Washington, DC and Palo Alto, CA — Early
education has emerged as a critical issue
for state policymakers, who spent nearly
$7 billion on programs in 2015-16 for our
youngest learners—a 12% increase over the
prior year. But despite considerable
research on the elements of high-quality
preschool and its role in advancing
equitable educational opportunities,
policymakers have limited information on
how to ensure that their investments
yield exceptional early learning
opportunities.
A
new report by the Learning Policy
Institute, The Road to High-Quality
Early Learning: Lessons from the
States, fills this information gap
by describing and analyzing how four
states—Michigan, North Carolina,
Washington, and West Virginia—have built
high-quality early education
systems at scale. It also identifies key
takeaways for all policymakers looking to
expand and deepen access to high-quality
preschool. It is authored by Marjorie
Wechsler, David L. Kirp, Titilayu Tinubu
Ali, Madelyn Gardner, Anna Maier, Hanna
Melnick, and Patrick M. Shields
“Although many studies show that
high-quality preschool returns $7 to $10
for every dollar invested, the research
shows that it is not so easy to create
high-quality preschool at scale, and not
all programs reap these benefits,” says
Linda Darling-Hammond, president and
CEO of the Learning Policy Institute.
“This study looks deeply at how
governments can design and implement
programs that pay off for their children
and their state.”
Key Lessons:
Prioritize quality and continuous
improvement. Recognizing the
critical role of program quality in
achieving positive child outcomes, each
of the states has invested in strategies
to monitor and improve its early
education programs.
Invest in training and coaching
for teachers. These four states
place heavy emphasis on boosting the
quality of preschool teachers, focusing
on strengthening their credentials and
their productive interactions with
students.
Coordinate the administration of
birth-through-grade-3 programs.
Pre-k historically has been kept entirely
separate from k-12, but these four states
are seeking to create a seamless
educational experience, aligning what is
taught and how it is taught from
preschool through elementary school and
beyond.
Strategically combine multiple
funding sources to increase access and
improve quality. Adequate
resources are essential to assuring
high-quality early education. While these
four states depend primarily on state
dollars as the main revenue source for
early education, they also help providers
integrate federal and local funding.
Create broad-based coalitions and
support. Launching a
high-quality early education
initiative—or building a bigger and
better program—is hard work. These four
states relied on broad-based support to
advance their efforts.
The States in a
Nutshell:
Michigan offers
high-quality prekindergarten that is
targeted for low-income children. It has
restructured program administration to
facilitate coordination across the early
care and education system and made
program-improvement strategies routine.
North Carolina offers a
“one-stop shop” at the local level,
providing an array of birth-to-five
services for low-income families. The
state pioneered the development of a
quality rating system and supports
teachers to build their skills through
training and salary supplements.
Washington follows the
Head Start model, offering a range of
wraparound services to the state’s most
vulnerable students. Through intensive
coaching and rigorous standards, the
state is improving home-based child care
as a way to expand access to quality
early education programs.
West Virginia makes
preschool available to all 4-year-olds,
paying for the program with general
school aid dollars. It offers communities
considerable autonomy in program design
and evaluation, and requires
collaboration across private providers,
schools, and Head Start.
Notes report lead author
Marjorie Wechsler, “Quality doesn’t
just happen. You have to design for it,
support it, and continually work for it,
as these states have done. They’ve
focused on quality through their
attention to standards, by setting clear
expectations for teachers’ knowledge and
skills and supporting teachers to reach
those expectations, and by establishing
mechanisms for ongoing program
improvement.”
The report was released at “The Road to
High-Quality Early Learning: Lessons from
the States,” a
forum convened by the Learning
Policy Institute, the
Council for a Strong America, and the
First Five
Years Fund. Following the convening,
we will post audio and video of the
report launch on the event page.
Please click to download
the
report, brief,
or
one-page fact sheet. To
download our earlier brief, “The Building
Blocks of High-Quality Early Childhood
Education Programs”, click here.
For more information or
to arrange interviews with report authors
or individuals from the four states,
please contact Sue Dorfman at
sdorfman@learningpolicyinstitute.org.
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About the Learning Policy
Institute
The Learning Policy Institute conducts
and communicates independent,
high-quality research to improve
education policy and practice. Working
with policymakers, researchers,
educators, community groups, and others,
the Institute seeks to advance
evidence-based policies that support
empowering and equitable learning for
each and every child.
Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the Institute
connects policymakers and stakeholders at
the local, state, and federal levels with
the evidence, ideas, and actions needed
to strengthen the education system from
preschool through college and career
readiness. More information is
available at http://learningpolicyinstitute.org/.
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