Growing Fear: Middle Class Kids Are Being Left Out of Public Pre-K
Pre-K program expansion is in retreat or at risk in a number of states, and dire warnings are already being issued for future state budgets. At the same time, new federal resources are aimed primarily at disadvantaged populations. Understandably, fear is growing that more working families who don't qualify for targeted programs, yet can't afford private pre-K, will increasingly have no pre-K. Cutting back on pre-K for working families, as Ohio has already done by eliminating its Early Learning Initiative, is a policy mistake since there is no sharp differentiation in school readiness or later educational success between those above and below the poverty line, says NIEER co-director Steve Barnett. Instead there is a strong linear gradient along which school readiness, achievement, and graduation rates increase with income. Barnett blogs on the subject this week in Preschool Matters … Today!
Top Brass Call for more Public Pre-K to Help Address Shortage of Recruits
Retired military leaders belonging to the group Mission: Readiness delivered a shocker recently when they released a report saying that 75 percent of young people in the U.S. can't join the military because they are too poorly educated, are overweight or have a criminal record. Calling the situation a threat to our national security, they made a strong case for devoting more resources to public pre-K to help address the problem. The group called on Congress to act this year. Former NATO Supreme Commander General Wesley Clark issued something sounding like a direct order, telling Congress it "must pass" the Early Learning Challenge Grant. That bill, which would provide $1 billion in funding for early childhood programs each year over the next 10 years, passed the House but is unlikely to be taken up in the Senate until it finishes with health care reform.
NIEER International Study: Early Interventions in Many Countries Have Positive Effects
Early childhood interventions around the world vary widely and not much exists in way of research reviews looking at their effectiveness. To help address that gap, NIEER recently completed a meta-analysis of studies looking at 30 interventions in 23 countries, finding that conditional cash transfers, early care and education, and nutritional interventions all had moderate positive effects in all domains of development. Educational interventions had the largest effects on cognitive abilities. NIEER Assistant Research Professor Milagros Nores, who led the study which appears in Economics of Education Review, says studies looking at effects at later ages found the gains were lasting. She blogs on the subject in Preschool Matters … Today!
Cause for Alarm? Preschoolers Watching Loads of TV
Data released this week by Nielsen News shows that American children aged two to five are spending more than 32 hours a week — or more than 4.5 hours a day — watching television. That's four more hours per week than kids six to eleven. The younger kids are also more likely to watch advertising in playback mode than the older group. The Lehrer NewsHour took up the issue in a segment recognizing the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. It featured Michele Obama, Big Bird, Sesame Workshop CEO Gary Knell and Lisa Guernsey, author and director of the early education initiative at New America Foundation. Read the transcript here.
Early Lessons Radio Program Revisits Perry Preschool, Charts Pre-K's Progress
American Radio Works producer Emily Hanford traveled to Yipsilanti, Michigan, to capture the essence of the Perry Preschool Program, interview Perry teachers, and document the advances in early education that emanated from it and other programs that are the basis of so much high-quality research. Her program, called Early Lessons has been drawing rave reviews. Read articles by Hanford about the project and download the program at the American Radio Works web site.
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