Why are these kids so short? An introduction to early childhood education

Sara MeadBellwether Education Partners March 2013

Experts generally define early childhood as the period from birth through age 8.

Early childhood care and education includes a variety of programs:

Childcare for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers

Pre-kindergarten programs that prepare 3- and 4-year-olds for success in school

Head Start

Kindergarten and early elementary school

Family literacy and parenting programs

Early childhood education encompasses many different programs and providers

Early childhood education is different from K-12

K-12 Public Education Early Childhood

Access Universal Depends on geography, income, luck

Quality Varied Highly varied

Delivery School districts dominate Diverse delivery

Choice Limited parental choice Emphasis on parent choice

Regulation Highly regulated Ranges from high to low

Workforce BA + certification, highly regulated

Varies. Low-skill workers and little regulation in many settings

Accountability Accountability for student learning

Limited measurement of learning outcomes

Funding Publicly funded Mix of government and consumer funding

• Improved understanding of brain development and importance of early years

• Young children can do much more than previously realized

• Early years lay critical foundations for language, social-emotional, and cognitive skills

• Disadvantages and at-risk youngsters often lack high-quality early learning experiences

• Achievement gaps emerge as early as 9 months

• “30 million word gap”

• One-third to one-half of the achievement gap exists before children begin 1st grade

• Increasing demands on K-12 public education system

• Easier and cheaper to prevent problems early than fix them later

• High-quality K-12 providers increasingly looking earlier

There are several important reasons to care about early childhood education

4

Science

Equity

Impact

Non-parental early care and education is a roughly $70 billion industry

Source: Partnership for America’s Economic Success (2010), NIEER (2011), figures adjusted by author

Non-parental Early Care and Education: ~$70 billion

FederalState and LocalParents

Research shows that high-quality early childhood education programs make a difference

High-quality early childhood programs narrow gaps for

disadvantaged youngsters while improving learning and readiness

for all children

• High/Scope Perry Preschool • Chicago CPC• Oklahoma UPK• New Jersey Abbott Pre-K • Tennessee

Improved outcomes benefit both individual children and society at

large

• Reductions in grade retention, special education placement, crime, unwed childbearing, public dependency

• Increased educational attainment, employment, and earnings

• Estimated returns vary from $2.62 to $10 for every dollar spent

Caveat: These results were produced in high-quality programs. Not all programs meet this standard of quality.

The early childhood field faces critical challenges

Access

Funding

Quality

Use of early childhood care and education has grown dramatically in the past 50 years

Percent of Children Enrolled in Pre-

Primary

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics; U.S. Census Bureau. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

19751978

19811984

19871990

19931996

19992002

20050%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Maternal Labor Force Participation by Age of

Youngest Child

5 year olds

4 year olds

3 year olds

<6 years old

<3 years old

But the United States still lags in early childhood enrollments

Many low- and moderate-income children lack access to quality early childhood education

State Pre-k

Head St

art

All Public

<$10k

$10-20k

$20-30k

$30-40k

$40-50k

$50-60k

$60-75k

$75-100k

>$100k0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

4%8%

21%

42%

33%

20%

35% 37% 34%

44%52%

71%

28%

11%

45%

62% 63%55% 58%

62% 64%

77%84%

89%

Age 3Age 4

Participation in Pre-K

Federal and state governments make significant investments in early childhood care and education

Source: Partnership for America’s Economic Success (2010), NIEER (2011), figures adjusted by author

Federal Early Childhood Spending: $20 billion

Head StartChild CareChid Care FoodTax CreditsDODSpecial EdHome Visiting

State Early Childhood Spending: $17 billion

State Pre-KSpecial Ed and Early InterventionChild Care Subsidies

State and federal governments increased early childhood investment over the past decade

2002-03 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 $-

$1,000,000,000

$2,000,000,000

$3,000,000,000

$4,000,000,000

$5,000,000,000

$6,000,000,000

$7,000,000,000

$8,000,000,000

State Pre-K Head Start

Source: National Institute for Early Education Research, Administration for Children and Families

