhood health programs and preschools. But these private organizations know that they will not be able to achieve their goals unless the state substantially increases investment in early education.

June 23 is the deadline for Head Start programs to submit applications to the Department of Health and Human Services if they want to use stimulus funds to expand their programs and serve more children. (Programs wishing to expand Early Head Start have a deadline of July 9.) This week we heard that the Head Start program in Alexandria, Va., plans to apply for $400,000 in stimulus funds to serve 54 more children, bringing enrollment up to 306. The program is run by a non-profit organization called The Campagna Center, which also is applying for funds to open more slots for infants and toddlers through its Early Head Start program.

Public-private partnerships are very common in early education, but what does the "private" half of these important relationships look like? Today and tomorrow, we take a look at Minnesota, a state where the private sector -- including businesses and non-profit foundations -- has assumed a prominent role in advocating for early education policy. Tomorrow we examine how the private sector can help shape what that policy might look like.

Of all the states where you might expect to find a robust early education system, Minnesota might be near the top of the list. After all, the North Star State is home to some of the country's most prominent early childhood researchers, including Arthur Reynolds at the University of Minnesota and Minneapolis Federal Reserve economists Art Rolnick and Bob Grunewald. And we can't forget that Minnesota is the site of the fictional, farcical and fabulous Lake Wobegon, where  "all the children are above average."

One day my youngest daughter, Gillian, came home from preschool telling a glorious tale. Her class of 4-year-olds had baked a giant gingerbread man, but he escaped from the school's oven. He left crumbs in the hallway and couldn't be found in the stairwell. "Everybody gathered up together and put raisins on the floor and made a trap," she told me. It worked: "We ate him all up."

I ate it up too -- the story, I mean. To me, this was preschool at its best. The fact that Gillian was utterly caught up in the drama - "It really happened Mom, I promise" - was icing on the cake, er, cookie.

Today, Gillian is experiencing her last day of preschool, so I can't help but spend a little time reflecting on what made her preschool experience so rich and worthwhile. Yes the art projects were fabulous, the playground time was abundant (Gillian's dreams almost always feature the tire swing), and circle time was just what she needed to learn to sit still for a few minutes and take turns listening to those around her.

We've been hearing the last few weeks about growing opposition to the administration's proposals to set aside $500 million in Title I funds to provide incentive grants to school districts that use new Title I funds they received under the stimulus to invest in pre-k. We're not surprised. When the stimulus bill was moving through Congress, the administration sought to set aside 15 percent of Title I funds in the stimulus for pre-k programs, but that proposal encountered opposition from school boards and the school administrators' association, who succeeded in getting that proposal removed from the final legislation. 

The administration's current proposal, which provides an incentive rather than an absolute set-aside, is a kinder, gentler version of that effort, but established education groups still aren't that crazy about it, in part because it transfers funds from Title I grants to LEAs to use for this purpose. In addition, groups that represent community-based pre-k and child care providers are up in arms about the proposal, because they fear that if school districts increase their pre-k spending, it will create competition that will hurt existing community-based providers.