The White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity didn’t waste much time. This week it unveiled a new 120-page plan on how to create a healthier generation of children that included a section on early learning.

The report is packed with information, including a finding that among licensed child care sites in California, Head Start programs had the highest scores on meal quality.

But, this is not another report that only outlines the obesity problem in today’s youth. It also offers solutions and benchmarks, including an endorsement of quality rating improvement systems.

States should be encouraged to strengthen licensing standards and Quality Rating and Improvement Systems to support good program practices regarding nutrition, physical activity, and screen time in early education and child care settings. – “Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within a Generation: White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report to the President.”

The report is full of alarming findings that should spark action among educators and parents, such as that approximately one in five children are obese by the time they turn six.

Other findings include:

• “Between 1980 and 2001, the prevalence of overweight infants under six months almost doubled, from 3.4 (percent) to 5.9 (percent).”
• “Maternal smoking during early pregnancy is associated with a 500% greater risk of obesity at age 5, and a 260% greater risk at ages 9-10.
• “Many women return to work soon after their baby’s birth, yet 75% of employers do not offer accommodations for them to breastfeed or express milk at work.”

(See the report for footnotes.)

Early Ed Getting More Funding?  U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan suggests the Obama administration may have more money coming for early learning.

“We were hoping in higher education, Bill, to have a significant influx of resources for early childhood education. That didn't happen. But we're going to actually going to reconfigure our proposed FY11 budget to put a lot more money in there.” – Secy. Duncan on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, 4/19/10.

Sometimes a video is worth a thousand research studies.

In less than nine minutes, the film “A New Beginning for American Education” makes a powerful and inspiring case for integrating pre-kindergarten and early elementary grades by featuring Seattle’s South Shore school. For the last seven years, the school’s teachers and administrators have created a more comprehensive education that stretches from pre-k through third grade.

Instead of relying on dry studies, this slick movie relies on parents, teachers, indie rock, a principal, Department of Early Learning’s Bette Hyde, and, of course, experts.

“When pre-k through third grade alignment is happening well in a school what you will see is a sense of predictability. They know what is going to be happening in their environment. They know what is expected of them because all of the teachers have the same expectations,” Dr. Debra Sullivan, president of the Praxis Institute for Early Childhood Education, says in the movie.

“You will see grownups actually talking about the alignment, not just talking about their classroom, their children, their curriculum. It will be our classrooms, our children, our curriculum.

But, a mom said it far better.

“Whatever Azure decides to do down the road I already know he is going to be a success because he believes it.  There is no ‘I can’t do.’ He is always saying ‘I can do that. I can do that mom.’ “ said Cynthia Holloway, whose son Azure attends South Shore.

 We need more studies on early learning, but we shouldn’t forget that sometimes artistic vision is just as powerful, and maybe even more inspiring.

The Foundation for Child Development and Seattle-based The New School Foundation released the movie.      

We learned a lot about brain development in babies and toddlers during the last few years, but the sheer volume of research sometimes could be more confusing than helpful to parents and teachers. On Wednesday, the Talaris Institute will help everyone make better sense of these reports and headlines in a free webcast.

The Seattle-based institute’s Elizabeth Nelson will lead a discussion on what moms and dads should know about their child’s development from birth to age five, and then answer questions.

“Brain science has answered many questions about development in the first years of life, but it always raises others. New findings, as reported by the media, may be confusing, misleading or offer contradictory conclusions,” Talaris said in a notice about its inaugural webcast. “This webcast will present an overview of important findings in early development, and what they tell us about what children need from their parents and caregivers.”

I am more than familiar with the bewildering nature of this research. When I was a journalist covering the parenting beat, I spent a lot of time simply trying to figure out what parents needed to know in the mountain of research that piled up on my desk every week. Does television make kids violent? Are baby DVDs helpful or maybe a little less than useful?

While those two reports were important, I learned much of the data didn’t relate to the daily work of parenting. So, I am glad to see experts such as Talaris’s Nelson step forward to help us understand what matters. (Talaris’s parenting products group, Parenting Counts is hosting the webcast.)

You can check out the session on Wednesday, Nov. 18. All you have to do is go to http://www.parentingcounts.org/webcast by 11 a.m.

California is one of the nation’s largest states and it is struggling with some of the country’s biggest early learning challenges, according to a new report.

The New America Foundation analysis blends tough criticism – fourth grade reading scores in California were lower than anywhere but Mississippi and Louisiana – with promising evidence of progress, such as local efforts to improve early learning and integrate it with the first elementary grades.

