Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Pre-kindergarten’ Category

10,000 Letters for President Obama

Posted in Federal, Pre-kindergarten on May 13, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Photo: National Women's Law Center

Photo: National Women’s Law Center

Imagine 10,000 letters being delivered to President Obama at the White House to thank him for his bold proposal on expanding pre-k across the country.

That’s the project that the National Women’s Law Center is working on, encouraging early education advocates to write to the president. Center officials say they want to let the president know that he was heard. The center will pick a date to deliver the letters and take pictures of the event. Willing writers can submit their letters here.

“The President’s plan does three incredibly important things,” the law center explains here. “It expands voluntary home visiting programs that support and educate parents, increases availability of high-quality child care for infants and toddlers and gives all children in low- and moderate-income families access to high-quality prekindergarten programs.”

Now that the word is out, the project has grown bigger. Letters and artwork made by children, parents and providers have been pouring in from around the country.  The delivery to the White House is likely to include closer to 30,000 letters – as well as some ambitious art projects, including a four-foot tall dream catcher.

“You know who is excited about this plan?” the center’s blog says of the letters project, “KIDS (and their parents who understand (more…)

Read Full Post »

San Antonio Expands Preschool

Posted in Funding, National, Pre-kindergarten on May 8, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Photo: Michele McDonald for Strategies for Children

Photo: Michele McDonald for Strategies for Children

Last November, San Antonio took a Texas-sized step forward in early education. City residents approved a 1/8th cent sales tax to pay for Mayor Julián Castro’s ambitious new plan to offer high-quality, full-day preschool to four-year-olds.

Recommended by a blue ribbon panel, Pre-K 4 SA (prekindergarten for San Antonio) will work with school districts to serve 22,400 children over eight years, improving and expanding the state’s preschool programs. The sales tax increase is estimated to cost less than $8 per year for median income San Antonio households.

“We expect interest to skyrocket as parents learn more about how this high-quality program can help put their children on a path to academic success,” Castro said in a statement.

Castro plans to deliver “gold-standard academics” and “intensive professional development for staff members and extensive parental supports,” Education Week says in an article about the program.

Tuition will be free for disadvantaged four-year-olds, including children from low-income families, children who cannot speak or understand English, homeless children, children whose parents serve in the military and children in foster care. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Early Educators Awards Gala

Posted in Accreditation, Early educators, NAEYC, Pre-kindergarten on May 1, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

gala pic

Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

On April 12, 2013, some 300 early educators gathered in Randolph for the 12th annual Early Educators Awards Gala sponsored by the Boston Alliance for Early Education and the Boston Association for the Education of Young Children.

The gala celebrates Greater Boston’s early childhood educators and their contributions to the development of young children. The event also recognizes outstanding educators and high-quality programs.

Our own Amy O’Leary, Early Education for All Campaign Director, served as the evening’s Mistress of Ceremonies. Amy also received the association’s Abigail Eliot Award. The award honors winners’ outstanding commitment to young children and the early childhood profession through work done on behalf of the association as well as for distinguished professional achievement. The award is named after Abigail Adams Eliot, a pioneer in early childhood education and in training teachers of young children.

Six other early educators who were nominated by their peers also won awards.

Ida Yee Koo, lead toddler teacher at Buds and Blossoms Early Education and Care Center in Boston, won for leadership and management. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Measuring Success in Multilingual Preschool Programs

Posted in Assessments, English language learners, Pre-kindergarten on April 30, 2013 | 1 Comment »

dll pic

Photo: Caroline Silber for Strategies for Children

Preschool classrooms are growing more multilingual. Many young children in early education settings can be found speaking English, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, and other languages. Some are born in the United States. Many others come to the country from Mexico and Asia, the Middle East and Central and South America.

From 1990 to 2008, the number of young children with immigrant parents doubled, according to a report from the Urban Institute.

