State prekindergarten programs

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 webinar entitled State Prekindergarten Programs: A Decade of Progress. Specifically, Barnett talked about the data and national trends for enrollment in, quality of, and spending on state-funded preschool programs.

The webinar was designed for current and alum members of the Early Learning Fellows program, which is NCSL’s premier program for legislators and legislative staff who are experienced or emerging leaders on early childhood and early learning issues.

This year marked a decade since the first Yearbook was published on data collected from the 2001-2002 school year. Barnet also highlighted notable recent studies of pre-K effects and talked about what works and doesn’t work in prekindergarten to produce larger gains in young children. “As policymakers, you might want to have some input on what we know works and some of the approaches that don’t work very well,” said Barnett. He also indicated that policymakers might want to consider designing programs with intentional teaching, individualization and small groups.

The full webinar is available on NCSL’s YouTube channel. We would direct your attention to the question-and-answer session (beginning roughly 40 minutes in) between Steve and the Early Learning Fellows, which touches on digging in to quality standards, access issues for younger children and utilizing funding sources, including federal funds.