Volume 9, Issue 14 (July 16, 2010)

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.

A Glimpse into France's Ecole Maternelle
NIEER takes a look at France's public pre-K system in this blog post.

By the Book: Approaches to Curriculum in State Pre-K Programs
In this post, NIEER's Megan Carolan and Dale Epstein discuss how the 2009 Yearbook informs us on states' policies on preschool curricula.

2010 NAFCC Annual Conference
July 15, 2010 - July 17, 2010
Nashville, TN – Topics addressed at this conference for family child care providers include child-based curriculum, policies, and quality improvement.

U.S. Department of Education Reading Institute Early Learning and Development Strand: Birth to Third Grade
July 19, 2010 - July 21, 2010
Anaheim, CA – This year, the Department of Education in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will offer a separate Early Learning and Development Strand at the 2010 Reading Institute.

2010 21C National Conference
July 19, 2010 - July 21, 2010
New Haven, CT – A leadership and staff development conference that will feature the Mutt-i-grees Curriculum. This conference is for educators interested in Schools of the 21st Century, family resource centers, and the whole child approach.

The Piramide Method of Early Learning: Taking Teaching and Learning to the Next Level
July 27, 2010 - July 29, 2010
Atlanta, GA – At this conference, participants will learn about the Piramide Method of Early Learning as a framework for early care and learning.

OMEP XXVI World Congress
August 11, 2010 - August 13, 2010
Goteborg, Sweden – This conference will focus on children's rights and education for sustainable development in a local and global context.

2010 ECS National Forum on Education Policy
August 18, 2010 - August 20, 2010
Portland, OR – This year's forum provides participants with opportunities to learn innovative approaches connecting theory to action.

AASA Legislative Advocacy Conference
September 22, 2010 - September 24, 2010
Arlington, VA – This annual event provides participants with the opportunity to discuss and influence federal education policy.

Early Childhood Leadership Conference
October 15, 2010 - October 15, 2010
New Haven, CT – The presentations and sessions at this conference will focus on four areas: play, policy, practice, and research.

NAEYC/NBCDI Joint Annual Conference
November 3, 2010 - November 6, 2010
Anaheim, CA – This conference will address best practices, innovative programs, and research in child care, child welfare, education, family support, parenting, and youth development.

July 14, 2010 (Portland Press Herald, Portland, ME)
Opinion: Reading success depends greatly on what happens before school
The precursor to reading success is exposure to a lot of language and literacy from birth to 5 years of age: at home, in child care, in preschool or Head Start. It is also the best time to intervene when a child has not been exposed to high-quality language and literacy environments.

July 14, 2010 (The Charleston Gazette)
W.Va. board OKs 40 counties' preschool plans
The West Virginia Board of Education has approved 40 counties' plans for implementing universal prekindergarten programs.

July 14, 2010 (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Georgia Lottery sends more money to HOPE, pre-k
Another good year for the Georgia Lottery meant more money for the state's pre-kindergarten and HOPE college scholarship programs, but it isn't enough to keep state officials from worrying about HOPE's future.

July 12, 2010 (The Macon Telegraph)
Georgia developing new day-care improvement system
Commonly called "quality improvement systems," these programs use stars or other benchmarks to help parents identify the best and worst day cares. Holly Robinson, commissioner of the state Department of Early Care and Learning (also called Bright from the Start), said the state plans to pilot a quality improvement program this summer.

July 12, 2010 (Vermont Public Radio)
Commentary: Early Education
Improving tomorrow's economy is possible only through smart policy investments today in our human capital - beginning with our youngest children.

July 10, 2010 (The Record, Hackensack, NJ)
Public preschool advocates worry about N.J. Gov. Christie's task force on privatization
Preschool advocates are worried that the recommendations, if enacted, would undermine an early childhood education system the state has spent more than a decade building in the wake of a court mandate to help at-risk children get ready for school. Governor Christie's "privatization task force" released a report Friday urging him to stop building new pre-kindergarten facilities at public expense, allow more students in smaller classrooms, and require public preschools to charge fees that reflect the full cost of running their programs.

July 8, 2010 (Montgomery Advertiser, Montgomery, AL)
Editorial: Pre-K program nation's best, but access limited
Once again, Alabama's pre-kindergarten program has been chosen as one of the two best programs of its kind in the nation in terms of quality. But despite successful efforts of local school systems and the Riley administration to offer the program to more eligible children, it still reaches far too few of them.

