News Archive for 2008
May 8, 2008 (The Birmingham News)
Editorial: Alabama's state budgets won't make everyone happy, but they do manage to protect and even expand some important programs
The education budget, which the Senate will likely debate today, also would increase spending on prekindergarten by more than $9 million, almost doubling this year's amount.
May 7, 2008 (The Times, Shreveport, LA)
Editorial: Pre-K programs deserve support from Senate
Louisiana Senate Bill 286 and its twin in the House (HB 722) would make pre-kindergarten programs available to every Louisiana 4-year-old by the year 2013. The potential long-range benefit to the student and the state is considerable, and the hefty price tag that comes along with it should be considered a long-term investment rather than a short-term expense.
May 7, 2008 (The Sun, Mount Vernon, IA)
Push made for public preschool
With the deadline for applying for a state early childhood education grant approaching, Mount Vernon School District Superintendent Jeff Schwiebert told those attending a preschool forum last week that the district would be applying.
May 7, 2008 (Arkansas News Bureau)
Fewer teachers leaving after first year, panel told
Also during the meeting, the joint committee approved an interim study by Rep. Nancy Blount, D-Marianna, which creates a task force to study the development of a birth-to-kindergarten teacher license in the state. Blount said such a program would allow for day care teachers to receive further training in how to teach children too young for preschool.
May 7, 2008 (Central Florida News 13)
Pre-K Essential For Later Success
According to the Center for Public Education, every dollar spent for pre-K can save up to $16 in public education because fewer students need to be placed in special education classes, and that means fewer students are held back. Also, studies show pre-kindergarten education increases test scores and graduation rates.
May 6, 2008 (Consumer Electronics Net)
Study Shows Children's Web Sites May Be Entertaining, But May Also Make Kids Cry
Most Popular Sites Commercialized; Some 'Sell' Kids' Creations Back to Them
Publishers of many major children's Web sites should do a better job disclosing sales and advertising information to parents, especially as more kids at younger ages go online to play and meet friends, says a study released today by Consumer Reports WebWatch and the Mediatech Foundation of Flemington, N.J. The study, "Like Taking Candy from a Baby: How Young Children Interact with Online Environments," used ethnographic methods and focused on young children, ages 2 1/2 to 8.
May 6, 2008 (San Mateo County Times)
Preschool bills getting high grades from county official
AB2759, authored by Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, would consolidate all of the existing state preschool, prekindergarten, family literacy, general child care and development programs. It would then create the California State Preschool Program, the largest state-funded effort of its kind in the nation.
May 4, 2008 (Southeast Missourian)
Pre-K learning benefits children
Children who can identify letters and sounds before kindergarten are 20 times more likely to read basic words by the end of kindergarten than children who don't know their letters or sounds, according to Pre-K Now. The Washington, D.C. advocacy group also says students who start behind often also stay behind; 88 percent of first-graders who struggle at reading continue to struggle with reading in fourth grade, the group reports.
May 3, 2008 (The News & Advance, Lynchburg, VA)
Early childhood education support expanding in state
The state's plan to nurture early learning in young children has become a large, very active effort, according to Kathy Glazer, director of the governor's newly created Office of Early Childhood Development.
May 2, 2008 (The Ottawa Citizen)
Editorial: The benefits of early learning
It is well worth exploring how making early childhood education available to most Quebec children, not just those whose parents can afford it, has played into its students' above average literacy and math skills. Several U.S. studies and one that looked at the Quebec program concluded that the benefits to children - cognitive, academic and health - and their families, far outweighed the costs.
May 2, 2008 (The Greenville News, Greenville, SC)
Opinion: Progress slow toward educational excellence
So what can be done to improve our state's high school graduation rates? The High/Scope Perry Preschool Study tracked children from impoverished backgrounds and concluded that students who attended high-quality preschool classes are more likely to graduate from high school.
May 2, 2008 (The New York Times)
An Initiative on Reading Is Rated Ineffective
President Bush's $1 billion a year initiative to teach reading to low-income children has not helped improve their reading comprehension, according to a Department of Education report released on Thursday. The program, known as Reading First, drew on some of Mr. Bush's educational experiences as Texas governor, and at his insistence Congress included it in the federal No Child Left Behind legislation that passed by bipartisan majorities in 2001.
May 1, 2008 (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Editorial: Expand pre-k for kids' sake
Debate continues over whether Atlanta ought to adopt a lottery system for pre-k rather than rely on the first-come, first-served basis that favors parents with the financial wherewithal to take off work for most of the week. The real debate ought to center around why there aren't enough high-quality pre-k classes to go around.
May 1, 2008 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Child care workers in U.S. averaged $18,820 in 2006
Child care workers typically earn less than locker-room attendants and service-station workers, pulling in $18,820 a year in 2006, according to a report released Thursday. Despite recent attention about the importance of early education, the hourly rate of the industry's arguably most important people, child care workers with some college education, rose only 39 cents over the last 35 years, AFT said.
Apr 30, 2008 (The Kansas City Star)
Kansas leads push to expand pre-K education
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius wants more children from low-income families to have a chance at preschool and, based on the statistics, a better life. This year, she asked the Kansas Legislature to spend a lot more money — $27 million extra — on early childhood learning.
Apr 30, 2008 (The Ruston Daily Leader, Ruston, LA)
Even Start fights for life
There used to be 33 Even Start sites across the state, but that number has been reduced to 10 because of a lack of funds. Even Start receives no state funding, and administrators are pushing to change that.
