Early Education News Roundup 3/5/11

March 4, 2011 (Erie Times-News, Erie, PA)
Casey introduces bill to help states invest in early learning
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., introduced a bill Thursday aimed at helping states invest in early learning so that more low-income children have access to high-quality education.

March 2, 2011 (The Daily Advertiser, Lafayette, LA)
Pre-K successes may go away if money not found
Students who enroll in prekindergarten classes will be better prepared for kindergarten and future school success, Cecil J. Picard Center for Child Development and Lifelong Learning officials will tell the Lafayette Parish School Board tonight. The prekindergarten report comes at a critical time. Eight school system prekindergarten classes will lose funding at the end of this school year as federal stimulus funding dries up.

March 2, 2011 (WFMZ TV, Allentown, PA)
Pa. lawmakers urge gov. to keep education funding in budget
The caucus said early education programs give students better reading, language, and social skills; enhance the workforce by attracting skilled workers who are more productive; and return $16 for each taxpayer dollar invested.

March 2, 2011 (Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN)
All-day kindergarten nears 'tipping point'
Minnesota, which funds half-day kindergarten, is one of about a dozen states without extra funding for full-day programs. Early education advocates say this latest state push signals that Minnesota is a step closer to following states such as Wisconsin and North Dakota, where all-day, every-day kindergarten is state-supported.

March 1, 2011 (Juneau Empire)
Committee to begin hearing budget requests
Advocates of pre-kindergarten and other programs hope to win funding from the Alaska Legislature when the House Finance Committee begins to take testimony on the state budget today. A subcommittee of the committee last week cut a $2 million pre-kindergarten pilot project which helped fund pre-kindergarten programs in six school districts around the state.

March 1, 2011 (The Seattle Times)
Opinion: Invest now in early learning for better lives and a better workforce
Certainly, we need to make every effort to train and retrain our national workforce, and we must continue to improve our K-12 and postsecondary education systems. But investing in a more educated workforce requires quality early education experiences to lay the foundation for the skills businesses will need.

February 28, 2011 (Daily Record, Parsippany, NJ)
Opinion: The case for preserving Head Start
Education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty, and the Head Start preschool program has a proven record of success over more than 45 years. That success now is endangered because of a "meat axe" approach to federal and state spending. No doubt we need to bring to a halt the uncontrolled growth of governmental spending, but also there is no doubt that we need to keep those programs that benefit society.

February 28, 2011 (The Connecticut Mirror)
Panel recommends expanding early education to address achievement gap
The co-chair of the state's budget-writing committee is proposing requiring the state's poorest school districts provide full-day kindergarten and pre-kindergarten for all low-income students by July 2013 -- with the state and communities sharing the bill.

February 27, 2011 (Rome News-Tribune, Rome, GA)
Ga. families faced with scaled-back pre-k
A plan to scale back Georgia's free, full-day pre-kindergarten program — the first of its kind in the U.S. — to a half-day has teachers fearing shrunken paychecks and working parents scrambling to find day care for their 4-year-olds.

February 27, 2011 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
Editorial: Want prosperity? Invest in the youngest kids
There's a widely acknowledged domino effect: Kids who get a good start on school are more likely to stay out of trouble and graduate, enabling them to be more productive citizens who earn more money, pay more taxes and improve their families' economic situation. A 2006 report by the Bush School at Texas A&M University concluded that Texas would receive $3.50 in return for every dollar invested in "universally accessible, high-quality pre-kindergarten."

February 26, 2011 (The Answer Sheet (Washington Post))
D.C. reaches pre-school milestone
Today in Washington D.C. there are enough preschool and Pre-K slots for every 3- and 4-year-old child seeking a spot. We now must work to ensure that all children not only have access to free preschool and Pre-K in their neighborhood, but that the early education they receive is of the highest quality.

February 22, 2011 (Times-Herald, Vallejo, CA)
Head Start program could face severe cuts
Faced with a 22.4 percent cut, Head Start programs could lose an estimated 48,000 staff members to layoffs across California, a California Head Start Association official in the agency's communications office said.

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NIEER Hot Topics March 5, 2011

Michigan Pre-K Saved State More Than $1 Billion in 2009
Michigan's preschool program for at-risk children save the state at least $1 billion in 2009 alone says a new report from the Citizen's Research Council of Michigan. The analysis points out that about 80,000 adult high school graduates age 18 to 29 are in the labor force who likely would have dropped out of school if not for the state's investment in their school readiness. Their collective economic impact is about $1.3 billion annually, including $584 million in reduced spending on things like special education, criminal justice expenses and welfare spending. About $700 million in additional wages were accrued by the state in 2009 due to their higher productivity. The issue of prioritizing funding for pre-K, currently being weighed in a number of states, is the subject of NIEER Co-Director Steve Barnett's latest Preschool Matters … Today! blog post.

Vanderbilt Study: Kids Attending Tennessee Pre-K Made Strong Gains
The Commercial Appeal reports that a new study from Vanderbilt University found that children who attended Tennessee's public pre-K program gained an average of 82 percent more on early literacy and math skills than comparable children who did not attend. Gains were highest in literacy and relatively modest in math. Tennessee legislators have proposed cutting the program, saying such gains fade out by 3rd grade but Vanderbilt professor Mark Lipsey says research pointing to fade-out is flawed.

No Nap or Meals in Georgia Pre-K?
Kids in Georgia's state pre-K program won't likely have meals or a nap, not to mention a full day of instruction, if cuts to the program proposed by Governor Nathan Deal go through, reports The Florida Times-Union. Deal wants to reduce the program to a half-day, meaning children would spend four hours in pre-K instead of the current six-and-a-half. Deal's plan would also increase access to the program for an additional 10,000 kids and reduce work days for pre-K teachers from eight to five-and-a-half hours. Communities wishing to keep the longer school day would have to make up the money on their own. Deal's plan is reportedly moving through the legislature quickly. Meanwhile, a report from the Southern Education Foundation says the program is paying off, with fewer students being held back a grade, dropping out of school and landing in special education classes.

Connecticut Budget Panel: Expand Early Education
The Connecticut Mirror reports that the state's Senate appropriations committee co-chair Toni Harp, who also leads the state's Achievement Gap Task Force, has proposed requiring the state's poorest school districts to provide full-day kindergarten and pre-K for all low-income students by 2013 and to receive state help in doing so. Connecticut has the largest achievement gap as measured by the National Assessment of Education Progress in the nation. The education committee considers the proposal next.

