Preschool Matters Today
The research says high quality preschool does benefit kids
October 21, 2014 Access • Outcomes
In a response for the Washington Post Answer Sheet , Steve Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research deconstructs a new Cato Institute policy brief by David J. Armor, professor emeritus of public policy at George Mason University, who also has a piece on washingtonpost.com arguing his position under the headline “We have no idea if universal preschool actually helps kids.” We do know. It does. Here…
If Everyone Wants Preschool, Why Isn’t It Growing?
October 21, 2014 Access
This entry is cross-posted to The National Journal’s Education Insiders blog in response to the prompt “If Everyone Wants Preschool, Why Isn’t It Growing” from Fawn Johnson: What catalyst is needed to dramatically grow preschool enrollment? Why has it stalled? What can state and city governments do to increase enrollment? Does it matter what kind of preschool kids enroll…
Is New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio’s method for expanding Pre-K a model for other cities?
September 19, 2014 Access • Outcomes
In this week’s edition of The Weekly Wonk , the weekly online magazine of the New America Foundation, experts were asked: Is New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio’s method for expanding Pre-K a model for other cities? NIEER Director Steve Barnett and Policy Researcher Coordinator Megan Carolan were among those who weighed in. Their responses can be read…
Anticipating quality for all children
September 10, 2014 Access • English Language Learners • Workforce
I remember the anticipation each fall as school was about to begin. So much was going on in my mind. Who was going to be in my class? What kind of year was it going to be? What were we going to learn? I was excited. I was nervous. These memories are not from when…
Betting on Public Support for Preschool
July 21, 2014 Access
This entry is cross-posted to The National Journal’s Education Insiders blog in response to the prompt “Early Education Polls Well With Republicans, Swing Voters” from Fawn Johnson. The new polling data from the First Five Years Fund are a source of hope that major new investments in early care and education will take place in the near future. This…
State prekindergarten programs: A decade of progress
July 9, 2014 Access
By Alison May Alison May is a staff coordinator of the National Conference of State Legislature’s Children and Families program . This post originally appeared on June 30th on the blog of NCSL. Steve Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), highlighted some of the key findings of NIEER’s annual State Preschool Yearbook during a June 24 NCSL…
Readiness and Opportunity Gaps in Early Education, 60 Years After Brown v. Board of Ed
May 19, 2014 Access • English Language Learners
Saturday marked the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, declaring that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal, and marking a major step forward in the Civil Rights movement. Yet 60 years later, equal access to high quality education remains a significant issue, and nowhere more so than in the preschool years. A new report posted at the Center on…
2013 State Preschool Yearbook Finds Need for Renewed Investment
May 13, 2014 Access • English Language Learners
Today NIEER released its 2013 State Preschool Yearbookat CentroNía/DC Bilingual Public Charter School in D.C. This newest installment of the Yearbook series covers policies, enrollment, and funding for state-funded pre-K programs in the 2012-2013 school year. Joining NIEER Director Steve Barnett at the event were Myrna Peralta, President/CEO of CentroNía; Roberto Rodriguez of the White House Domestic Policy Council ; and Rob Dugger of ReadyNation/America’s Edge This…
Building a Strong Village to Promote Black Children’s Excellence: Early Childhood Education and the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans
April 30, 2014 Access
The African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child,” recognizes the importance of supports for parents in raising healthy well-educated children who will succeed in school and life. The two most pressing education and health problems facing Blacks are the achievement gap and the “ weathering effect .” Evidence for the achievement gap comes from…
What the new OCR early childhood data do and do not tell us
March 26, 2014 Access
Recently released to great interest is the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Early Childhood Data Snapshot . I want to call additional attention to this document and the survey behind it for two reasons. First, these new data identify serious educational problems that deserve more than one day in the sun. Second, these OCR data have significant limitations that policy…