In fact, the report’s title contains the foundation’s top recommendation: “On the Cusp in California How PreK-3rd Strategies Could Improve Education in the Golden State.” A small but growing number of counties, school districts, and charter schools across the state are making progress to build seamless PreK-3rd early education systems. Even in the current climate, advocates and policymakers are taking steps that lay the groundwork for a more robust PreK-3rd system in the future. – Summary, “On the Cusp in California.” As we peer into the California crystal ball, the forecast for a well-educated population doesn't look too good. This report on the state's early education system offers a dark assessment, but not a fatalistic one, especially if leaders can seize and build on reform efforts that have already started in patches throughout the state.

The report does not simply criticize. It offers leaders 13 recommendations on how to improve California’s early learning network, such as finding new revenue to ensure pre-k funds are in line with K-12 and expanding successful relationships between early childhood education and school districts. This idea sounds a lot like what Washington’s Department of Early Learning chief Bette Hyde did in Bellingham.

In fact, the tough assessment of California’s early ed efforts makes Washington look good. The Evergreen state is already working on a comprehensive early learning strategy and is home to a governor who not only believes in the issue but leads key policymaking initiatives.  Then in August, state education leaders agreed to develop a system that spans birth to age eight.And Washington is already implementing one of my favorite recommendations in the report, letting local ideas “trickle up” to a statewide level. In White Center, for example, experts are developing a child care quality rating system that could be expanded statewide.

Fading Pre-K Tennessee Benefits Take Two: The National Institute for Early Education Research suggests flaws in the recent analysis that found measurable benefits from Tennessee’s Pre-K program fade by second grade in “How the Fade-out Myth Gets Perpetuated.”

“My own take is that just like the last report on this evaluation, this one provides clear evidence that the analyses have not been able to overcome serious design problems including selection bias.” NIEER co-director Steve Barnett.

Check out the full analysis here.
               

The success of early learning efforts depends on healthy students, but if children are not eating right it seems likely the odds they will struggle in classrooms will rise. The problem? There hasn’t been progress in reducing childhood obesity among poor preschoolers in recent years.

The percentage of obese preschool-aged students remained stuck at roughly 14.6 percent from 2003 to 2008, after spiking from 12.4 percent in 1998, the Centers for Disease Control reported.

This is important on a variety of levels. If we want to get children from low-income families onto the same academic footing as other students by kindergarten they should be ready to learn in preschool, and good nutrition is a building block of school readiness.

Plus, obesity in preschool is often a red flag that warns of future problems, the CDC warns.

“Childhood obesity continues to be a leading public health concern that disproportionately affects low-income and minority children. Children who are obese in their preschool years are more likely to be obese in adolescence and adulthood and to develop diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, asthma, and sleep apnea.” – “Obesity Prevalence Among Low-Income, Preschool-Aged Children – United States, 1998—2008,” July, 2009.  (See full text for footnotes.)

I began thinking about the importance of nutrition in early learning after reading an excellent story on MSNBC.com today, “Day care next frontier in fighting kids' obesity: 'Elementary school is too late,' say proponents of fledgling movement.

The Associated Press article points out few states have nutrition and physical activity requirements for child care facilities. (Check out the full story. It is a quick and information-packed read.)

This isn’t surprising because you don’t often hear nutrition mentioned in debates over how to boost quality in child care and at preschools. I know the topic is on the minds of educators and advocates, but perhaps with more than 14 percent of preschoolers obese it deserves a higher profile.

 

Washington State News

• Ready by Five secures $50,000 grant – 10/8/09, Yakima Herald-Republic
• Teachers Come to Bremerton to Study Early Learning – 10/7/09, Kitsap Sun
• Letter to the Editor: Professional preschool staff a true godsend – 10/3/09, Everett Herald

National News

• Opinion: Fund Early Learning Education – 10/7/09, Forbes Magazine
  

Policy

• After school programs and early childhood: Lessons from a changing landscape  – 10/8/09, Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media Blog: Early Stories
• Early Education Program Growth + Waiting Lists = Mixed Results – 10/7/09, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children
• Very Early Learning: Ways to Reach the Littlest Learners – 10/5/09, Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media Blog: Early Stories

Washington State took an important step in early education last month, enrolling the 150,000th student in its free state-funded pre-kindergarten initiative, the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program, moving it closer to the front of the early learning movement.

The 20-year-old program is more than classrooms and curriculums. It offers supporting services, such as dental visits – ECEAP funded dental care and follow ups for more than 60,000 children – and help with the English language, as part of its effort to get kids from poorer families onto the same footing as other students by the time the first kindergarten bell rings.