New America Foundation: 12 Ideas for Congress to Consider
The New America Foundation just released its bi-annual issue brief containing recommendations for the U.S. Congress. This year's installment includes fresh ideas, including a call for research on digital technology, improvements in the professional development of principals, and changes to the "adequate yearly progress" provisions under No Child Left Behind. It also updates ideas the organization's Early Education Initiative first issued in 2009.

Rave Reviews: The Influence of Teachers: Reflections on Teaching and Leadership
The above-titled new book by PBS Newshour education correspondent John Merrow on how schools and teachers can change to keep up with the current educational landscape has garnered enthusiastic reviews from, among others, former Secretary of Education Richard Riley, Marian Wright-Edelman and Jim Lehrer. Merrow draws on his experiences as a reporter for the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio to discuss new possibilities and solutions for our education system and, in his words, transform rather than reform it. Merrow is president of Learning Matters, an independent production company. He hosts his own documentaries on The Merrow Report.

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NIEER Hot Topics Volume 9, Issue 21

The Case for Data-Driven Reform is Gaining Steam
For years, experts have called for data-driven reform of early childhood programs. That push has gained steam in the wake of bold proposals from the Obama administration and the release of Investing in Children: New Directions in Federal Preschool and Early Childhood Policy, the NIEER/Brookings report, released to critical acclaim in Washington on October 13th. Drawing the attention of many is the recommendation from the co-editors, NIEER Co-Director Steve Barnett and Brookings Senior Fellow Ron Haskins, that calls for the federal government to waive some regulations for Head Start and other programs to foster innovation and more effective program delivery — and to conduct randomized trials on programs operating under the waivers. Lisa Guernsey, director of the early childhood initiative at New America Foundation, discusses the issues in her latest Early Ed Watch blog post.

Time for ECE Public Policy and Practice to Align Better with Research
Preschool in the U.S. narrows the achievement gap by as little as 5 percent — largely due to the prevalence of low-quality programs — at a time when research suggests they could be narrowing it by 30 to 50 percent. That assessment and recommendations to start early education on a new quality-based agenda are part of an article appearing in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The authors are Robert C. Pianta, University of Virginia, Steve Barnett, Rutgers University (and NIEER), Margaret Burchinal, University of North Carolina, and Kathy R. Thornburg, University of Missouri.

1 in 5 New York City Kids Misses at Least a Month of School Each Year
The pattern begins in the early grades and continues from there: Last year more than 25 percent of school children in 12 of New York City's 32 school districts were chronically absent, missing more than a month of school per year. In five of those districts, 30 percent of kindergarten through fifth grade kids were absent more than 10 percent of the time. Those statistics and a set of recommendations aimed at addressing the problem appear in a new report from the Center for New York City Affairs.

What Works Clearinghouse: RDD Now On a Par with Randomized Trials
The U.S. Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse is broadening its definition of what constitutes the "gold standard" in research to include regression discontinuity design, a method that uses cut-off points to establish comparison groups rather than randomization. The clearinghouse says some single-case studies also make the grade. Some researchers welcomed the broadening of the standards but others urged caution. Speaking to Education Week, Jon Baron, president of the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, pointed out that there have been few attempts to replicate the results of randomized trials with the other methods.

Colombians Greet NIEER Study with South American Hospitality
Do a study in a U.S. city and you get good cooperation if you do things right; do one in Santa Marta, Colombia and you get the keys to the city! That's the report from Milagros Nores who is just back from visiting NIEER's research partners in Colombia, where a new long-term randomized study of preschool education is set to begin. She writes about the study and conditions on the ground in Colombia in our latest post at Preschool Matters … Today!

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.

NIEER early ed hot topics 7/16

Study: Georgia Child Care is Low Quality, State Pre-K Somewhat Better
On average, the quality of infant/toddler classrooms in Georgia child care centers is low and children in the lower quality classrooms likely experience environments that are inadequate for their health and safety. Such classrooms do not promote children's cognitive and social-emotional development, concludes a study by the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina. FPG also studied Georgia state pre-K, finding overall classroom quality was at the "medium" level but that the quality of instructional support was low. Even though many pre-K teachers had college degrees and reported participating in training, it has not yet translated into high-quality classroom practices, the study said. The data were collected in 2008 and 2009.

Precedent-Setting ELL Rules for Pre-K Slated to Take Effect in Illinois
When the Illinois Board of Education adopted rules requiring public preschools to identify kids who are English Language Learners and provide them with transitional bilingual education, some wondered if they would really take effect. After all, doing so would make Illinois the first state to take such prescriptive measures and some educators had pointed out some parents of ELLs say they prefer their kids taught in English. Education Week's Mary Ann Zehr reports the last hurdle to enforcement fell when a panel of lawmakers with the power to object to the rules issued a certificate of no objection. School districts will be required to select a screen for establishing ELL status that meets state standards and provide the transitional bilingual instruction if 20 or more kids in a center are found to be ELLs.

New Review of Curriculum Effectiveness Finds More Winners
A report from Johns Hopkins University evaluates the effectiveness of preschool curricula many of which also appear in the What Works Clearinghouse ratings. Several programs with low ratings from WWC, which has been criticized by curriculum developers, do better in the Johns Hopkins effort. Of the 28 programs included, 11 receive favorable ratings, with six showing "strong" evidence of effectiveness and five showing "moderate" evidence of effectiveness.

The challenges and limitations of these types of reviews are the subject of NIEER co-director Steve Barnett's latest Preschool Matters…Today! blog post.

First Quarter Brings Revenue Gains for States — With Caveats
States' overall tax revenues rose 2.5 percent in the first quarter of 2010 on a year-over-year basis, marking the first such gain since the third quarter of 2008, reports the Rockefeller Institute of Government. The gain does not suggest a broad recovery, however, because it was largely due to tax increases in California and New York. Revenues for the second quarter of this year will be weaker than the first if data from early reporting states are an indication. The institute forecasts states' full fiscal recovery will take years.

Celia Ayala Appointed CEO of Los Angeles Universal Preschool
Long-time education leader and teacher Celia C. Ayala is the new chief executive officer of Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP), the organization's board announced last week. Ayala has served as LAUP's chief operating officer since 2007, leading the organization's day-to-day operations, working with more than 330 LAUP network preschools to enhance and expand early educations services. She succeeds Dr. Gary Mangiofico, who had been CEO since 2007.