$7.6 billion

$5.5 billion

But funding remains inadequate

State Pre-K Head Start Est. Cost for High-Quality K-12 Public Schools$0

$2,000

$4,000

$6,000

$8,000

$10,000

$12,000

$14,000

$4,151

$7,600

$9,076

$12,463

Per-Pupil Funding

Current state and federal fiscal climate poses challenges for early childhood funding

• Fiscally strapped states have cut services: o States cut pre-k spending by $90 million over past 2 years

o 37 states have cut childcare funding or reduced access, even as number of eligible families has grown

• Expanded federal funding since 2008 has helped maintain services, but current fiscal debate threatens funding

• Major philanthropic funders of pre-k advocacy have cut back support

There are some signs that climate for early childhood spending may be improving

• States are starting to reinvest in early childhood education

o Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has proposed a 60% increase in pre-k spending, with the goal of moving toward universal preschool

o Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has proposed increasing pre-k funding from $109 million to $239 million over 2 years

o Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has proposed a $131 million increase in early childhood funding for 2014

o New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed a $25 million increase to expand pre-k access

• President Obama’s State of the Union Address called for federal-state partnership to expand pre-k access

Experts see little prospect for the President’s proposals in Congress, however

1 "Not Happen-ing-DOA"

2 3 4 5 "Absolutely-It's in the Bank."

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45% 42%

31%

12%15%

0%

Education Insiders’ Rating of Likelihood of Passage for High-Quality Preschool for Every Child

Source: Whiteboard Advisors, “Education Insider”

• SOTU proposal still has impact in raising national profile of preschool.

• States will need to be primary

drivers of policy going forward.

Expectations for quality are too low

We know what it takes to produce dramatically better early learning

outcomes for disadvantaged children, but by and large we are

not doing it.

Confusion about purposes and goals of early childhood education

Too-low expectations for children’s learning

Definition of “quality” focused on inputs

“Quality” in the early childhood context has multiple dimensions

Structural Quality

Process Quality

Outcomes

Advocacy has often focused on structural features, such as class sizes and teacher credentials

0

20

40

2029

11

27

1422

31

11

27

1524

37

11

332727

36

11

34 37

26

38

10

3741

26

42

11

4146

26

44

14

4247

Class size 20 or lower Ratio 1:10 or better Screening/referral At least 1 meal Site visits0

10

20

30

40

50

31 31

1922

32 3327

22

35 37

2923

30

37 39

32

22

3540 41

33

23

3843 44

32

20

38

45 45

32

21

40

2001-2002n=43

2002-2003n=44

2004-2005n=48

2005-2006n=48

2006-2007n=49

2007-2008n=50

2008-2009n=51

Source: National Institute for Early Education Research: The State of Preschool 2009

A new generation of quality initiatives increasingly focus on process quality measures

Classroom organization & use of time

Emotional support

Quality of adult-child

interactions

Instructional support & richness of

content

Children’s actual experience in early childhood settings

Most early childhood classrooms demonstrate good quality on indicators of emotional support

But average quality of instruction is weak

Quality of teaching is most important predictor of early learning outcomes

Effective preschool teaching includes:

• Responsive interaction style• Content that predicts school

readiness• Planning• Balance of teaching strategies• Flexible groupings

To do this, effective preschool teachers need

• Understanding of children’s cognitive, language, social and emotional development

• Content and general knowledge

• Practical knowledge and instructional strategies

• Ability to work with diverse children and families

Many early childhood educators have limited formal education and lack skills and knowledge to do this work.

Supply of quality providers is limited

Lack of reliable, adequate

funding streams

Few high-quality providers

Lack of attention to supply

When opportunities do emerge, there are few quality providers available to take advantage of them: • Head Start • DC • Abbott Pre-K

Traditional early childhood advocates do not think in terms of building supply

Efforts have focused primarily on marginal improvement in existing childcare providers

High-quality providers do exist:

Lack of ecosystem or community of high-quality early childhood entrepreneurs

Funding is not the only barrier, but a critical one

Addressing these challenges will require a multi-faceted approach

Improved access,

quality, and supply for

kids

Public Sector must fund adequate

programs

Private & nonprofit organizations

create/expand quality programs

and supportsPhilanthropy

supports research, advocacy,

investments needed to scale effective

practice

Sara Mead

Principal

Bellwether Education Partners

sara@bellwethereducation.org

Contact