Apr 28, 2008 (Asbury Park Press)
Preschool classes give children a leg up
POSITIVE RESULTS: 2nd graders who had prekindergarten test better
At first, the children in Sandra Davis' prekindergarten class look like they're having a good time, surrounding the teacher as she reads them a story and playfully calling out answers to her questions about the story. Real learning is going on here, however. Proof of that is in results of standardized tests administered to second-graders who were in the district's first all-day prekindergarten class in 2004-05.
Apr 28, 2008 (The Honolulu Advertiser)
Hawaii lawmakers push keiki education
More than 80% of Isle kids begin school lacking needed skills
Hawai'i is about to take the first step toward greater state involvement in the education of preschool children. With milestone legislation poised for passage, Hawai'i is expected to join a growing list of states that have established some form of an early childhood education system.
Apr 28, 2008 (The Hartford Courant, Hartford, CT)
Grants Help Ready Colchester Kids For Kindergarten
Colchester's organized collaboration between home day-care centers, private nursery schools and town-run preschools has some state educators looking at the school system as a model for early childhood education and intervention in a community that once would not have been considered for such assistance.
Apr 27, 2008 (Chicago Tribune)
Science, politics and preschool
Experts agree: Kids need early education programs. But how early?
A tide of recent research on early childhood development is inspiring prominent scientists and politicians to argue for an unprecedented investment in schooling that begins virtually at birth. But as decades of academic studies on brain development start to land in the real world, experts are divided on whether to focus new funding on infants and toddlers, or conventional preschool.
Apr 24, 2008 (The Home News Tribune, East Brunswick, NJ)
Analysis: N.J. spends most on preschool
New Jersey allocates an average of $10,494 in state funding for each child enrolled in pre-kindergarten. That's 33.6 percent more than the second-highest-spending state, Oregon.
Apr 24, 2008 (The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, CA)
First 5 commissioner urges school bonds to build preschools too
The founder of a nonprofit group seeking to break down barriers to early childhood education said Wednesday that the next statewide school construction bond must include funding for new preschool classrooms. Molly Munger, a First 5 California state commissioner and founder of the Advancement Project Los Angeles, said the Inland region is not accessing all the funding it could be for early-childhood programs because there is a shortage of places to house them.
Apr 24, 2008 (The Mississippi Press)
Opinion: Good session for education
The Early Childhood Education Program is one of the more important areas to develop. Mississippi is one of a dozen states that did not fund a pre-kindergarten program in the 2006-07 school year, according to a report by The National Institute for Early Childhood Research.
Apr 23, 2008 (Visalia Times-Delta, Visalia, CA)
Preschoolers learn language skills to prepare for kindergarten
Preschool is the time to learn your ABCs — and your números uno, dos y tres. Spanish and even American Sign Language are making their way into the preschool curriculum. Children are learning not just to communicate, but to do so in a multicultural society.
Apr 23, 2008 (The Wenatchee World, Wenatchee, WA)
Parents study how to give kids a head start
Without these early lessons, Pedro and Cassandra may have started kindergarten already behind their peers — the beginning of a long achievement gap. North Central Washington Readiness for Kindergarten is a grant project that offers parents three group classes and follow-up home visits with literacy specialists.
Apr 23, 2008 (Times Daily, Florence, AL)
Riley confident Alabama pre-k funding won't be cut
Alabama is facing a massive $375 million deficit in its education budget for Fiscal Year 2009, but Gov. Bob Riley says he's confident the looming cuts feared by colleges and the K-12 system won't affect the state's youngest students.
Apr 22, 2008 (KHON 2 News, Honolulu, HI)
Hawaii's early education in the spotlight
Early education gets a boost as experts from three other states join Hawaii to improve policies. A four day conference is underway to strategize on early childhood development and education. And the idea is to learn from others by sharing policies that have worked best. Experts from Washington, Florida, and Mississippi have joined in.
Apr 22, 2008 (Rocky Mountain News, Denver, CO)
Preschool program grows slowly, but gaining steam
Organizers say it's 'like trying to ride the bike while ... assembling it'
Fewer than 700 kids are enrolled in a voter-approved Denver Preschool Program that was supposed to handle 4,000. But enrollment numbers are expected to grow to 3,800 by August and possibly 6,600 in the future.
Apr 20, 2008 (The Oklahoman)
Pre-K - it's not just about social skills anymore
Since the advent of federal mandates such as No Child Left Behind and the prevalence of computers in classrooms, curriculums have changed nationwide as well as here in Oklahoma. Schools that once used the pre-K years primarily to socialize children are now making use of those early years to lay the foundation for not only reading, but math and science, as well.
Apr 17, 2008 (The Patriot-News, Harrisburg, PA)
Opinion: Why early learning is crucial for kids
Studies show the experiences -- both positive and negative -- that these children have before they turn 5 will affect their learning and social development, and economic contribution for life. Young children learn best when they have activities that stimulate creativity, curiosity and all the skills they need to succeed, proper health and nutrition, and a safe and stable family/home life.
Apr 17, 2008 (The Brownsville Herald, Brownsville, TX)
Early development critical to children's success
While Brownsville educators can attempt to provide incentives to students at the high school and university level, experts at United Way of Southern Cameron County emphasize that early childhood development is key in forging intellectual abilities that will benefit community children for life. Unlike tutors, summer school, and special educational tools that a child may need as they get older, a young child can reap exponential benefits from the cost-free stimulation of a parent's company.