The enrollment is more than a number because it reflects Washington’s expanding commitment to early ed, specifically preschool and pre-k. Washington ranked 6th in state spending among the 38 states that spend their own money on preschool, and it holds the same ranking for per child spending, according to “The State of Preschool 2008” by The National Institute for Early Education Research. However, it ranked a lowly 32nd in access of four year olds to pre-k.

"Children living in poverty face more challenges in entering school ready to learn, whether it’s exposure to books and reading in their homes or an unchecked medical issue," Department of Early Learning chief Bette Hyde said in a statement.

The federal government gave governors $2 billion in February largely to help poor families pay for child care and now advocates have a new tool to track where the money is going and help direct it.               

Today, the Center on Law and Social Policy said states have reported spending nine percent of $2 billion in the economic stimulus package for the Child Care Development Block Grant. Washington State is spending its share faster, having already drawn down roughly 25 percent of its $35 million. (You can track spending with CLASP’s monthly reports.)

More important than the numbers is the idea that early learning lobbyists and advocates can follow this money and help advise states about where to spend it, points out Danielle Ewen, CLASP’s director of Child Care and Early Education.

While states may seem to be spending this money at a slow rate, there are plenty of good reasons. For example, the money may be flowing but not yet reported or state officials may be taking their time to spend it wisely. They have three years to spend the money.

Still, I am left to wonder about the low level of reported spending of funds designed to give the economy a relatively quick boost.

Washington isn’t wasting any time, spending all of the $8 million it has drawn down on child care subsidies for poor families, which help cover child care costs while parents look for work, receive approved job training or go to work, according to the Department of Early Learning.

“The Legislature gave us direction on how to spend most of the rest of the stimulus dollars in the 2009-2011 state operating budget. $1 million of it is going to our contract with Thrive to move forward on testing elements of the Quality Rating and Improvement System. There is a small pot of money in there that we will be using to improve quality in infant/toddler care around the state. We are working on an internal plan right now on how those dollars will be spent,” DEL spokeswoman Amy Blondin added in an email.

Coffee Break Reading:  As you drink your afternoon cup of java, tea or water, check out this excellent story in the Times Picayune, “Families struggle with limited – and competitive – pre-K options.”

This quote should get you interested:

"The low cost of living in New Orleans is all well and good, and works fine if you want to own a dog, " (parent Jena) McNamara said. "But it's not so great if you want to send your child to prekindergarten."

(Thanks to EarlyStories for finding this great story.)

We know early learning begins long before child care and preschool, and a new report suggests we need to work harder to address the stubborn problem of infant mortality in the U.S., which ranked 29th in a 2004 global survey.

The nation’s infant mortality rate barely budged from 2000 to 2006, falling to 6.7 deaths per 1,000 births from 6.9 percent, a stark contrast from the decline to 6.9 deaths from 26 between 2000 and 1960, according to a new Kids Count brief “Reducing Infant Mortality.”

Why has progress stalled? Congenital malformations and sudden infant death syndrome(SIDS) continue to be significant causes of infant mortality, but recent years have seen advances in addressing these risk factors (Mathews & MacDorman, 2008). In contrast, low-birthweight and preterm delivery have proven to be more difficult barriers to overcome.

One of the more important highlights indicates the gap between rich and poor is widening in this critical area.

…a recent study shows that disparities based on household income have increased substantially since 1985. The greatest disparities were observed for infants born at normal birthweights and for those whose deaths that occurred during the postneonatal period (one month to one year).

The brief also explores differences among racial and ethnic groups, raising plenty of questions.

As things stand, hospitals serving a high proportion of minority patients have higher than expected mortality rates for infants born at very low birthweights (Morales et al., 2005). Access to state-of-the-art care can also improve survival rates for infants born with congenital anomalies, especially heart defects.

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Low birthweight (LBW) is considered to be the most important factor explaining the black/white differential in the infant mortality rate (Howell, 2008). Despite a large body of literature showing that low birthweight is a risk factor for infant mortality, there is little consensus about why babies are born too soon or too small.

Along with sobering statistics about infant mortality, the brief offers an interesting and long list of recommendations about how to lower the rate of death among infants.

Beyond these ideas, the research brief poses a broader challenge, suggesting that infant mortality is not just another important statistic, but a reflection of our society.
At the same time, by using infant survival as their standard, researchers also reflect what most people feel intuitively: that a population’s well-being has to be judged in terms of the welfare of its youngest and most vulnerable members.