Next Week: 2010 U.S. Department of Education Reading Institute
The Early Learning and Development: Birth to Third Grade strand of the U.S. Department of Education's 2010 Reading Institute kicks off next Monday, July 19 in Anaheim, California. NIEER-affiliated presenters at the conference include Co-directors Steve Barnett and Ellen Frede, Distinguished Research Fellow Dorothy Strickland, and Scientific Advisory Board Member Margaret Burchinall, University of California, Irvine. View the agenda here.

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NIEER early ed hot topics 6/25

VOICES Analysis Shows Contrast Between Federal, State Assessments of Reading
A new analysis of federal and state measures of children's reading proficiency shows the tendency of states to find that more of their kids are performing above average while the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows only one-third of 4th graders reading at a proficient level. Bill Bentley, CEO of VOICES for America's Children, which did the analysis, says the states show a "Lake Wobegone Effect" in which their children are above average and doing so is incentivized by federal dollars. He said the new common core standards represent a first step toward higher standards and true evaluation.

Study: Cell Phone Towers Don't Cause Early Childhood Cancers
Children born to mothers who lived near cell phone towers while pregnant had no higher risk of childhood cancer than those not living near towers, say researchers writing in the British Medical Journal. They examined the records of more than 1,000 children up to 4 years old who had leukemia or brain or central nervous system tumors, compared them to similar kids who didn't have cancer, and measured how far the pregnant moms lived from cell towers. They caution that their results don't say anything about whether exposure to cell tower radio frequencies might affect the kids' future propensity to develop cancer.

Texas Republican Platform: Repeal Government-Sponsored ECD Programs
The Texas state Republican Party has released its 2010 platform containing the following language: "Early Childhood Development – We believe that parents are best suited to train their children in their early development and oppose mandatory pre-school and Kindergarten. We urge Congress to repeal government sponsored programs that deal with early childhood development." (NIEER notes that no state mandates preschool attendance.)

Money Saved From Wisconsin Child Care Fraud Effort Goes to Other Programs
Raquel Rutledge, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter who won a Pulitzer for her reporting on fraud in state child care, now reports that the $100 million in projected saving from the state crackdown is being used for other purposes such as keeping state parks and highway rest stops open.

Kudos: Governor Bredesen, Dolly Parton Joint Effort Tops 10-Million-Book Mark
The Tennesseean reports that thanks to a joint effort by Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen's Books from Birth Foundation and Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, more than 214,000 kids age 5 and under have received more than 10 million books. A person making a $24 donation to the governor's foundation ensures that some child receives one free book a month in the mail for a year. All Tennesseans under age 5 are eligible to participate.

NIEER early ed hot topics 6/14

The 'Great Recession' Will Give Millions of Kids a Tougher Row to Hoe
After the country begins to recover from the "Great Recession," many kids whose misfortune was to be young during it will suffer lasting impacts, says the latest report from the Foundation for Child Development's Child and Youth Well-Being Index. It predicts the number of children in poverty will rise to 15.6 million this year, a jump of three million in just four years. More families in poverty means more kids entering school without the benefit of high-quality early education. In five years, when they enter fourth grade, they'll likely have lower reading and math scores. In another decade, they'll be more likely to drop out of high school, says the report's author, Kenneth Land of Duke University.

GAO Finds a Decrease in Child Care Subsidy Usage
A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that examined trends in child care subsidy receipt found that from 2006 to 2008, the average number of children served by the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) declined by about 170,000 children, or 10 percent. Among the reasons cited for the decline are state policies that can affect resource allocation, decreases in the number of regulated providers, increased requirements for participating providers, and rising unemployment's effect on work-related eligibility.

LAUP Study Finds a Higher Rate of School Readiness
A study of kids who attended Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP) classrooms found that after one year of pre-K, 72 percent of children tested for near proficiency in school readiness skills, including social expression and self-regulation, compared to 22 percent when they started. The gains were particularly significant for English Language Learners (ELLs). They started the year with lower school readiness skills than their non-ELL peers, but after a year of LAUP pre-K, the gap had closed.

Common Core Standards Completed; State Adoption Comes Next
Now that the K-12 Common Core Standards for Math and Reading have been completed, the push is on to get the states to adopt them. Already, a number of education groups, including the Council of State Governments and National Association of State Boards of Education, have joined the coalition urging adoption. While 48 states agreed to participate in the effort to create the standards, that did not obligate them to adopt them. Former New Jersey education commissioner Lucille Davy has been hired by the Hunt Institute to spearhead its outreach effort aimed at helping states make well-informed decisions regarding adoption.

Regular Bedtimes, Adequate Sleep Linked to Better Literacy, Math Skills in Pre-K
A study of 8,000 kids who were assessed at age 4 found that among sleep habits, having a regular bedtime was the most consistent predictor of better scores in receptive and expressive language, phonological awareness, literacy, and early math. The data also showed that many children are not getting the recommended amount of sleep. The findings were reported at SLEEP 2010, the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends preschool children get a minimum of 11 hours of sleep each night.

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NIEER early ed news roundup 5/28

May 28, 2010 (Erie Times-News, Erie, PA)
Erie business leaders urged to invest in early childhood education
Speakers at the region's first Economic Summit on Early Childhood Investments said that money spent on preschool education pays dividends in economic and work-force development.

May 26, 2010 (The Daily Advertiser, Lafayette, LA)
Pre-K progam puts students on right course
Data shows that students perform better in school after some early childhood education. Students are taught how to behave in school, basic skills, numbers, colors and precursors to reading during a year of pre-kindergarten.

May 26, 2010 (The Birmingham News)
Most Alabamians favor state spending for pre-kindergarten
A coalition dedicated to expanding quality pre-kindergarten education for 4-year-olds in Alabama has found voters support spending more money on the effort -- regardless of party affiliation. Jan Hume, executive director of the alliance, said the results were a surprise to pollsters -- Alabama support for pre-kindergarten education remains as strong as it was four years ago, even in the face of high unemployment and a tepid economy.

May 25, 2010 (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Pre-k program's popularity fuels waiting lists
Georgia's voluntary pre-kindergarten program started in 1993 with 750 students and now has some 81,068 students in public schools and private day care centers in all 159 counties. Waiting lists, however, are becoming more common, especially in the metro areas.

May 23, 2010 (The Des Moines Register, Des Moines, IA)
Should taxpayers foot the bill for preschool?
Preschool spending has climbed at a time when public schools have been forced to raise property taxes, lay off teachers and combine classes to deal with their most difficult budgets in years. Universal preschool is in addition to Head Start and other government-run preschool efforts that target low-income families.