Apr 17, 2008 (KTKA, Topeka, KS)
Early childhood education task force sets out to achieve mission
Just by playing with each other, Corrie Fitzgerald with the Topeka Lutheran School for Young children said the young minds are learning the social skills necessary to have an enjoyable educational experience. But for more than 1,300 Topeka 3-to-4-year-olds, pre-school isn't an option.
The reason, there just isn't enough room.
Apr 15, 2008 (The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA)
Children seem to thrive on learning multiple languages
For many years, parents and teachers assumed that teaching a foreign tongue to young children might be too difficult. But language teachers who work with younger children say you need only hear the children of immigrants to understand how learning more than one language is not only possible, but beneficial.
Apr 15, 2008 (The Kansas City Star)
Missouri panel to study public pre-K education
A statewide task force soon will begin exploring how Missouri might move toward building a more extensive system of publicly funded pre-kindergarten education. The Missouri Panel on School Readiness: Focus on Pre-Kindergarten Education will meet three times during the summer with the aim of producing a report in November.
Apr 14, 2008 (The Free Press, Mankato, MN)
Preschooler boom signals difficulties
Funds not up to par with increase in population
The Mankato Area School District has already identified a population boom among its preschool-aged children and has projected large enrollment increases in the coming years. The Waseca School District will welcome its largest kindergarten class in years next fall while the Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial School District is trying to expand early childhood education services to meet population increases.
Apr 14, 2008 (The Daily Advertiser, Lafayette, LA)
Officials promote moves to expand pre-K
Summit seeks to further reach
In Louisiana, more than 15,000 4-year-olds are enrolled in pre-K programs from the state called LA4. It's a large number compared to the 1,000 that were enrolled six years ago. Funding has continued to grow for the program that demands a certain level of quality when it comes to curriculum and teachers.
Apr 11, 2008 (The Daily News, Longview, WA)
Editorial: State's Department of Early Learning paying dividends
Washington should benefit significantly from its strong commitment to early childhood education. Early learning programs are thought to give the biggest bang for the education dollar.
Apr 9, 2008 (Asbury Park Press)
Opinion: Returns on pre-K funding prove it's a wise investment for state
As to the question of whether New Jersey can afford to expand public pre-K, the answer is clearly "yes." Pre-K pays off so well because we pay a high price for failure, particularly in a time when even children from middle-income families have much too high a chance of needing long-term special education or dropping out of school.
Apr 8, 2008 (Daily Camera, Boulder, CO)
Lawmakers focus on preschoolers
State lawmakers want to put tens of thousands of 4- and 5-year-olds in preschool and kindergarten next year under the school finance act.
Apr 7, 2008 (The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, MS)
Editorial: Pre-K: Mississippi is now falling farther behind
Southern states lead the nation in the overall quality of publicly funded pre-kindergarten programs for 4-year-olds, a recent study shows, but you wouldn't know it in Mississippi.
Apr 4, 2008 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
St. Charles School District considers preschool program
Results from a recent survey sent home with elementary school students showed most parents would like to see an early childhood preschool program in the St. Charles School District. Nearly 84 percent of about 400 parents who responded said they would send their child to the preschool, and about 75 percent said they would be able to pay tuition if it were on a sliding scale based on income.
Apr 2, 2008 (The Washington Times)
Council approves pre-K increase
D.C. Council members yesterday gave unanimous preliminary approval to legislation expanding the city's educational offerings to 3- and 4-year-olds, a move that coincides with a national trend to serve students before they reach kindergarten.
Apr 1, 2008 (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
Pre-k demand swells
Georgia and Tennessee lawmakers this week are working on budgets that could add 1,000 new pre-kindergarten seats in the Peach State and nearly 300 additional seats in Tennessee.
Mar 26, 2008 (The Record, Bergen County, NJ)
Editorial: Abbott vs. Corzine
The Abbott system has directed state funding to 31 districts designated as impoverished. They include one in Bergen County, Garfield; and two in Passaic County, Paterson and the city of Passaic. The districts have benefited from a huge influx of aid to bolster their relatively low property tax revenues, two mandatory years of pre-kindergarten education, and the bulk of a multibillion-dollar school construction program.
Mar 25, 2008 (Connecticut Post)
Editorial: Boost investment in early education
Connecticut can be justifiably proud that its early childhood education programs rank among the tops in the nation, but the state still has much work to do to meet the needs of poor children in its urban centers such as Bridgeport.
Mar 24, 2008 (The Times-Picayune, New Orleans, LA)
Editorial: Keep focus on early start
There's widespread consensus about the benefits of early education programs. Both proponents and critics agree that kids who attend preschool do better than other children in the same age who do not, particularly early on.
Mar 19, 2008 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Preschool study lauds Illinois, downplays Missouri
Illinois ranked first in the nation for providing access to 3-year-olds and 12th for providing access to 4-year-olds. The state also fared well on quality, meeting nine of 10 academic benchmarks in areas such as class size, and the number of qualified teachers and aides in classrooms.
Mar 18, 2008 (The Tennessean)
Pre-K proposal faces key committee vote
A cornerstone education proposal from Gov. Phil Bredesen appears to have enough support, including from the Republican chairwoman, to pass a key Senate committee when it reviews the state's proposed education budget on Wednesday. Bredesen's $25 million proposal would expand pre-kindergarten funding by about 250 classrooms statewide, with an emphasis on broadening the program to include middle-class children.
