Ky Fails to Win Another RTTT Grant: early childhood

9 States Win Race to Top Early Learning Grants 

This from Politics K-12:

Nine states will share $500 million in Race to the Top early learning grants, the U.S. Department of Education confirmed this morning.

They are: California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Washington. They will get grants ranging from $50 million to $100 million, based on the state's student population, to significantly improve early-education programs in their states. North Carolina was ranked No. 1 by the outside peer reviewers who judged the competition. California, by at least one account, was the surprise dark-horse winner. A must-read New America Foundation blog post also agrees that California—and even North Carolina—were surprises.

"Investing in early learning is one of the smartest things we can do," U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said during the White House announcement of the winners this morning. "I'm confident these nine states will lead the transformation."

Duncan added that there were far more stellar applications than he could fund, and he and others in the Obama administration indicated they would like to fund more states if they can. And indeed, it seems the Education Department will get another $550 million in Race to the Top money in fiscal 2012, according to a budget deal just reached by congressional negotiators. However, later in a conference call with reporters, Duncan would not commit to using that money for early learning, saying he didn't know yet what the focus of future competitions would be....

Too Little, Too Late?

This from Sara Mead in The New Republic:

Obama’s Education Legacy For America’s Youngest Kids:

Too Little, Too Late

IN THE SPRING of 2011, after years of disappointments, early childhood education advocates became hopeful that the Obama administration was finally ready to adopt a more aggressive federal role in promoting early learning. Of the $700 million included in the 2011 federal budget for Race to the Top (RTT), the administration chose to use the majority—$500 million—to fund a new early childhood-focused RTT competition called Early Learning Challenge. Taking a page from RTT, Early Learning Challenge was designed to award funds on a competitive basis to states with the best plans to measurably improve children’s readiness for school. Some early childhood advocates were moved to euphoria. The First Five Years Fund, a national early childhood advocacy group, called the new grant program “an unprecedented opportunity to make dramatic progress” in improving early learning. White House Education Advisor Roberto Rodriguez told reporters that “We believe this [iteration of] Race to the Top can have the same kind of impact” as the original.

Even before new grant program got out the gate, however, it quickly became clear that its rollout was poorly timed. The administration’s prior RTT program achieved its greatest successes by spurring state legislatures to enact major policy changes—adopting federal standards, raising charter school caps, establishing new teacher evaluation systems—in order to better position themselves to win large pots of grant money. More than 20 states passed legislation to improve their RTT chances.

Early Learning Challenge, by contrast, has spurred only one state, Florida, to take legislative action. That’s because state legislatures weren’t made aware of the program’s details until it was too late. Because congressional budget negotiations dragged on until April, the administration didn’t announce the ELC program until late May and details of the program emerged only in July, after most state legislatures had adjourned. Moreover, the relatively modest amount of money in play (up to $100 million for the largest states) simply wasn’t enough to entice legislatures back into session.

The program has also been marred by a half-hearted public relations campaign. With state legislatures failing take up the issue, and Obama not finding much time to talk about it either, Early Learning Challenge has failed to spark the kind of national debate around early childhood education that Race to the Top did for school reform...

Early Childhood Education: The Path to School Success

KET dedicated its latest broadcast of Education Matters - on early childhood education - to Bob Sexton.

Host Bill Goodman and his guests explore why early childhood education is so important to intellectual and academic development. The panelists also discuss innovative programs here in Kentucky that improve access to high-quality educational experiences for the state's youngest students.

Prichard Committee member Lynda Thomas was the content producer for the program, which features:

• Annette Bridges, Director, Division of Early Childhood Development, Kentucky Department of Education;
• Cindy Heine, Interim Executive Director, Prichard Committee;
• Thomas Floyd, Superintendent, Madison County Public Schools; and
• Rick Hulefeld, Executive Director, Children Inc.

Mountjoy on Early Childhood

The Courier-Journal recently had Lunch with Helen Mountjoy, part of a continuing series the paper does. Mountjoy is the Education Cabinet Secretary who is co-chairing the Early Childhood Task Force. Here's a snippet from the interview:

C-J: Why is this important? Why should people who don't have small children care about this?

Mountjoy: It's not just the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do. Kids who participate in high-quality, early-childhood experiences require less remediation, they graduate at higher numbers, they are less likely to be involved in the judicial system, they go to college. All of those things which help us build a well-qualified workforce, start at the preschool level. Ninety percent of a child's brain development takes place before that child ever sets foot in kindergarten. Early experiences are incredibly important – being read to and challenged, developmentally appropriate activities. This is not just wishful thinking, this is not just a group of Moms thinking this would be a great thing for kids, it's all scientifically based, the whole idea that you really can help chart a child's future by the quality of experiences he or she has as a very young child.