As they grow, dual language learners face academic risks. They can have lower scores on cognitive and language assessments. And they can fall behind in their academic work before the end of elementary school, according to a report from the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition.

Individual children’s outcomes are commonly assessed, but there are fewer assessments of educational settings – even though children’s progress is “inextricably linked” with their daily learning environments, Harvard Graduate School of Education professor Nonie Lesaux writes in “Turning the Page: Refocusing Massachusetts for Reading Success,” a Strategies for Children report

What’s also needed, Lesaux notes, is “a better understanding of the quality of the learning environments and relationships we provide for our children, and the impact on their outcomes.” (more…)

Read Full Post »

Pre-K Success in Georgia

Posted in Assessments, Pre-kindergarten on April 29, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Georgia pic

Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children

Georgia stands with New Jersey, Oklahoma and Texas – all states where children enrolled in publicly funded preschool programs have shown strong progress, according to recent research.

In the 2011-2012 school year, Georgia served 84,000 children in a universal program that is open to all four year-olds regardless of their family incomes. Pre-k settings include schools, private providers, and blended Head Start/Georgia’s Pre‐k classrooms.  The program ran for 160 days at 6.5 hours per day. (The program had been 180 days, but was subject to budget cuts. It is expected to run for 180 days in the 2013-2014 school year.) Lead teachers are required to have a BA in early childhood education or a related field, and programs must meet minimum salary requirements based on credentials.

The program’s results: “Children exhibited significant growth during their pre‐k year across all domains of learning, including language and literacy skills, math skills, general knowledge and behavioral skills.” Gains were especially large in phonological awareness, a key predictor of later reading success. Children made progress “at a greater rate during the time they participated in Georgia’s Pre‐K Program than would be expected for normal developmental growth.” This according to a report that was commissioned by the state and written by researchers from the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Pre-K Goes to Congress

Posted in Federal, National, Pre-kindergarten on April 24, 2013 | 3 Comments »

prek congress

Photo: Michele McDonald for Strategies for Children

These days, it’s encouraging to see leaders at every political level championing early education. It’s great to see Congress filing pre-k bills that support children and complement President Obama’s historic preschool proposals. Increased federal support would help states offer more high-quality programs to more children.

The proposed Prepare All Kids Act, introduced by Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), would create a Pre-kindergarten Incentive Fund to award grants to “qualified prekindergarten providers to establish, expand or enhance voluntary high-quality full-day prekindergarten programs.”

The Ready to Learn Act, filed by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), another proposed bill in the Senate, would award grants to states to fund “high-quality full day voluntary prekindergarten programs for children age four” in order to “promote school readiness for such children.” (more…)

Read Full Post »

Rising Stars

Posted in MA governor, MA Legislature, Pre-kindergarten on April 23, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

sfc stars

Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children

Children are the state’s rising stars: from babies to finger-painting four year olds to third graders learning to multiply. And children from across the commonwealth have been sending multicolored stars decorated with glitter, feathers, pompoms, stickers, and paper cutouts to the State House to keep early education in the minds and hearts of legislators. Like the children, each star is original and unique.

So far this year, thousands of stars have been sent to Governor Patrick and to members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate. Freshmen legislators receive framed stars and a letter explaining how high quality early education and care can have a positive impact throughout children’s lives.

Children in grades K to three can also send letters marked with stars that include their handwritten messages about what they want to be when they grew up and why. One little boy wrote that he wants to grow up to be a businessman who sells “paper related products” because he admires the characters in the television show “The Office.”

Adults can participate, too. Future early educators and general supporters can customize letters urging legislators to support early education and care. More than 3,000 have been submitted thus far.

Legislators, excited to be receiving glitter-filled mail, have responded positively to Emily Levine, our executive star tracker. And sending stars is a great way for children to participate in the governmental process. So if you and your preschoolers or young school-aged children would like to help, you’ll find all materials and information about Rising Stars here.

Please keep the stars and letters coming.

