Kindergarten

The following guest post was written by Samuel J. Meisels, president of Erikson Institute in Chicago. Erikson is the nation’s only graduate school and center for research and service focused exclusively on improving care and education for children birth to age eight.

The Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge has enormous potential to improve the quality of early childhood programs and expand the number of low-income children, birth to five, enrolled in high-quality programs. Totaling $500 million, this program is unprecedented in its size, its focus on children from birth to five, and its commitment to collaboration between the two federal departments most concerned with children’s development.

Despite this, the new program does not go far enough because, other than recommendations for a Kindergarten Entry Measure and a completely optional, or “invitational” priority concerning “sustaining program effects in the early elementary grades,” it only applies to programs that serve children younger than age five.

It’s quite good. Let’s make it better.

That’s the gist of our perspective on the proposal for the Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge, an unprecedented opportunity for states to win millions of dollars to strengthen the quality and coordination of early learning programs.

The draft guidelines for the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge outline five “priorities” that states will have to work toward to win grants.  For example, one of the priorities is “Using Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement Systems to Promote School Readiness.” High marks go to states that either use, or have a good plan for how to use, Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) rating systems to promote quality in their early ed programs.

But all priorities are not equal.

On July 11, 2011, the Early Education Initiative submitted comments about the draft guidelines for a new federal program to promote early learning called the Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge. The comments were sent to the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S.

Assessments of children’s “readiness” for school will undoubtedly be a big piece of the new Race to the Top- Early Learning Challenge and, given that early childhood providers have qualms about 4-year-olds being forced to take inappropriate tests, concerns are rampant. But are these fears realized in the proposed guidelines for the competition? We don’t think so – at least not based on a close reading of what we’ve seen so far. (The final guidelines are expected in mid-August.)

This morning, the U.S. Department of Education released applications for the second round of Promise Neighborhoods grants, the fledgling competitive grant program designed to replicate the famous Harlem Children’s Zone in communities across the country.

Research tells us that children's development is strongly influenced by the environment they grow up in -- the language they hear as adults talk to and care for them, the books and stories they are exposed to, the social and emotional moments they experience. Today, that environment increasingly includes digital technology, especially screen media.  How should early educators ensure that it is harnessed to help and not harm?

On June 15, 2011, Lisa Guernsey presented at the National Association for the Education of Young Children's (NAEYC) Professional Development Institute in Providence, R.I. The presentation was part of a featured panel, "Building a Blueprint for Learning with Technology."

On June 14, 2011 Laura Bornfreund presented at the National Association for the Education of Young Children's (NAEYC) Professional Development Institute in Providence, R.I. The presentation highlighted findings and recommendations from the Early Education Initiative's recent policy paper, "Getting in Sync: Revamping Licensing and Preparation for Teachers in Pre-K, Kindergarten, and the Early Grades."

Policies to improve the quality and effectiveness of teachers continue to be a hot topic in education. Earlier this spring, the Early Education Initiative added to the chorus as well as provided new fodder with our paper “Getting in Sync: Revamping Licensure and Preparation for Teachers in Pre-K, Kindergarten and the Early Grades,” which focused on ensuring that the teachers who work with young children in kindergarten, first, second or third grade have the knowledge and skills they need.

Last week, I gave a presentation on that paper at the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) Professional Development Institute in Providence, R.I.