May 20, 2010 (EmaxHealth)
Depression Among Preschool Children
Preschool children not only suffer with depression, their symptoms are often unnoticed and thus the condition goes undiagnosed. Recent findings on preschool depression indicate that it is not a temporary condition and that early detection is important.

May 20, 2010 (Babble)
Raising Bilingual Kids
These days most experts agree that the developing mind can easily handle the double input. And research is beginning to show that, in addition to the linguistic benefits, learning multiple languages might provide valuable mental exercise for kids that could have positive long-term effects.

May 20, 2010 (WFMY TV, Greenesboro, NC)
North Carolina ranks among nation's top two states for pre-K education
For the second year in a row, North Carolina ranks among the nation's top two states for preschool education. The state tied Alabama for first, scoring a perfect 10. It's also the fifth time the state placed in the top 10.

May 19, 2010 (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)
Meaningful Conversations Boost Kids' Language Skills
Parents who engage their young children in conversational give-and-take help their offspring gain a significant leg up in terms of language acquisition, new Dutch research reveals. The boost to childhood language proficiency appears to be predicated on allowing children to engage in so-called "serious" conversations with their family members -- dialogues that permit them to make meaningful contributions to the subject at hand.

May 18, 2010 (The Sentinel, Lewistown, PA)
Business leaders address early childhood education
Return of investment of early childhood education includes school success, graduation, work force readiness and job productivity, [former president and CEO of Weis Markets Inc. Norm] Rich said. "Investing in children is investing in America," he said.

May 18, 2010 (The Christian Science Monitor)
Report: Reading skills in early grades are crucial to success
A new report argues that third-grade reading proficiency heavily influences later achievement, including high school graduation. What's needed, say the report's authors and other education advocates, is more focus on children's 0-8 years, as well as a system that does a better job of integrating early-childhood education, K-12, parental support, and health and human services.

May 17, 2010 (Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
States' budget problems cut into help for children
All over the country, the financial crisis has forced states to make cuts to close what the National Conference of State Legislatures found was an overall budget gap of $174.1 billion this fiscal year and has lawmakers looking to cut another $89 billion next year. That means slashing services to children, the one population they have long protected.

May 16, 2010 (The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN)
Editorial: Learning from the START
The economic tailspin forcing states to look closely at spending priorities didn't keep 29 states from increasing enrollment in their preschool programs last year. Regrettably, Indiana still languishes among the handful of backward states with no support for high-quality pre-K.

May 16, 2010 (The Charleston Gazette)
Op-Ed: Child's first years are key to success -- or failure
What West Virginia needs is greater investment in early childhood education, especially for the poorest and most disadvantaged of children. Almost one-third of West Virginia's youngest children under 5 live in poverty. If we do not address their needs, we will never achieve the prosperity we all desire.

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Resources

Child Development, Volume 81, Issue 3 (May/June 2010)
Among the articles in this issue are the results from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development that tracks children to the age of 15, finding that the positive effects from high-quality child care last into the teenage years. Another article discusses findings of a study looking at very young children's topographic representations of their own bodies, finding that children possess an explicit, if rudimentary, topographic representation of their own body's shape, structure, and size by 30 months of age.

Leadership Matters FY11
The latest edition of this annual report from Pre-K Now finds that if all of the governors' FY 2011 budgets were to pass as proposed, total state pre-K funding would remain roughly the same as FY 2010 – about $5.3 billion. Beyond the national total lie big variations, ranging from expansion plans in Alabama to elimination of state pre-K in Arizona. Nine governors propose expanding pre-K, 10 propose flat-funding it, and 12 propose cutting funding.

Listening and Learning About Early Learning Tour
This web page gathers in one place presentations made by prominent education experts who participated in U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services (HHS) recent Listening and Learning About Early Learning meetings. The presentations address four subject areas: Understanding Preschool–Grade 3 Structures, Workforce and Professional Development, Family Engagement, and Standards and Assessments.

Among the 16 presenters were Jerry Weast, superintendent of the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland; Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute in New York; Marcy Whitebook, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, University of California, Berkeley; Eugene Garcia, vice president for education partnerships at Arizona State University (and a NIEER scientific advisory board member); Ruby Takanishi, president of the Foundation for Child Development; Deborah Leong, Metropolitan State College, Denver, Colorado (and a NIEER senior research fellow); and Linda Espinosa, associate professor, University of Missouri, Columbia (and a former NIEER co-director).

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NIEER early ed hot topics 5/28

Volume 9, Issue 11

May 28, 2010

To subscribe, http://nieer.org/resources/newsletter/ Contact: Carol Shipp (732) 932-4350 x225 cshipp@nieer.org or Pat Ainsworth (732) 932-4350 x229 painsworth@nieer.org Study Finds Young Children with Autism Use Different Brain Regions The Wall Street Journal reports that researchers scanning the brains of sleeping babies say autistic children as young as 14 months of age use different brain regions than more normally developing children. In typically developing babies, both the right and left temporal areas of the brain were active but in autistic children, the left temporal area, which deals with language, was far less active. While only 43 children were in the study sample, it appears to confirm why poor language comprehension is a red flag for autism in young children. There's No Benefit in Delaying Immunizations in Children Parents who delay children receiving a portion of the vaccines they are supposed to get out of fear that “vaccine overload” will negatively affect development are doing their kids no favors. If fact, they may be exposing them to disease, say University of Louisville School of Medicine researchers who studied data from speech, behavior and intelligence tests conducted years after children received their vaccines. Analyzing the data from more than 1,000 kids, they found there wasn’t a single variable where the kids with delayed vaccination did better than the kids who received 10 shots by the age of seven months. The authors also refuted the concept of vaccine overload. Their study is published in the May 24 online edition of the journal Pediatrics. Kids Who Were Cognitively Stimulated in Three Settings Did Better in Math Researchers who studied more than 1,000 children on the basis of the settings in which they were cognitively stimulated found that kids who were consistently cognitively stimulated at home, in preschool or child care, and in the first grade classroom had higher math achievement. Kids who were consistently cognitively stimulated at home and in preschool or child care had higher reading achievement. These effects were more pronounced for low-income children. GAO Sting Turns Up Fraudulent Enrollment Practices in Head Start Centers When the Government Accountability Office (GAO) used fictitious identities and bogus documents to attempt to register over-income children at Head Start centers in six states, they found that in eight out of 13 attempts, Head Start staff fraudulently misrepresented information, including disregarding part of the families' income to register over-income children into under-income slots. It its report, the GAO concluded over-income children may be getting enrolled in Head Start while legitimate under-income children are put on waiting lists. At no point was information submitted by the GAO's fictitious parents verified, suggesting parents are able to falsify earnings statements and other documents to qualify. Will Early Education Be a Part of ESEA Reauthorization? At least the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is considering it. This week, University of Virginia professor Robert Pianta, a NIEER scientific advisory board member, testified that "Incorporating high-quality early childhood education into reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act would produce policies that would create a new portal into the education system." He and other experts, including fellow NIEER scientific advisory board member Lawrence J. Schweinhart from the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, went before the committee to address how federal policies can foster alignment between early childhood and K-12 education. A webcast of their testimony is available here. Annie E. Casey Foundation Calls for Renewed Emphasis on Literacy In its new KIDS COUNT Special Report, the Annie E. Casey Foundation calls for a renewed emphasis on reading success and spells out four steps aimed at achieving grade-level reading proficiency for all children by third grade. They include development of a coherent system of early childhood education that coordinates what happens from birth through third grade, parental supports, turning around low-performing schools, and solving the problems of chronic school absence and summer learning loss. The report provides state-level data to help parents, policymakers, educators, and concerned citizens rally around the effort.

