Federal
Getting the Facts Right on Pre-K and the President’s Prek-K Proposal
June 2017
This policy Fast Fact was originally published in February 2013 and recently re-loaded to our website. Both science and public policy are best advanced based on impartial analysis of all the available evidence. No single study stands on its own, much less provides the definitive answers to policy questions on its own. This requires that…
State(s) of Head Start
December 2016
The National Institute for Early Education Research’s (NIEER) State(s) of Head Start report is the first report to describe and analyze in detail Head Start enrollment, funding, quality, and duration, state-bystate. The report focuses on the 2014-2015 program year but also provides longitudinal data beginning with the 2006-2007 program year. Despite the fact that Head…
Public Pre-K Financial Landscape
September 2016
The view of preschool as welfare influences the way preschool education is financed and helps explain why the US doesn’t offer every child a quality preschool education. Preschool funding is much more heavily dependent on a patchwork of federal programs — a tradition more reflective of social insurance programs than public education, which is primarily…
Implementing 15 Essential Elements for High Quality: A State and Local Policy Scan
July 2016
In this report we explore the extent to which 41 states, the District of Columbia, and three large cities support high-quality state-funded preschool education. The framework for our assessment of state capacity is provided by “15 essential elements” of high-quality pre-K. These can be categorized into three clusters: enabling environment, rigorous policies, and strong practices….
Getting the Facts Right on Pre-K and the President’s Pre-K Proposal
February 2013
This policy report clears up some common misconceptions about preschool's effectiveness and benefits, particularly in regards to the Obama administration's recent fact sheet on investing in early education.