In The Know: Are Tests Biased Against Students Who Don't Give A Shit?

NIEER early ed hot topics 8/27

Race to the Top Winners: Pre-K Part of Their Plans but Not a Deciding Factor
Seven of the 10 winners in Phase 2 of the Race to the Top (RTT) competition addressed the early learning challenge priority in their applications even though this section didn't accrue points toward winning. Reforms cited ranged from improving the quality of state pre-K in Georgia to linking early learning standards with K-3 curricula and assessments in Massachusetts. As with any competition of this type, there were disappointments. New Jersey narrowly lost due in part to a data error in its application. Colorado also came close but lost, in part because the state's plan for developing a collaborative for school readiness content contributed nothing toward its point total. Lisa Guernsey discusses RTT in her Early Ed Watch blog post.

Research: Youngest Kids Get Mislabeled with ADHD
Two recent studies point to a tendency for the youngest children in class to be diagnosed as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when their inattentiveness and impulsiveness is probably due to immaturity. Todd Elder, Michigan State University, found that the youngest kids in kindergarten were 60 percent more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than their oldest classmates. He estimates the costs of unneeded medication alone at as much as $500 million annually.

Another article in press at Journal of Health Economics studied children born just a few days apart, finding that those born before the kindergarten cut-off date had an ADHD diagnosis rate of 9.7 percent and those born after it had a 7.6 percent diagnosis rate.

Schott Foundation: Only 47 Percent of Black Males Graduate from High School
The 50-state report on black males in public education from the Schott Foundation says nationally, only 47 percent of this group graduate from high school. New York City, home of the nation's highest enrollment of black students, graduates 28 percent of black males. Among school districts with more than 10,000 black males enrolled, Newark, New Jersey has the highest graduation rate at 76 percent. Among states with more than 100,000 black males enrolled, New Jersey has the highest graduation rate at 69 percent. The report credits the state's "Abbott" school finance and education reforms for achieving these rates. The report makes an interesting juxtaposition to the news on Race to the Top (RTT) awards and raises questions about an apparent lack of attention to school finance in RTT.

Arizona's Home Language Survey Could Miss 18 Percent of ELLs
A Stanford University study of Arizona's home language survey, used to identify potential English Language Learners (ELLs), found that as many as 11 to 18 percent of students who are eligible for ELL designation could be denied services to which they are entitled if a single home language survey question is used to identify potential ELLs. The researchers said it is also highly unlikely that a fail-safe mechanism established by the state, whereby teachers can nominate potential ELLs for language testing, will successfully identify most students the survey fails to identify.

Can Preschoolers Be Depressed?
Parenting author Pamela Paul attempts to answer that question in this weekend's New York Times Magazine. Among her sources are Joan Luby, professor of child psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine; Daniel Klein, professor of clinical psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook; and Arnold Sameroff, developmental psychologist at the University of Michigan's Center for Human Growth and Development. Luby is one of the first researchers to systematically study the criteria for preschool depression. Diagnosing it in children so young is controversial.

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New on Preschool Matters...Today!

Three Easy Pieces (of Research) for Budget Deciders
In today's blog post NIEER Co-Director Steve Barnett points out three recent, easy-to-understand pieces of research that look at different impacts of investments on young children and underscores the importance of prioritizing investments in early learning and development.

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IN State Education Dept. needs to address its own deficiencies

Don Wheeler

I was heartened to read the editorial of the South Bend Tribune July 25, which declared "Early start is key to children's school success." Two years ago, as a candidate for South Bend Community School Corp. Board of Trustees, conversations with neighbors made it clear to me that almost no one knew that kindergarten is optional in Indiana. It was only a slightly smaller group that was aware the state didn't fully fund all-day classes for kindergartners.

Here's how my wife and I found out. After narrowing our options for our daughter's kindergarten year, we met with the Hay Primary Center principal. We wanted our daughter to be in a full-day class and asked him about the possibility.

He smiled a bit wistfully and said, "Any time I'm having a conversation like this with both a mother and father, I can be sure their child will not be in a full-day class." That's because full-day classes were either at magnet schools, which Hay was not, or were U.S. government-funded Title I programs. The principal had correctly assessed that our daughter was not a Title 1 student. Undaunted, we enrolled her there in afternoon-only kindergarten, and have not regretted it ever.

Thanks to the decision by the SBCSC board, principals won't have to say that anymore. But it should have been the state's responsibility to have made that happen. Other school systems unwilling or unable to do what SBCSC did still are still shortchanging their kindergartners.

The editors correctly point out that students can enter formal education as late as age 7 in Indiana. Our daughter turned 7 in March and was evaluated as having the reading skills of a beginning fifth-grader. She was one of four children in her 20-student first grade class judged to have achieved that level of competency. What's the likely outcome for kids just entering our school system at that age?

The National Institute of Early Education Research (of Rutgers University) exists to track what works and doesn't work in the effort to get our children off to good starts. Many states have had available state-sponsored preschool programs for quite some time — some over 10 years. NIEER's research shows that — particularly for children from challenging situations — early structure and nourishment of their innate curiosity pays big dividends.

Our child has many advantages. One of them was two years of private pre-school taught by professionals. Am I completely nuts to think that all kids should have access to resources like that?

Sadly, what I see from our state government is posturing and fingerpointing. In some ways this isn't new — I've seen little progress on this front in my 20 years as a resident. On the other hand, people who haven't done anything to improve conditions, yet who are imposing themselves as "the solution," strike me as throwing an anchor to a drowning person.

We have plenty of our own work to do locally. There's no doubt of that. Were we to have a real partner at the state level, they might realize the same holds true for them.

US SCHOOLS FACE PERFECT STORM