Early education news roundup

April 22, 2010 (The Kansas City Star)
Missouri Senate approves plan to merge education boards
Missouri senators have endorsed a plan that would merge the state's two education oversight boards into one responsible for education from kindergarten through doctoral programs.

April 21, 2010 (Lansing State Journal, Lansing, MI)
Focus on early childhood education still urged
But even as educators and others recognize the importance of focusing on early childhood enrichment, tight state and local budgets are making it tough to maintain current programs and start new ones.

April 20, 2010 (The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA)
Expert says the path to literacy starts with babies
Word play through rhyme, poetry, song and repetition is important because it reinforces the patterns and parts of word sounds. This is known as phonological awareness, which children need in order read.

April 20, 2010 (WJXT, Jacksonville, FL)
Advocates Fear Voluntary Pre-K Cuts
With every letter and every activity, the goal of Voluntary Prekindergarten is to get children ready for elementary school at no cost to parents. But a new proposal to slash VPK funding could affect children and the quality of their education.

April 19, 2010 (The Providence Journal, Providence, RI)
Child care found wanting in R.I.
A first-ever study of childcare centers in Rhode Island shows that only 10 percent of preschool classrooms and 4 percent of infant-toddler rooms provide "high-quality" programs that nurture development through purposeful interactions between adults and youngsters.

April 19, 2010 (Los Angeles Times)
L.A. study affirms benefits of preschool
Children enrolled in Los Angeles Universal Preschool programs made significant improvements in the social and emotional skills needed to do well in kindergarten, according to a study released Monday. The gains were especially pronounced for English language learners, the study showed.

April 18, 2010 (Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, MA)
Preschool years can be 'perfect storm' for language learning
The stories show that many preschool children focus intently on the words they hear and that most are primarily dependent on parents for clarification. Preschool years can, in fact, be a "perfect storm," a short window of opportunity in which factors come together so parents can best provide the basis of language growth.

April 16, 2010 (Chicago Tribune)
Early education program may face big cuts
The governor's proposal would slash the state's early childhood education block grant by 16 percent, which means 6,000 students in Chicago public schools could be shut out of the Preschool for All program, which targets academically at-risk children. Though not mandatory, Preschool for All is hailed for giving 3- and 4-year-olds a jump-start with its 2 1/2 hours a day of free instruction.

April 15, 2010 (Brattleboro Reformer, Brattleboro, VT)
Taking care of business
Just like every other division in the Agency of Human Services, early child care is facing cuts as the state tries to balance its budget. Early child care advocates understand that money is tight in Montpelier this year, but this week they are reminding lawmakers and business leaders that dollars taken away from programs around the state trickle up into other parts of Vermont's economy.

April 13, 2010 (Kalamazoo Gazette, Kalamazoo, MI)
Ready or not for kindergarten: How to assess your child
Kindergarten readiness isn't strictly a matter of age, say the experts. Instead, it involves a combination of cognitive, emotional, social and physical factors that can affect a child's academic success.

April 11, 2010 (The Topeka Capital-Journal)
Early childhood dollars targeted
Proposed cuts to early childhood programs have come as lawmakers grapple with how best to eliminate a budget shortfall in Kansas exceeding $400 million. Both House and Senate proposals for closing the budget gap include cuts for early childhood education.

NIEER early ed hot topics 4/28

News Alert: NIEER's New State of Preschool Yearbook to be Released May 4th
The new edition of NIEER's annual State of Preschool yearbook will be released next Tuesday, May 4 at the AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. As anticipated, the new edition fills in the blanks about how pre-K is faring as the states cope with the recession and it also represents a new high in terms of data collected. Our research staff has added new categories on curriculum and family involvement to our state-by-state database. You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Science Article: Teacher Quality Moderates the Genetic Effects on Early Reading
An article in the journal Science reports that when children receive more effective instruction in early reading, they will tend to develop at their optimal learning trajectories but when instruction is less effective, children's learning potential is not optimized and the genetic differences that make it possible for some kids to read better than others are left unrealized. Said another way, poor teaching impedes the ability of children to reach their potential. In conducting the study Florida State University researchers followed 280 identical and 526 fraternal twin pairs in the first and second grades.

K-12 Common Core Standards Need Work, Say Early Ed Professionals
The K-12 Common Core State Standards proposed for comment by the Center for Best Practices at the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers have received plenty of feedback from the early education community. The mainstream consensus seems to be that while they are step in the right direction, there needs to be significant modification to accommodate children's learning in the early years. This week, NIEER co-director Ellen Frede's blog post is about achieving a "Goldilocks" set of standards in Preschool Matters … Today!

Florida’s VPK Program Escapes Big Budget Cut
The Florida Senate has agreed to a House plan that cuts the state's Voluntary Prekindergarten Program by less than 1 percent rather than the 15 percent called for in a previous legislative proposal. The old proposal would have forced programs to increase class sizes to as many as 24 kids in a pre-K classroom. Nationally, Florida ranks near the bottom in state spending for pre-K. Current funding is about $20 million less than it was when the program was launched in 2005 even though VPK now serves about 40,000 more kids, reports the Orlando Sentinel's Leslie Postal.