Mar 17, 2008 (The Patriot-News, Harrisburg, PA)
Editorial: Reaching children early works, but funding questions remain
The value of early childhood edu cation is well recognized, yet we don't do enough of it in this country. Harrisburg School District, which has developed an innovative, research-based pre-kindergarten program for 500 children, serves only half of the 3- and 4-year-olds in the district.
Mar 13, 2008 (St. Cloud Times, St. Cloud, MN)
Clark's learning bill goes forward
A plan to create a state Office of Early Childhood Education from Sen. Tarryl Clark, DFL-St. Cloud, moved forward in a Minnesota Senate committee Wednesday. The office, whose director would be appointed by the governor, would coordinate programs currently administered out of the departments of Education and Human Services, including Early Childhood and Family Education, school readiness, Head Start and child care assistance programs.
Mar 12, 2008 (The Advocate, Stamford, CT)
Preschools fear state funding will vanish
Preschool providers were hoping that the per-child reimbursement rate from the state would increase by $500, to $8,500. The money is crucial, they say, to maintain the quality of their programs as state requirements increase.
Mar 11, 2008 (The Washington Post)
Budget compromises could bring legislative session to an end
Agreements include pre-K program, pay raises and tuition caps, but not transportation funding
To break the stalemate, Senate Democrats on Monday dropped their demands that Kaine's preschool initiative be expanded to include some 4-year-olds eligible for reduced-priced school lunches, as Kaine had proposed. Currently, only 4-year-olds eligible for free school lunches are eligible for pre-kindergarten services. Instead of expanding the program to a new group of 4-year-olds, House and Senate budget negotiators agreed to spend an additional $20 million over two years to bolster the existing system.
Mar 10, 2008 (The News Journal, Wilmington, DE)
Governor hopefuls make their case
Candidates get their message out -- while still taking the political high road
Studies show that 80 percent of a child's brain development occurs in the first five years. [State Treasurer Jack] Markell's [proposed] plan includes a $12.5 million proposal that would subsidize 75 percent of an instructor's pay to help eligible early-childhood centers hire and retain well-trained educators.
Mar 9, 2008 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Some parents 'redshirt' their kindergartners
Nationwide, studies have shown that 6 to 9 percent of first- and second-graders started kindergarten about a year after they were eligible — a scenario some educators call "academic redshirting." But when to send a child to kindergarten is an issue many parents still grapple with, and researchers have yet to determine which children really benefit from redshirting, said Beth Graue, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert on academic redshirting.
Mar 9, 2008 (The Virginian-Pilot)
Editorial: A better option for dropouts
Anyone who doubts the value of early childhood education programs needs only to compare those costs with the costs of remedial education for 2,000 students. Indeed, the best argument for early childhood education is that it costs much less in the long run to get kids off to a good start than it does to fix them after they have already failed.
Mar 5, 2008 (Anchorage Daily News)
Head Start gets funds
A $10 billion operating budget the state House passed Tuesday includes close to $1 million lawmakers had previously cut for Head Start and another early education program.
Mar 4, 2008 (The Olympian, Olympia, WA)
Opinion: Research shows importance of math, science skills
Block building provides a natural context to develop early math concepts, such as numbers, quantity, measuring, symmetry and patterns as well as comparisons such as more or less. Researchers found a significant relationship between preschool block performance and the number of math courses taken, the number of honors courses, math grades achieved and math test scores.
Mar 3, 2008 (Cornell Chronicle)
Rural preschoolers get short shrift in access to early education programs
But for rural tots in low-income communities, it's a different story: Only about one-quarter (26 percent) of these children, 4-years-old and younger, can be served by state-regulated early education programs in their areas, compared with almost half (44 percent) of poor urban/suburban young children, according to three Cornell researchers. These findings highlight an important need in rural communities that is especially relevant given New York's recent efforts to increase access to early education for 4-year-olds through its pre-K program.
Mar 2, 2008 (The Mississippi Press)
Opinion: Investing in the future
The Excel by 5 program is a reminder that Mississippi is lagging in pre-kindergarten education. A pilot pre-kindergarten program is one of the legislative priorities of the Mississippi Board of Education.
Mar 2, 2008 (The Anniston Star, Anniston, AL)
Opinion: Alabama's pre-K program rates well nationally, but how can Gov. Bob Riley sell it at home?
Even in Alabama, where increasing funding for education frequently is smacked down by voters, few teachers, day-care operators or parents would say the program doesn't succeed in getting children ready for school. What remains to be seen is whether the Legislature will pay to expand the program to reach 21,000 4-year-olds by 2011.
Mar 2, 2008 (Lawrence Journal-World)
Making the most of young minds
Advocates tout benefits of pre-K programs
Advocates for early childhood education have traditionally pointed to Kansas as being among the worst states in the country for pre-elementary school funding. But in the past few years, they have seen progress.
Feb 29, 2008 (The New York Times)
Families Help Care for Half of U.S. Preschoolers, Census Says
Grandparents serve as the primary caregivers for about 20 percent of the 11.3 million preschool children with employed mothers, according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau. About a quarter of the children under 5 spend most of their time in an organized program like a nursery school, day care or Head Start while their mothers worked.
Feb 29, 2008 (Lawrence Journal-World)
Senate approves bill to mandate kindergarten
Children would be required to attend kindergarten under a Senate-passed bill that also lowers the age for starting school from 7 to 6. Kindergarten is required in all 296 school districts that receive $2,187 in base state aid for kindergarten students.
Feb 29, 2008 (Miller-McCune Magazine, Santa Barbara, CA)
Kindergarten: Half Full or Half Empty?