C-J: You could also chart a state's future by the investment or focus on that. We spoke about some financial obstacles to that, but are there also cultural obstacles to this in Kentucky that are just as tough to deal with?

Mountjoy: I remember when the KERA legislation was passed, early childhood piece of that was included, the responses we heard from a lot of people: the state's trying to take my children out of their home, this is going to put all the private providers out of business, don't you understand that small business is the backbone of the economy of Kentucky. We've been dealing with those issues for a long time.

The bigger issue, really, is access and being able to know about and then enroll in quality programs, and that's not something that everybody's going to want. How can you set up a program that's going to meet the needs of somebody who works third shift? How are you going to set up a system that meets the needs of somebody that doesn't have adequate transportation? How are you going to set up a system that works well for Aunt Fannie who lives down the street and keeps six kids in her home, safe, nurturing, environment? How can we make sure that we get assistance to those people so they know what readiness for kindergarten looks like?

C-J: Those are really hard issues.

Mountjoy: They are hard issues. It's really interesting. I was unaware, until I came to this position that the Save the Children Foundation actually began in Kentucky and they focused on child care.

C-J: Did they consider Kentucky or Appalachia like a Third World area?

Mountjoy: They started there because the challenges were so great. I've met a couple of times with Mark Shriver – of the Kennedy-Shriver family – who works for that foundation and we talked about what they're doing there. Their model is really interesting. They get names of people who might be deemed at-risk, in line for services that can be offered, and then they try to provide training and opportunities for whoever keeps that child. So they may go in and offer some training in a child-care facility, they may make information available to parents or to people that keep small family-style places, and they've built up over the years a real credibility in the area in which they work. Those are models we need to look at. How can we ensure that every single child, wherever their families choose them to be, can take advantage of what we know about important early childhood education and development issues?

C-J: When you look at the numbers for Kentucky, what are the ones that just break your heart, and which ones show that we've made progress?

Mountjoy: The KidsCount stuff just came out in the last week and Kentucky is 41st in environment for children, and it certainly points out a lot of things we need to work on.

I guess the thing that scares you the most are the increasing numbers of children who live in poverty. It's not that their home environments are inherently worse than anybody else's. It's just that quite frequently the parents have so many obligations in trying to put food on the table that they don't have time for other things. Fully a fifth of our children – and in many of our public schools, a fourth or more – have children whose families fall into that category. That means many times those children start out behind and trying to make sure they have an opportunity not just to catch up but stay caught up is really critical. Just things like number of words in a child's vocabulary, the facility of handling books, the kinds of things that many of us take for granted are not a part of these children's experience. Trying to figure out ways to make them more a part of every child's experience is a real challenge...

Need Stimulus Spending Ideas? Think Early Childhood

This from Politics K-12;

Education Secretary Arne Duncan reminded states that stimulus funds can be used for early childhood programs when he joined representatives of an early-education think tank at a press conference today to talk about a report, The State of Preschool 2008.

The National Institute of Early Education Research noted that more than 1.1 million children attended state-funded preschool last year, an increase of 108,000 over 2007. State funding for pre-K rose to almost $4.6 billion, and 33 of the 38 states with state-funded programs increased enrollment...

Early Intervention

One of the most important methods of closing the achievement gap is early intervention - something lacking for far too many children.

This from Education Week:

Kids Who Need Preschool the Most Aren't Enrolled

Low income and minority children could benefit most from quality preschool, but a new report finds that they're least likely to be enrolled in good early development programs.

In a report released Wednesday by the RAND California Preschool Study, researchers estimate that only 15 percent of those who could benefit most are in high-quality programs that prepare them for success in K-12.

"We can't close the achievement gap unless we close the preparedness gap before kindergarten," said Debra Watkins, founder of the California Alliance of African American Educators. "As a former high school teacher of nearly 30 years, I certainly see what happens (to students who) do not have high quality preschool by the time they reach high school, where we have a dropout problem."
...

Preschool's the prescription for state's education system

PANEL RECOMMENDS EXPANDING ELIGIBILITY

The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence emphasizes that early childhood education is the method to improve the entire educational system in Kentucky.

That's why a panel of education leaders recommends that pre-kindergarten should be expanded to include children 3 and 4 years old whose families live at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The state's current preschool program serves 4-year-old children whose families live below 150 percent of poverty level, and children ages 3 and 4 with disabilities.

"Investing in a child's early years is the smartest way Kentucky can improve education for all and head off problems in the future," executive director Robert Sexton said. "It's time to take the next step: quality, voluntary preschool for all who want it, and improved and adequately funded early childhood programs for families and children." ...

This from the Herald-Leader.

Sexton on Early Childhood Investments

Better for the Economy Than New Stadiums

By Robert F. Sexton,

Executive DirectorPrichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Arthur Rolnick is an economist and senior vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Not a bleeding heart liberal, I’ll bet.