Illinois ELL Rules Would Require Bilingual Education in Some Pre-K Classrooms
Education Week reports that if approved by the state board of education, new rules proposed by the Illinois education agency would require districts to survey parents of preschoolers to determine language spoken at home, screen the kids for English proficiency, and provide transitional bilingual education in preschools where 20 or more pupils with limited English proficiency speak the same native language.

The Economy: Revenue Declines Less Severe, A Glimmer of Recovery
After undergoing a record five consecutive quarters of declines, tax revenues to the states are currently at roughly the same level as they were 10 years ago, while during that period the nation's population has increased by approximately 10 percent, says a new report from the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. However, the severity of the declines has moderated. The National Association of Realtors reports that home purchases increased by 6.8 percent in March and home prices rose 4 percent. Meanwhile, the Labor Department says initial claims for unemployment have begun falling.

Obama Administration Decides to Do Some More Listening
The U.S. Department of Education is embarked on a listening tour to discuss critical topics in early learning. The meetings, which some see as a reaction to criticism that the Obama blueprint for re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is light on early education, take place in Washington, D.C., Denver, CO, Orlando, FL, and Chicago, IL.

NIEER Hot Topics 4/9

Major Meta-analysis: Pre-K Improves Cognitive, Social-Emotional Development and Schooling Outcomes
A broad-based meta-analysis of 123 studies reported in the Teachers College Record found that preschool education had positive effects on cognitive and social and emotional development as well as schooling outcomes. The largest effects were observed for cognitive outcomes. Specific aspects that positively correlated with gains included teacher-directed instruction and small-group instruction. "If we focus on the rigorous studies, we find that the immediate impact is to close about 70 percent of the achievement gap. After third grade, it's about 30 percent of the gap," said study co-author and NIEER co-director Steve Barnett, who adds, "This should put the final nail in the coffin of the idea that preschool education's effects fade out after third grade." Watch the video here.

Promise Neighborhoods Program Gets a Boost in Obama's FY 2011 Budget
If approved by Congress, the federal FY 2011 budget will add $200 million to the $10 million allocated to the Promise Neighborhoods program in the current budget. The idea behind Promise Neighborhoods is to replicate the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ), which claims to have successfully raised disadvantaged children's achievement — sometimes spectacularly so — through a network of high-quality schools and services. The money will go for planning grants for communities that show they have what it takes to develop a feasible plan for replicating HCZ. That will be easier said than done, points out New America Foundation's Lisa Guernsey who looks at HCZ and what it might take to assemble those ingredients elsewhere in this week’s Early Ed Watch blog.

New Report: Time to Refocus New York State's Universal Pre-K Effort
Thirteen years after New York state adopted its universal pre-K initiative, it's time to refocus the effort, says a report just out from Winning Beginning NY, the statewide early learning coalition. The report points out that while New York Universal Pre-K (UPK) now serves 109,000 children, there are some 120,000 kids who don’t yet have access. Among its recommendations are developing a five-year plan to prepare an early childhood workforce, revising the UPK funding statute so pre-K funding is sustainable and able to support full-day services, and enacting legislation to implement a quality improvement system.

Pew Launches Home Visiting Policy Campaigns in Four States
Beginning this year, the Pew Home Visiting Campaign will support statewide advocacy and public education efforts aimed at expanding and improving home visiting programs in Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, and Washington. John Schlitt, who directs the effort, says those states were chosen because they have a variety of approaches to home visiting and leaders there have voiced a desire to expand and improve these services. He and his team are also involved in field research aimed at bridging gaps that exist in the home visiting research literature, particularly as regards what program ingredients generate the most positive results, home visiting's effect on school readiness, and how best to engage fathers.

Researchers: Head Start Impact Study Delayed, Ignored by Press
Russ Whitehurst of the Brookings Institution and Nicholas Zill, a consultant and former director of Head Start's Family and Experience Survey (FACES), say the Head Start Impact Study was delayed in its issuance and ignored by the press. Whitehurst said the six-year delay between the time key data were gathered and the report's issuance as well as the appearance of a positive bias in reporting the findings suggests the Office of Management and Budget needs to get involved in setting standards for agencies on conducting and issuing evaluation reports. They spoke at a recent Heritage Foundation event.

Lessons from the First Round of Race to the Top
A timely new report from The New Teacher Project reviews the process by which the U.S. Department of Education reviewed Race to the Top applications and chose Delaware and Tennessee as the first round winners. The analysis provides a detailed look at the scoring and draws lessons for states to consider in applying for the $3.4 billion in funding that is available for Round 2. Among its insights is this: politics appears not to have entered into the decision making since none of the three states considered political battle grounds (Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida) won and three of the six top-scoring states went to candidate Sen. John McCain in the most recent presidential election.

Died: Harold W. McGraw, Jr., Former CEO of the McGraw-Hill Companies
Harold W. McGraw, the grandson of a school teacher who headed McGraw-Hill during the company's most dramatic growth years in the 1970s and 1980s and who urged employees to think like teachers, died recently at 92. Under his leadership McGraw-Hill became a world class publisher of books and curricula for education, including early education. McGraw's philanthropy focused heavily on literacy. In 1983, he established the Business Council for Effective Literacy that enlisted corporations in the fight for literacy. He also funded The McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning at Princeton University.

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New on Preschool Matters...Today!

Interview with Lt. General Norman R. Seip (Ret.)
Lt. General Norman R. Seip (Ret.) answers questions on why he believes that expanding public pre-K is critical to addressing the skills gap that exists among many military recruits and to maintaining our nation's future security. Seip, who was a fighter pilot and Commander of the 12th Air Force, serves on the Executive Advisory Council of Mission: Readiness.

Also featured: NIEER Consultant Marcie Weber reviews Good Morning Children: My First Years in Early Childhood Education by Sophia Pappas, a Teach for America volunteer who taught pre-K in New Jersey's Abbott Preschool Program. Pappas was also a blogger for the national advocacy group Pre-K Now.

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NIEER - Early Ed Hot Topics 3/26

Early Learning Challenge Fund Eliminated from Health Reform Bill
The Early Learning Challenge Fund that many considered the most progressive aspect of the Obama administration's early childhood agenda didn't survive the reconciliation process needed to pass health care reform — reportedly because some Congressional leaders felt keeping it might endanger passage. However, $1.5 billion for expansion of home visitation did survive. The Early Learning Challenge Fund's loss leaves some in the early childhood community wondering how much clout early childhood issues have on Capitol Hill these days. That's the subject of today's post on NIEER's Preschool Matters ... Today!