For educators and academics, kindergarten is a crucial area of study because it provides a bridge between early learning and formal school. A new Early Childhood Research Quarterly study adds to evidence that full-day programs improve children's literacy and shows that small classes may be even better for disadvantaged students.
Feb 29, 2008 (New Mexico Business Weekly)
Garcia: Pre-K education key to workforce development
Early childhood education for Hispanics makes a huge difference in their future success -- more so than for any other population. That has serious ramifications for economic development in New Mexico.
Feb 28, 2008 (The Columbian, Vancouver, WA)
Child care worker bill up for Senate vote
A bill that would allow day care center workers and directors to bargain with the governor for higher reimbursement rates and benefits has passed the House and is scheduled for a key vote in a Senate committee today. The average early childhood teacher in Washington earns less than $20,000, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, and many day care instructors lack health insurance.
Feb 28, 2008 (The News Journal, Wilmington, DE)
Early-education advocates seek funding
State subsidy fails to keep up with costs
Advocates for early childhood and after-school education programs implored the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee on Wednesday to provide additional money to keep their programs running. Without an addition to the $40.7 million allocation proposed for the coming fiscal year -- an amount that has not increased from the current year's budget -- child-care centers already struggling to make ends meet could have to close or turn away youngsters, they said.
Feb 27, 2008 (The Wall Street Journal)
ABC Learning Shares Tumble Amid Debt Fears
Shares in Australia's ABC Learning Centres Ltd. plunged 43% yesterday as hedge funds sold shares of the child-care provider short amid concerns over its hefty debt.
Feb 26, 2008 (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Editorial: Cracks in foundation
State must build up early education efforts, focus on 3-year-olds from low-income families
State Reps. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur), Kathy Ashe (D-Atlanta) and Stephanie Benfield (D-Atlanta) introduced legislation this session to create a statewide program for 3-year-olds, but the Legislature is wary and unlikely to comply. At the very least, the General Assembly should embrace a proposal by state Rep. Jan Jones (R-Alpharetta) to launch a study committee to assess unmet needs in programs for 4-year-olds and to examine how best to use lottery reserves.
Feb 26, 2008 (The Duncan Banner, Duncan, OK)
Pre-K popular
A National Institute for Early Education Research study demonstrated that students in all-day pre-K classes do better on literacy and mathematics tests when compared to their half-day counterparts. "One thing that the all-day program has that has been beneficial is it gives the classroom teacher more time with students individually," [Will Rogers Pre-K Assistant Principal Mona] Evans said.
Feb 25, 2008 (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Opinion: Pre-K Brings Long-Term Benefits
Our nation's best scientists tell us that pre-kindergarten is one of the best investments government can make, particularly when focused, as here, on students from low-income families. The long-term benefits of high quality pre-kindergarten can be profound: fewer special education placements, lower likelihood of being held back in school, higher graduation rates, lower crime and unemployment rates, less reliance on welfare, higher lifetime wages, a higher likelihood of having health insurance, and a lower rate of disability assistance.
Feb 25, 2008 (Idaho Statesman)
Advocates hope pre-K poll wakes up lawmakers
They say the survey shows that the Legislature is going against the will of the majority.
Most Idahoans believe the government should help provide high-quality pre-kindergarten programs, a Boise State University survey says. Among the survey's findings was that a third of Idahoans said finding affordable child care was the largest challenge for low-income working parents with young children.
Feb 25, 2008 (Missourian, Columbia, MO)
Senate bill would allow alternate way to be certified as teacher
Sen. Luann Ridgeway, R-Smithville, sponsored a bill to give the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence the authority to certify professional people looking for careers in education in Missouri. Through ABCTE, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., and funded through federal grants, people can obtain a teaching certificate without having a bachelor's degree in education.
Feb 24, 2008 (The Tennessean)
State Pre-K program leads pack, but study results are mixed
The voluntary, full-day program, provided mostly through public school districts, currently targets 17,000 children who live in poverty. Gov. Phil Bredesen wants to expand the program next year by $25 million and 250 classrooms and ultimately offer it to all Tennessee 4-year-olds.
Feb 22, 2008 (The Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, SD)
Pre-kindergarten standards bill dies
Focus on middle school, lawmaker says
An attempt to authorize standards for preschools in South Dakota died Thursday on a 10-5 vote in the Legislature's House Education Committee. The original bill proposed that the state Education Department write standards for the voluntary accreditation of pre-kindergarten programs and the certification of teachers in those programs.
Feb 21, 2008 (The Arlington Advocate, Lexington, MA)
Meeting the need
Early childhood education is needed now more than ever, as more children are identified as having disabilities or circumstances that require special attention. A recent statistic demonstrates that as many as 1 in 150 kids is diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Feb 20, 2008 (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Opinion: Pre-K for 3-Year-Olds: You can't get bigger bang for your buck
The recent introduction of Georgia House Bill 939 to establish pre-k for 3-year-olds has sparked a much-needed discussion. That discussion has revealed many misconceptions about the economic realities of working families and the importance of quality early care and education for our young children and our community.
Feb 20, 2008 (The Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, SD)
Preschool standards proposal hits wall
A preschool standards bill stalled Tuesday after a House committee couldn't muster enough votes to either kill the measure or keep it moving. The bill, similar to one that passed the Senate and died in the House last year, would give the state authority to write accreditation standards for preschool programs.