July 6, 2010 (The Indianapolis Star)
Many 1st-graders are behind the minute they step into classroom
Indiana does not require children to attend school until they turn 7. It does not require children to attend kindergarten at all. And it is one of only eight states that do not fund preschool.

July 6, 2010 (The York Dispatch, York, PA)
Editorial: Pre-K fee idea
[State lawmakers] can't properly fund the popular and important Pre-K Counts program, which provides a free head start to children at risk of failing in kindergarten and beyond. One option to save the program, or even help expand it, is to charge those who use it -- but even a small fee might be too much for the families of children most in need.

July 3, 2010 (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Study: Many child care centers low-quality
Every weekday, hundreds of thousands of Georgia's young children are dropped off at child care centers while their parents head off to work. Most of the infants and toddlers and many of the preschoolers likely go to classrooms that provide low-quality care.

July 2, 2010 (Lansing State Journal, Lansing, MI)
'Sandbox Party' sets sights on early education funding
Lawmakers approved $98.6 million for the Great Start School Readiness Program, an effort to help low-income, at-risk children become prepared for school. The budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 now goes to Gov. Jennifer Granholm for her signature.

July 1, 2010 (San Antonio Express-News)
Opinion: Early education crucial for students and state
We cannot solve our educational crisis in Texas without a strong and committed investment in our youngest Texans. Ultimately, Texas taxpayers will pay the largest price tomorrow for a lack of action on early education today.

June 29, 2010 (The Twin Cities Dailly Planet, Minneapolis, MN)
Early childhood education: Upfront investment, lifetime gain
Through better funding, Minnesota can improve and expand access to early childhood programs, so that more children are prepared for school. According to a yearly survey conducted by the Minnesota Department of Education, kindergarten teachers say only 52 percent of incoming students demonstrate proficient knowledge, skills, and behavior.

June 29, 2010 (WWAY NewsChannel 3, Wilmington, NC)
State wants to regulate drink choices at daycares
If this bill becomes a law, it will prohibit private child daycares from serving sugar-sweetened beverages to kids of all ages. The new legislation would also prohibit serving whole milk to kids two years or older, serving flavored milk to any child, and would limit juice to six ounces a day.

June 28, 2010 (The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, MS)
Child-care quality, outcomes targeted
Jalea attends Leaps and Bounds Developmental Academy, one of eight child-care centers in the Jackson metro area participating in Mississippi Building Blocks, a four-year pilot program that aims to improve early childhood education in the state by boosting the quality of child-care centers. The program has gone on for less than a year, but participating centers are showing progress, said Laurie Smith, executive director of Mississippi Building Blocks.

Research on the Implementation of Preschool Intervention Programs: Learning by Doing
This special section in Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25(3), 267-408 provides lessons learned in six different studies plus a commentary with a useful review of research on implementation generally and a useful list of issues to be addressed in research where implementation is an issue.

Kids' Share: An Analysis of Federal Expenditure on Children through 2008
This report from the Urban Institute and Brookings estimates federal expenditures on children by looking at more than 100 programs in nine categories through which the federal government spends money on children. It finds that less that one-tenth of the federal budget was spent on children in 2008 — $295 billion out of a total of $2,983 billion in outlays.

Child Food Insecurity in the United States: 2006-2008
Nationally, 19.3 percent of children under the age of 5 fall in the category of "food insecure," meaning they do not always have access to sufficient nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life, says this report from Feeding America, the hunger relief charity. Kids in the South have the highest level of food insecurity at 21.8 percent. The Northeast has the lowest level — 13.7 percent. Data for the analysis come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement 2006–2008.

Meeting the Workforce Needs of the Future...Means Meeting the Developmental Needs of Young Children Today
This brief from the Society for Human Resource Management looks at the current state of the U.S. workforce and suggests its members take various steps to promote more high-quality early childhood education.

The National Institute for Early Education Research supports the development of early childhood education policy with objective, nonpartisan information based on rigorous research. The Institute is co-directed by Dr. W. Steven Barnett and Dr. Ellen C. Frede at Rutgers University.

Copyright © 2010 National Institute for Early Education Research, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
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This project is made possible with the generous support of The Pew Charitable Trusts.