Connecticut High Court Ruling Establishes Need for Quantifying Education Quality
The Hartford Courant reports that the Connecticut Supreme Court has opened the door to changing the way the state funds public education. In a 4-3 ruling, the court found that the Connecticut Constitution guarantees students not only a public education, but one that prepares them for employment, higher education, and civic responsibilities such as voting and jury duty. The ruling doesn't prescribe changes but does set forth a new framework that says students have a right to a certain level of education. In siding with plaintiffs in the 2005 education equity lawsuit, the court sent the case back to Superior Court for trial.

Richardson's Surprise Veto Nixes Money for New Mexico PreK
Just when advocates were feeling good about the prospects for expanding New Mexico PreK, Governor Bill Richardson used his line item veto to eliminate a provision in tax legislation that would have earmarked part of a 75-cent increase in the cigarette tax for early childhood programs. The earmark was for one year and would have generated $11 million for pre-K and other early childhood programs. Richardson also made the cigarette tax hike, which was to have been in effect for four years, permanent.

NAEP: One in Three Kids Unable to Read at Basic Level by Fourth Grade
Reading scores for American students have hardly budged, says the latest report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Fourth grade reading scores were unchanged from 2007. Achievement gaps between racial and ethnic groups remained unchanged as did the gaps between children who are and are not eligible for free lunch. Eighth grade children scored only one point higher in 2009 than 2007.

Common Insecticide Linked to Childhood Developmental Delays
New research confirms that even when adjustments are made for environmental factors such as poverty, exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos is linked to delayed mental and motor skill development in children. Commonly used to control insects in crops like corn, cotton, apples, oranges, and almonds, chlorpyrifos was banned in 2001 for use in the home, where it was primarily used for termite, mosquito, and flea control.

Died: Doctor Who Prevented Childhood Blindness
Arnall Patz, the doctor who in the 1950s figured out that too much oxygen administered to premature infants caused overdevelopment of blood vessels, consigning a great many of them, including Stevie Wonder, to a lifetime of blindness, died last week. To prove his point, he conducted the first controlled clinical trial in ophthalmology.

Calling All Doctoral Students: Dissertation Funding Available
Child Care Research Scholars grants are available to support graduate students as a way of encouraging child care policy research. Eligible applicants include doctoral level graduate students. For information about previous Child Care Research Scholars, see http://www.researchconnections.org/childcare/federal/ccb.jsp. Those with questions can email the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation child care research grant review team at ChildcareScholars@icfi.com or call 1-877-301-6977. Visit the HHS Grants Forecast site at https://extranet.acf.hhs.gov/hhsgrantsforecast/index.cfm to learn about upcoming funding opportunities from the OPRE.

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NIEER - Early Ed hot topics 1/15

Head Start Study: Gains Made by 4-Year-Olds Don't Show Up in First Grade
The latest results from the Head Start Impact Study were released this week. As originally reported, providing access to Head Start has modest benefits for both 3- and 4-year-olds in the cognitive, health, and parenting domains, and for 3-year-olds in the social-emotional domain. However, the advantages of Head Start are no longer evident at first grade. NIEER Co-Director Steve Barnett said that, like the 2005 findings from the same study, the new results are likely to be taken out of context by opponents of publicly funded preschool education. He writes about the subject in his recent post on Preschool Matters ... Today!

White Students are No Longer a Majority in the South's Schools
Public schools in the American South no longer enroll a majority of white students when people of other backgrounds are considered, says a new report released by the Southern Education Foundation (SEF). Whites now comprise 49 percent of the student population while Blacks comprise 27 percent, Hispanics 20 percent, Asian-Pacific people 3 percent and Native Americans and others 1 percent. The SEF also says that in 2007, children eligible for free or reduced-price lunch became a majority in the South's public schools.

Universal Pre-K Recommended for Michigan Economic Development
If Michigan invested the additional $300 million per year required to raise participation of 4-year-olds in state pre-K from the current 18 percent level of attendance to 70 percent, the present value of that investment in enhanced workforce productivity would be $834 million, says Timothy Bartik, senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo. The universal pre-K recommendation is one of eight Bartik presented at the University of Michigan economic forecast conference. They're detailed in his new working paper What Should Michigan Be Doing to Promote Long-Run Economic Development?

NACCRA Report: The List of State Budget Cuts to Children's Program is Long
State Budget Cuts: America's Kids Pay the Price is a report just published by the National Association of Child Care Resources and Referral Agencies (NACCRA) that provides a state-by-state run-down of early childhood programs that have fallen victim to the budget axe. California and Connecticut are leading the pack by cutting nine programs each. Included are recommendations for future investment.

Jerlean Daniel to Become NAEYC Executive Director
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has announced that Jerlean Daniel is the executive director designate of the association. She will replace outgoing Executive Director Mark R.Ginsberg on July 1 of this year. Dr. Daniel has most recently served as a deputy executive director of the association and is also a past president. A member of NAEYC for more than 30 years, she joined NAEYC as a staff member after 21 years at the University of Pittsburgh where she served as a Chair of Psychology in Education. In addition, she was director of the University Child Development Center for 18 years and it received NAEYC accreditation under her leadership. Dr. Ginsberg, who has been NAEYC executive director since 1999, will become Dean of the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University. We wish both of them great success in their new endeavors.

NIEER - Early ed news roundup 11/13

Early Education News Roundup

November 13, 2009
Va. keeps focus on early-childhood education, official says
Despite tough economic times, Virginia has taken a strong interest in maintaining its programs for early-childhood education, according to a member of the Virginia Board of Education.

November 10, 2009
Editorial: Pre-K program is doing what it should
Nevertheless, getting the pre-K students ready for kindergarten and first grade, it would seem, satisfies a major objective of the program, and that is what the report found. The program was not designed to create super students who would show up their peers for the next dozen years but to put disadvantaged students on a par with those who were tutored at home or attended private preschool programs.

November 9, 2009
State to rate child-care providers on star system
The state of Montana is gearing up to roll out a program next year that would take the guesswork out of finding top-notch early childhood programs. Called STARS to Quality, the voluntary program would rate early childhood programs, either centers or in-home providers. Programs would be evaluated based on early childhood education research.