Feb 20, 2008 (WAVY-TV, Portsmouth,VA)
Governor Kaine continues fight for pre-K funding
Despite it being a revenue challenged year, the Governor says the legislature trimmed from other programs to make up funding for the pre-K initiative. The governor says he wouldn't be pouring all this money into the initiative if the research wasn't clear.
Feb 20, 2008 (The New York Times)
Higher Education Gap May Slow Economic Mobility
Economic mobility, the chance that children of the poor or middle class will climb up the income ladder, has not changed significantly over the last three decades, a study being released on Wednesday says. The authors of the study, by scholars at the Brookings Institution in Washington and sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, warned that widening gaps in higher education between rich and poor, whites and minorities, could soon lead to a downturn in opportunities for the poorest families.
Feb 19, 2008 (Anchorage Daily News, Anchorage, AK)
Preschool funding cut from budget
The panel cut a $600,000 funding increase the governor requested for Head Start because the Department of Education didn't have a clear plan for how the money would be used, [State Rep. Kevin] Meyer said.
Feb 18, 2008 (The Daily Times, Salisbury, MD)
Sit still, listen are hard lessons for some little ones
Early learning vital for kindergartners to meet increased academic demands
In 2006-2007, children who were enrolled in pre-K programs (70 percent), child care centers (71 percent) and nonpublic nursery schools (83 percent) the year prior to kindergarten exhibited higher school-readiness levels than those who were at home and in informal care (55 percent) or were in family child care (65 percent) the year prior to school. Currently, there are more than 18,000 kindergarten-aged children in Maryland who still need targeted or considerable support to do kindergarten work.
Feb 17, 2008 (Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN)
Opinion: For kids' futures
The Minnesota Reading Corps can reach 15,000 children who need reading help -- if there is funding from the Legislature, individuals, businesses and foundations
In the same way that more and more people are taking for granted that education must continue long after grade 12, we need to change our thinking about education in our children's first years. In particular, Minnesota employers have an enormous stake in early childhood education.
Feb 15, 2008 (The Tennessean)
Bredesen, Ramsey differ on pre-K plan
Speaker says only poor kids need slots; governor wants classes available to all
Gov. Phil Bredesen, a proponent of pre-kindergarten education, said Thursday it would be a "terrible, terrible mistake" to limit pre-K classes to poor students, while Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey reiterated his disagreements with the governor over expanding the program. Bredesen has made expansion of pre-K a cornerstone of his education initiative, proposing $25 million to add 245 classrooms.
Feb 13, 2008 (Rapid City Journal, Rapid City, SD)
Editorial: Preschool standards welcomed
[U]nlike the two-thirds of states that already have quality standards for pre-K programs, South Dakota has none. SB26 would give the state Board of Education the authority to adopt standards for things such as teacher-child ratios, group size, health and safety matters and developmentally appropriate materials for play and learning.
Feb 12, 2008 (Newsday)
Editorial: Pre-K special ed
This is a complex issue with a few simple facts and a bunch of elusive moving parts. One reliable truth is this: Children with learning disabilities who get pre-kindergarten special education do better in elementary school than kids with similar disabilities who don't.
Feb 12, 2008 (The Beaumont Enterprise, Beaumont, TX)
Raising the bar: Are schools pushing kindergartners too hard too soon?
Linda Brumley remembers what her kindergarten classroom was like 26 years ago. She taught the students the alphabet, letter sounds, how to write their names - essentially what preschool teaches now.
Feb 12, 2008 (The New York Sun)
Column: A Kindergartener Takes the (Gifted) Test
Today, my 4-year-old daughter will be put to the test. Along with thousands of other pre-kindergarten children in schools all over the city, she'll take the Bracken School Readiness Assessment and Otis-Lennon School Ability Test. These tests, administered one-on-one between January 22 and February 15, are the new criteria for admission into the gifted and talented programs of New York public schools.
Feb 12, 2008 (The Daily Advertiser, Lafeyette, LA)
Editorial: Education chief seeks academic growth
LA4, the premier pre-school program, has proved to be exceptionally strong in preparing kids for regular classes. With additional funds granted recently, LA4 will be even more effective in bridging the academic gap between poor students and their more affluent classmates.
Feb 11, 2008 (The Intelligencer, Doylestown, PA)
Teaching the teachers
Teachers of school-age children with autism usually have a good array of resources upon which to draw, said Deborah Schadler, head of the Autism Institute. Teachers of preschool age children, though, often aren't so lucky. And those teachers will probably have more and more children with autism coming into their classrooms, as more parents push to get their children into mainstream preschools.
Feb 11, 2008 (The Star-Bulletin, Honolulu, HI)
Preschool touted as vital for poor kids
Education for students as young as 4 could help fix societal ills, a new study contends
Expanding high-quality preschool programs in Hawaii would help students land good jobs and ultimately prevent social problems like homelessness and crime, according to a new study. [The report] says preschool teachers need to be paid more and that families, especially poor families, should be informed about the importance of early learning programs for their children.
Feb 10, 2008 (Kalamazoo Gazette, Kalamazoo, MI)
Community sharpens focus on preschool
[C]hildren who start school behind typically stay behind. That's why improving and expanding preschool is critical to ensuring the success of The Kalamazoo Promise and building the area's reputation as the Education Community, Kalamazoo County leaders said.
Feb 6, 2008 (MyFox Memphis)
Early Report Shows State's Pre-K Program Paying Off
An early assessment of Tennessee's pre-kindergarten initiative shows the program is beneficial but critics say it's still too early to gauge its effectiveness.