His background made it particularly noteworthy – and he got people’s attention – when he said he’s “quite certain that investing in early childhood education is more likely to create a vibrant economy than using public funds to lure sports teams by building a new stadium or to attract an automaker by providing tax breaks.” The “high returns on investment in early childhood education are extraordinary,” he says, compared to tax breaks and incentives that states use now to attract new companies and create jobs.

He’s in line with another economist, Nobel Laureate James Heckman, who says that “the best evidence suggests that learning begets learning and early investments in learning are effective. …Cost-effective returns are highest for the young.”

Closer to home, a team of University of Kentucky economists recently concluded their study of the results of Kentucky’s economic development investments over the past seven years. Their central finding: “Kentucky has long been one of the poorest states in the nation, primarily because of Kentuckians’ low level of education. …If we do not also address the much larger issue of our education gap, sustained economic growth, no matter what incentives we offer businesses, will never be realized in Kentucky.”

We believe the fundamental first step toward eliminating this roadblock to our future is high quality preschool for three- or four-year olds and strong early childhood support for all Kentucky kids from birth to five years old.

This continuum of early care and education – quality child care for infants and toddlers as well as strong preschool experiences for three- and four-year-olds – is the foundation of all that follows. Everything known about the early years, when successful development in language, motor skills, adaptive behaviors and social and emotional functioning must occur, shows that early success makes it much more likely that a child will succeed in school—and in life.

Preschool experience is most powerful, researchers say, for children whose home lives limit their chances for strong early development. By the age of three, for instance, the children of poor families have one-half the vocabularies of children from more educated families. One report shows that while a four-year-old from a working-class family has heard 26 million spoken words, and a from a professional family 45 million, a four-year-old from a low-income family has heard 13 million words.

The financial returns that economist Rolnick applauds are documented in numerous long-term cost-benefit studies that show that the return for each dollar we invest in early care and education ranges from $3 to $17. A high-quality preschool experience for at-risk children results in a reduced need for special education, fewer repeated grades, higher high school graduation rates, fewer arrests, higher employment rates, higher earnings and lower welfare dependency.

Increased high school graduation is another tangible payoff. Children who attend preschool programs, one study shows, are 29 percent more likely to graduate from high school. In Kentucky 17,173 potential members of the class of 2006 (in other words, those who were 8th graders in 2002) failed to graduate. The Alliance for Excellence in Education estimates that those dropouts will result in a loss of $4.5 billion in Kentucky wages over their lifetimes, plus a comparable loss in tax revenues and increases for health care and related costs.

“Poor and minority students stand to benefit the most from quality preschool programs,” reports Education Week, so preschool is a critical weapon in the fight to reduce the achievement gap, something that is particularly important in a state like Kentucky, with a large number of poor children.

In fact, quality preschool for every child is the smartest investment a high-poverty state like Kentucky can make. We took good steps forward in incorporating pre-k into our educational system in 1990, and Governors Paul Patton and Ernie Fletcher moved early childhood programs even further. But far too many children are still left far behind.

Last year, about 39,000 (36%) of Kentucky’s three- and four-year-old children were served by Kentucky’s preschool program and Head Start. Of families living at twice the poverty level (a little less than $40,000 for a family of four), 16,000 children are still in need of high quality preschool and don’t have it.

The Prichard Committee, in concert with other child advocates and business leaders, wants to increase access to high quality pre-k programs for all of Kentucky’s children. This is not a new priority for us. Our original recommendations (1984) for improving Kentucky education emphasized the importance of preschool and improved conditions in the early years. Our recent five-year plan selected expanded preschool as one of the key next steps for Kentucky. We’re now working on a statewide campaign (www.StrongStartKy.org) with the support of Pre-K Now, a national organization pushing for higher quality programs across the country.

We will publish a wide-ranging set of recommendations soon, when a coalition of children’s advocacy groups agree upon a comprehensive program to improve the care and education of children from birth to age five. But some key needs are apparent right now:
Kentucky should make voluntary, high-quality preschool available to all three- and four-year-olds from families that cannot afford it.

We need to build on the KIDS NOW program to put teeth in its quality enhancing measures and programs that stimulate healthy growth and development before children enter preschool, including the STARS quality rating system for child care programs, scholarships for child care providers, and the HANDS voluntary home visitation program for new parents.

Sometimes the smartest investments are hard to find, but this one is right under our noses.

State Early Childhood Policy Profiles

Policy information on healthy development and school readiness for young children is now available on a state-by-state basis in a report from the New York City-based National Center for Children in Poverty.

Each state's profile features data on issues such as prekindergarten access, health-insurance coverage, child-care quality, and paid-leave policies for parents.

State policies that promote health, education, and strong families can help the early development and school readiness of America’s youngest citizens. These profiles highlight states’ policy choices alongside other contextual data related to the well-being of young children.

This from the National Center on Children in Poverty.