Pre-K

Americans aren't the only ones expecting national-level policy changes in early childhood education. In England, schools are preparing for what could be the biggest shake-up in primary education in decades, according to news reports. In early December, Sir Jim Rose, an advisor to English Schools Secretary Ed Balls, issued an interim report on the state of English primary education. His recommendation: Shift away from teaching about discrete subjects and introduce more opportunities for children to play and develop cognitive and motor skills.

The final recommendations of the Rose Review, as his report is called, are not expected until later this year and, if accepted by the government, they won't be in place until 2011. But, the new ideas have already caused a stir in England. Not only do they represent a major shift away from the National Curriculum of 1988, a set of concepts that are supposed to guide the instruction of all English students beginning in preschool. These changes come with a concerted emphasis on early education and early education alignment. On that last point, especially, U.S. policymakers should take note.

Early education advocates and practitioners across the country are viewing the coming state budget seasons with concern, as significant state budget deficits put pressure on lawmakers to cut state spending, threatening funding for pre-k and other early education programs.

In a coincidence of timing, we published our roundup of various organizations' proposals for early childhood care and education in the stimulus package at about the same time as Pre-K Now released a letter to House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid outlining their stimulus agenda for early education--so Pre-k Now's agenda didn't make it into our roundup.

If the think-tank policy paper mill is any indication of issue salience, teacher quality is a hot topic right now - as it should be. Teachers are critical to students' academic success, yet many students do not have high-quality teachers, and many of the best teachers are set to retire in the coming years.

Unfortunately, discussions on how to improve teacher quality often ignore the unique challenges of improving teaching in early education. Early education faces many of the same teacher quality issues as elsewhere in the K-12 sector, such as large numbers of teachers who are not trained in the subjects they teach and the fact that the best teachers tend to gravitate towards low-poverty schools. But there are some important differences that affect how well some proposed policy changes will work for our youngest learners.

In case you missed it, Pre-K Now broadcast their annual National Conference yesterday afternoon.

With Congress considering a massive stimulus package intended to jumpstart the struggling economy, it’s not surprising that everyone in Washington wants to make sure their pet issues get a piece of the action. There are even rumors that pre-k investments could be part of the stimulus package.

Looks like American preschoolers aren't the only ones getting expelled from school at alarmingly high rates. In 2005, researchers at Yale found that American preschoolers were getting expelled from school at a rate three times higher than their peers in K-12.

Most parents have eighteen years to save up for their child’s college tuition. Now imagine having only three or four years to save up for the same amount. Actually, you’re not imagining – it is a reality for many parents of young children who are struggling to pay for the cost of high-quality preschool. In a majority of states, the average annual of costs of early childhood care and education for a four-year old exceed the costs of tuition and fees at a four-year public university.