Feb 6, 2008 (Cumberland Times News, Cumberland, MD)
Maryland considers expanded preschool opportunities
In coming years, all young Maryland children may have the opportunity to attend preschool classes. Making preschool available to all 4-year-olds by 2014 is one of the primary recommendations of a new 46-page state task force report.
Feb 6, 2008 (The Hartford Courant)
Magnet School To Be Studied
Would House Pre-K, Kindergarten
The school board has unanimously approved forming a task force to investigate building a state-funded, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten magnet school in town. A new inter-district magnet school, [School Superintendent Elizabeth] Feser said, would ease the burden on current facilities, and provide all-day kindergarten for Windsor children.
Feb 5, 2008 (The Post and Courier, Charleston, SC)
Editorial: 4K is a wise investment
Expanding full-day 4-year-old kindergarten would significantly raise the cost of public education in South Carolina. A failure to expand it, however, would produce major long-term costs of its own. A commitment to strengthening early education programs clearly would be a wise investment in our state's economic future.
Feb 3, 2008 (Press-Register, Mobile, AL)
Opinion: Pre-K a powerful investment
The good news is that Alabama has a plan to make high-quality pre-kindergarten available to more families who want it for their 4-year-olds.
Feb 3, 2008 (The New York Times)
A Head Start on Head Start
The [Parent-Child Home Program] aims to foster literacy and teach parents how to prepare their children for school. It may well become a national model as the effort to close the achievement gap focuses on how young children are being raised at home.
Feb 1, 2008 (Fort Collins Now, Fort Collins, CO)
The Kindergarten Conundrum
Outside the classroom, the age-old debate of whether half-day or full-day kindergarten programs are the best approach continues among lawmakers, educators, researchers and parents. For some, it's an issue of necessity. For others it's about maximizing the child's potential through a classroom setting or a nurturing home environment.
Jan 31, 2008 (The Washington Post)
Per-Pupil Funding Increase Sought
The city's youngest students, those in preschool and pre-kindergarten, would have the biggest gains under the recommendations released yesterday. Gist proposed increasing the "weight" for students in early childhood programs, meaning the programs would receive more money for each student than other grades.
Jan 31, 2008 (Cibola County Beacon, Grants, NM)
Opinion: What's missing from the education equation?
Leaving early childhood education out of the funding formula is like building a house without pouring the foundation. It may hold up for a while, but eventually, the roof is going to fall in.
Jan 30, 2008 (The News Journal, Wilmington, DE)
Carney outlines early education plan
Calling educating youths the state's most important job, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. John Carney on Tuesday outlined his plan to improve Delaware's early childhood education system.
Jan 30, 2008 (Education Week)
Business Assistance Aimed at Boosting Pre-K in Alabama
The Alabama Power Foundation has awarded $30,000 to the Alabama School Readiness Alliance—a coalition of early-childhood organizations—to help promote the state's prekindergarten program and to lobby the state legislature for more money.
Jan 30, 2008 (USA Today)
Our view on Early education: Pre-K programs pay off
'Universal preschool' raises learning, lowers social costs.
Elite preschools — such as the experimental Perry Preschool in Michigan, where researchers followed the poor and minority children who attended that school well into adulthood — return more than $16 to society (in the form of lower crime and higher employment) for every dollar invested, according to the non-profit High/Scope Educational Research Foundation. Even decent-quality preschools produce gains in the $4 to $10 range, other researchers found.
Jan 29, 2008 (The Baltimore Examiner)
Economist: Universal preschool a cost saver
If Maryland offered free preschool to all children, the state would reap millions of dollars in savings — from fewer students repeating grades to more going on to college — an economist says. "We need to think of this as a long-term investment that keeps on giving," said Daraius Irani, director of the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University.
Jan 29, 2008 (The Denver Post)
DPS kicks off early-education expansion
A news conference with some of Denver's top leaders took place in Michael Conlon's preschool classroom to announce an expansion of Denver Public Schools' preschool and kindergarten programs. The district wants to increase the number of preschool slots by as much as 40 percent and full-day kindergarten slots by up to 30 percent.
Jan 29, 2008 (Tuscaloosa News)
Riley cites city schools' success in call for pre-K funding
Tuscaloosa's pre-K program could soon serve as the model for such programs statewide, Riley said. Riley said he plans to expand pre-K to up to 20,000 more children in the next five years, but gave few specifics on how to fund it.
Jan 29, 2008 (Education Week)
Head Start Group Decries Renewal's 'Broken Promises'
Just last month, Head Start supporters were celebrating the passage of a five-year reauthorization bill they say will strengthen the 43-year-old preschool program for poor children. The $6.8 billion program, which serves close to 1 million children, is actually underfunded by $1 billion because spending on the program has remained flat for six years and its budget was cut by more $10 million in the fiscal 2008 appropriations bill that passed Congress in December, according to the National Head Start Association.
Jan 27, 2008 (Telegraph Herald, Dubuque, IA)
Filling the child care gap
The challenge in finding qualified caregivers comes down to money -- or lack thereof. In 2007, child care workers in Dubuque County on average earned $8.32 per hour, according to a Child Care Work Force Study funded by Dubuque County Empowerment.
Jan 26, 2008 (Rocky Mountain News, Denver, CO)
Opinion: Benefits of early education many
There are many studies linking high-quality early childhood interventions with a wide variety of positive social, emotional and cognitive outcomes. Such benefits are not limited to low-income or at-risk children, but are documented for children from all backgrounds and of varying cognitive abilities.