November 9, 2009
Opinion: Parental anxiety is ruining playtime
It is well known that many preschool parents have become super-anxious trying to give their kids a leg up on kindergarten, but I didn't realize just how nutty things had become until I talked to several dozen preschool program directors. The preschool directors wanted to discuss the worsening anxiety they see in parents who recognize that children are being required to read and write in kindergarten and want to make sure little Johnny and Joanie stay on track -- whether or not they are developmentally ready (and lots aren't).

November 8, 2009
Editorial: Don't mess with success: Gov.-elect Chris Christie should catch up on preschool
Today, more than 50,000 kids are in these programs, most of them in the poorest urban districts. Class size is limited to 15, and teachers must be college graduates with special training in the workings of the young mind and how it learns.

November 7, 2009
Alarm raised on early education
Sherri Killins, commissioner of the Department of Early Education and Care, told a group of legislators at the Statehouse Thursday only 15 percent of children who apply for subsidies for early education or after-school programs receive state aid. There are 22,774 children on the waiting list, according to Killins, who estimated the cost for subsidizing tuition for all of the children at $214 million.

November 5, 2009
Study: Preschools Could Save Prison Costs
According to a new study, the state could save millions of dollars in prison costs by getting more children in preschool. The study also found that 28 percent of kids who did attend preschool were sent to jail in their lives while 52 percent of those who didn't attend preschool went to jail.

November 4, 2009
Opinion: Early education: Aim for quality across spectrum of providers
There are currently a variety of options for delivering high-quality early learning opportunities to Massachusetts' children. This "mixed delivery system" is comprised of community-based child care centers, public preschool programs, after-school and out-of-school-time programs, family child care homes, Head Start programs, and child care provided by families, friends, and neighbors.

November 4, 2009
Editorial: Investment in early childhood good use of stimulus dollars
Gov. Rick Perry recently named his appointees to the newly formed Texas State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care, a new council mandated by the federal Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007. The council will direct spending on a pending $11.3 million federal stimulus grant and work towards developing a comprehensive system of early childhood education and care that ensures coordination and collaboration among early childhood programs throughout Texas.

November 2, 2009
Report: Tenn. Pre-K Not Effective After Second Grade
A new report shows the effectiveness of Tennessee's pre-kindergarten program diminishes after the second grade, but supporters say it still provides a valuable foundation that will help at-risk children succeed. The report commissioned by the state comptroller's office late last week reveals kindergarten students who participated in the pre-K program performed better academically than a group of those who didn't.

October 30, 2009
State budget crisis threatens pre-K programs
If Illinois pre-K administrators and educators are given the same budget they received last year — which amounted to a 10 percent reduction from the previous year — cuts would have to be made across the state. More than 9,500 3- and 4-year olds could go without pre-kindergarten.

NIEER - Early Ed hot topics 11/13

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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Late Oct. Early Ed. news roundup

Bill to link preschool with economic development
[South Dakota state Sen. Tom] Dempster and a committee have been working to draft a bill that would not ask for an appropriation this year; it would simply set up a structure for preschool standards that would at least enable the state to start receiving federal money designated for such programs.

October 28, 2009 Too much TV for children, U.S. and local experts say
According to a report released Monday by Nielsen, a TV ratings organization, the amount of television kids watch has reached an eightyear high, with children ages 2 to 5 watching more than 32 hours a week and those ages 6 to 11 watching more than 28 hours. The study was based on children's consumption of live TV, recorded TV programs and game-console use. Child experts say that's just too much television.

October 28, 2009 Preschools, parents forced to adjust amid cuts
The state's fiscal crisis is striking some of its most vulnerable residents -- 4-year-olds whose private, nonprofit preschool programs are losing state funding. A 50% cut in grants, part of the school aid budget that became official last week, means more than 20 programs won't get their funding renewed and 2,000 slots will be lost.

October 27, 2009 Oregon among 13 states increasing preschool spending
Oregon's Legislature was among 13 state legislatures that increased spending on prekindergaten education, the Pew Center reports this month in an annual report on legislative action affecting prekindergarten. The Oregon Legislature in 2007 put an additional $37 million into Oregon Head Start, nearly doubling the number of 3- and 4-year-olds from low-income families served by the state to 6,550.

October 25, 2009 Opinion: What's missing from the N.J. gubernatorial debate? An economic plan for the future.
New Jersey was poised to expand this preschool program to even more children when the recession devastated state revenues. Whoever occupies the governor's mansion next year needs to appreciate the value of this resource and build on it by making New Jersey's highly effective early education programs available to children who need them in school districts across the state.

October 25, 2009 New kindergartners: Many kids not ready to learn
Across the Columbus school district, tests given each fall show that more than three of every four kindergarten students aren't ready to learn. This is a particularly difficult challenge for two reasons: Preparing small children for school isn't usually the responsibility of a K-12 school district, but it still must spend time and money to help kids catch up.

October 23, 2009 Ohio led states in preschool cutbacks
Ohio slashed preschool programs more than any other state in the nation, according to a new report. The state-by-state analysis found that Ohio cut the largest percentage of funding from preschool education and, as a result, will deny services to the largest number of children.

October 23, 2009 Study: Preschool education beneficial
A three-year, statewide study of 10,002 preschoolers from low-income families has shown a good education before kindergarten vastly improves a child's ability to learn.

October 23, 2009 Education Department - desperate to fill pre-K seats or lose funds - posts ad on craigslist
With a deadline looming next week to either fill the seats or lose state funding, the Education Department is scrambling to reach parents by any means possible. Up for grabs are the 5,400 pre-K spots for 4-year-olds, including more than 900 for coveted full-day programs.

October 22, 2009 Pre-K funding up, despite state budget woes
Despite declining revenues and budget shortfalls, state funding for prekindergarten is expected to increase by about 1 percent, or $5.3 billion, nationally in fiscal 2010, says a report from a group that advocates high-quality early-education programs.

October 22, 2009 State disputes report on cuts to prekindergarten spending
The report found that Massachusetts this fiscal year cut 22 percent of the budget for prekindergarten education, more than every state but Ohio, which cut 33 percent of its money for such programs. Massachusetts state officials called the report skewed.

October 21, 2009 Preschool exercise aids learning, Head Start says
The program is designed to fight childhood obesity by teaching kids exercise and nutrition, the younger the better. The program's design is based on brain research, which shows movement fosters proper brain development in young children.

October 20, 2009 R.I.'s first public preschool program teaches cooperation, perseverance
Rhode Island was one of 12 states that had no investment in early childhood education until the opening this fall of seven state-sponsored pre-kindergarten classrooms in four cities — Providence, Warwick, Central Falls and Woonsocket.