Economics and Finance
Strategies in Pursuit of Pre-K Teacher Compensation Parity:
October 2017
The National Institute for Early Education Research is proud to partner with the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley on release of a new report revealing how states and cities are closing the gap in compensation between equally qualified pre-K teachers and kindergarten and elementary school teachers. This report is the third in a series of materials on…
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…
In Pursuit of Pre-K Parity
April 2017
A Proposed Framework for Understanding and Advancing Policy and Perspective More than half of all state-funded pre-kindergarten (pre-K) programs now require lead teachers to earn a bachelor’s degree or higher, as do many city-funded pre-K programs, yet salaries and benefits for pre-K teachers are consistently lower than the average salary for public school elementary school…
Teacher Compensation Parity Policies and State-Funded Pre-K Programs
April 2017
Although the phrase compensation parity policy for preschool teachers may seem clear at first, the term is used in a variety of ways and refers to a range of different policies. All of these policies seek to improve the financial rewards for teaching preschool relative to teaching older children, but they differ in how far…
Brookings Institution: The Current State of Scientific Knowledge on Pre-Kindergarten Effects
April 2017
The question of how the U.S. will develop a citizenry with the skills necessary to meet the challenges of the 21st century has attracted the attention of legislators, scientists, and educators. Answering this question leads inevitably to its roots: how well are we preparing young children to enter kindergarten ready to learn? Educators in k-12…
Funding Landscape for Preschool with a Highly Qualified Workforce
December 2016
The purpose of this paper is to consider the potential implications of funding state pre-K programs through some version of the school funding formulas used in K-12 with particular attention to how this might facilitate more adequate compensation for a highly qualified workforce. State pre-K often receives less funding per child, even prorated for length…
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
See the 2018 report Implementing 15 Essential Elements for High-Quality Pre-K: An Updated Scan of State Policies 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,…
Expanding Access to Quality Pre-K is Sound Public Policy
December 2013
In 2013, preschool education received more attention in the media and public policy circles than it has for some time, in part because of a series of high-profile proposals to expand access to quality pre-K. The scientific basis for these proposed expansions of quality pre-K is impressive. This paper brings to bear the full weight…
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.