Kindergarten

Today we feature a guest post by Eric Tyler, a research assistant with the international programs unit at Plan USA, a non-profit organization that has been operating in Haiti since 1973. Early Ed Watch asked Eric to provide an update on how the January earthquake has affected Haitian children and their schooling.

More than 60 science educators from around the country gathered in Cedar Falls, Iowa, earlier this week for a first-of-its-kind meeting focused on two questions: How do we give young children more opportunities for high-quality, hands-on introductions to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)? And how – given costs and resource constraints – do we develop the early childhood workforce so that it can teach science well? 

 In an animated conversation on Capitol Hill yesterday, lawmakers and early education advocates grappled with what role early childhood education should play in changing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (recently known as No Child Left Behind). The hearing – held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee – provided an opportunity to spotlight policies that would support programs for children from pre-kindergarten up through third grade as part of reforms to what has traditionally been considered a K-12 system.

More than 25 years ago, A Nation at Risk raised the issue. High-level research summits on children’s achievement have flagged the problem for decades. Last year, even military leaders expressed their concern. We here at New America have tried to drive the point home too: It is beyond time to address the literacy problem in this country. More than two-thirds of fourth-graders are not reading at grade level.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) increased the amount of federal spending on children. In the coming years, however, spending on children as a percentage of gross domestic product may fall from a high of 2.2 percent in 2009 – when the Recovery Act was enacted --  to an estimated 1.9 percent in 2019.

Will this be the year for reauthorization of the law once known as No Child Left Behind? Could some of the law's policies be changed to improve the odds for high-quality early learning programs and the children they serve? Will new attention be paid to pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, first, second and third grades?

Today we feature a guest post from Linda Jacobson, veteran education reporter and author of our policy paper, "On the Cusp in California." Her last post, focused on Los Angeles, provided a glimpse of  changes to come at Head Start.

A report released last week shows that most students in Los Angeles Universal Preschool are improving significantly in school readiness skills over the course of a single year in the program. Overall, the number of 4-year-olds who were rated in the “in progress” to “proficient” range on skills like using crayons, following one-and two-step directions, and recognizing basic shapes and colors increased from 22 percent the fall to 72 percent in the spring.

Picture an arborist puzzled by an ailing tree. He has tried giving it more water. He has protected it from blight. Why won't it grow?

If the tree stands for public education, the arborist is today's education reformer. Ideas continue to pour forth on how to help students, fix schools and revamp No Child Left Behind. But none tackles the environments the tree experienced as a sapling, when its roots never got the chance to stretch out and dig in.