Jan 25, 2008 (Omaha World-Herald)
Grants will boost early learning
National experts and hundreds of educators were on hand Thursday morning as state officials announced that $2 million is available for grants to Nebraska providers of early childhood education. The grants are the fruit of 2006 legislative action and a related constitutional amendment that created a public-private endowment to focus on educating disadvantaged children from birth to age 3.
Jan 25, 2008 (Education Week)
Commentary: Preschool Priorities
If preschool is indeed becoming the new kindergarten, we have a historic opportunity to expand our education system in a manner that puts a priority on the children who most need our help. It is essential that we structure any new taxpayer-funded early-learning programs to target those who will benefit the most, while strengthening existing high-quality programs to better preserve parental choice.
Jan 24, 2008 (The Honolulu Advertiser)
Early-education funding sought
U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawai'i, a committee member, is pushing her bill to improve pre-kindergarten education with a $5 billion grant program targeted to increasing the number of teachers, giving states flexibility to improve curriculum quality and expanding programs serving the youngest children, aged birth to 3.
Jan 24, 2008 (Houston Chronicle)
Editorial: A school that works
Tiny nonprofit preschool for at-risk Latinos delivers bountiful results.
For 50 years, this simple, private academy — which charges $30 a week per child — has delivered outsized opportunities to at-risk children. The school deserves deep study, from inside Houston's school district and without, to figure out how it succeeds.
Jan 24, 2008 (The New York Times)
Entry Process Is Simplified at City Schools
Trying to simplify the often bewildering process of enrolling children in prekindergarten and kindergarten classes in New York City and to make it more fair, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein announced Wednesday that he would standardize applications and deadlines citywide.
Jan 21, 2008 (Sioux City Journal, Sioux City, IA)
Bill sets rules for voluntary preschool programs
Despite opponents' claims that it opens the door for mandatory preschool education in South Dakota, legislation that would set rules for voluntary preschool programs is scheduled for consideration Tuesday in the state Senate. The bill, SB26, would let the state Board of Education devise standards for instruction of 3- and 4-year-old children in school districts.
Jan 20, 2008 (New York Post)
Tot toughs tossed
Nine out of every 1,000 preschoolers in the Empire State have been asked to leave their schools - compared to the national rate of 6.7 per 1,000 pupils, according to recent studies. The rate is 19 times higher than that of K-12 students getting tossed from New York schools, a Yale University study found.
Jan 20, 2008 (The Roanoke Times, Roanoke, VA)
Readying for school
Right now, the Virginia Department of Education sets aside money to help make preschool available to almost 19,000 Virginia 4-year-olds eligible for free lunch. Almost one-third of those spots aren't filled, according to Mark Allan, director for elementary instruction at the department.
Jan 18, 2008 (Rapid City Journal, Rapid City, SD)
Committee OKs pre-K bill
The South Dakota Department of Education would get the power to regulate and accredit pre-kindergarten schools under a bill a legislative committee approved Thursday. The Senate Education Committee approved Senate Bill 26 by a vote of 6 to 1, but only after long testimony by opponents.
Jan 17, 2008 (The Wall Street Journal)
What’s Gotten Into Kids These Days?
Behavior problems among preschoolers are emerging as a national issue. In several studies released in the past month, researchers at Yale, Rutgers and Cornell universities, among others, are treating preschoolers' conduct as a challenge that calls for changes in school programs and classroom management.
Jan 16, 2008 (The Hartford Courant)
Pediatrician: Life's Tracks Set By Age 3
Early Child Care's Importance Stressed
Jack P. Shonkoff, a Harvard pediatrician, was only sort of joking when he referred to 3-year-olds as middle-aged. By then, much of the basic circuitry of a child's brain, a series of connections not yet formed at birth, has already developed.
Jan 11, 2008 (Los Angeles Times)
Study links preschool teachers' stress to student expulsions
Preschool teachers who are highly stressed because of classroom conditions, depression or other factors are far more likely than their colleagues to recommend expulsion for children with behavioral problems, according to a study released Thursday.
Jan 6, 2008 (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal)
Editorial: Pre-K a valuable program for youngsters
Among the wishes in the proposed Quality Education Act of 2008, the Mississippi Board of Education wants state lawmakers to spend $20 million on pilot pre-kindergarten programs.
Jan 4, 2008 (The Washington Post)
Pre-K expansion measure's varying standards faulted
Early childhood experts and parents expressed support yesterday for a measure before the D.C. Council that would extend pre-kindergarten programs to 2,000 more 3- and 4-year-olds in the city. Although researchers and education advocates at the council hearing agreed that pre-K can boost academic achievement in later years, debate centered on what constitutes a high-quality program for D.C. students.
Jan 4, 2008 (The Honolulu Advertiser)
Hawaii task force unveils preschool plan
A state task force on early childhood education recommended to legislators yesterday a 10-year plan to establish a statewide early-education system starting with a program for 4-year-old children. It would cost $10.5 million to begin implementing the early-education program next year, but costs are expected to increase exponentially over the next 10 years to a total cost of more than $170 million.
Jan 3, 2008 (Santa Monica Daily Press, Santa Monica, CA)
To teach or not to teach
Santa Monica College received a $1.2 million bump in its efforts to attract students into the early childhood education (ECE) field, an industry that experts say has dealt with issues of recruitment and retention due to low pay and the ambiguity in going about pursuing such a career. The grant — awarded by the Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP) last month — helps SMC jumpstart its new Early Start Pathway program, which allows high school students interested in an ECE job to start their college education a couple of years early.