Read Full Post »

The April EEC Board Meeting

Posted in Assessments, Dept. of Early Education and Care, MA state budget, Pre-kindergarten on April 22, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Massachusetts sealHere is a summary of highlights from the Board of Early Education and Care’s meeting on April 9, 2013:

Board Business

Tom Weber was confirmed as acting commissioner of the Department of Early Education and Care as of March 11, 2013.

In his report, Weber said that most of his work has been in three areas:

-  relationship-building with the department’s staff

- advocacy around the fiscal year 2014 budget and meeting with the Legislature to discuss the scope of the department’s work

- assessing and improving the department’s policy efforts and boosting staff members’ ability to take on leadership roles.

Weber also said that $1.8 million from the Income/Eligible caseload account was used to create openings for 739 children. (Spending more than this in fiscal year 2013 funds would have created a deficit in fiscal year 2014.)

The department has made progress in responding to Secretary Malone’s direction that EEC initiate a top-to-bottom review of its Internal Control Plan as soon as it practically can, seeking advice and guidance from the state Comptroller’s Office.  (more…)

Read Full Post »

OK Pre-K Prepares Children for School

Posted in MA governor, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Pre-kindergarten on April 10, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

In calling for universal access to preschool in his State of the Union address, President Obama gave a shout-out to Oklahoma as a state that has made it “a priority to educate our youngest children.” The Sooner State established a preschool program for all 4-year-olds in 1998. Today, 40,000 Oklahoma children attend its state-funded pre-kindergarten.

“Many Oklahoma children now arrive in elementary school so well prepared that some districts have overhauled their kindergarten curricula,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Like Oklahoma, the federal plan that President Obama has proposed includes quality standards such as curriculum and well-trained teachers paid at a salary comparable to K-12 teachers.

“This is not a one-size-fits-all,” Roberto Rodriguez, special assistant to the president for education policy, tells the Journal. “But we want to ensure the dollars invested at the federal level are invested in high-quality programs.”

According to the National Institute for Early Education Research, three quarters of the country’s four million 4-year-olds attend pre-kindergarten, in either a public or private setting. Only 30% are in high-quality program, the Obama administration says.

Implementing the broad pre-k program in Oklahoma has presented some challenges, the Journal reports. Some Oklahoma districts have opened pre-kindergarten classrooms in shopping centers, nursing homes and community-based early education centers, for instance, and some have delayed opening classrooms until a qualified teacher could be hired. The popular program has a wait list of 5,000 children.

One mother, Rachel Moore, tells the Journal she was “stunned” by her young son’s growth in pre-kindergarten. “I was really worried about him going into kindergarten,” she tells the newspaper. “I feel confident he’ll be ready.”

(For more information on Oklahoma’s universal pre-kindergarten program and the unconventional way it was established, read How Did OK Adopt Universal Pre-Kindergarten? And Universal Pre-K is OK in Oklahoma.)

Read Full Post »

Adding Preschool to a State Constitution

Posted in National, Pre-kindergarten on April 8, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

New Mexico is home to a bold idea: write preschool funding into Article XII of the state’s constitution.

This year, for the third time, Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez has filed legislation that would direct 1 % of the state’s Land Grant Permanent Fund to preschool programs – about $100 million.

Sanchez’s goal is to present an amendment to New Mexicans and let them vote it up or down.

While the House approved a joint resolution, the proposal died in the Senate Finance committee.

Fortunately, the energy behind the bill lives on. New Mexico Early Educators United – an organization of early education directors, teachers and staff — have rallied supporters on Facebook, praising the public effort to support the bill and vowing to press on.

Sanchez plans to file the bill again next year, saying that he has the patience and persistence to let the state’s legislative committees do their deliberative work. He believes New Mexico would be the first to make preschool funding part of a state constitution.

“I will never give up on this issue,” Sanchez said in a recent phone conversation.   “Our kids are way too important to give up on this issue.”

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 2,433 other followers

%d bloggers like this: