An all-day Head Start program in Maryland recorded impressive results preparing its students for kindergarten – they scored better on reading and other tests than other students.  But, the report’s more interesting finding is the program cut down on special education services.

Students in Montgomery County’s all-day Head Start classrooms “required half as many special education services per week as their peers” who weren’t in the pre-k program, once both groups were in kindergarten, according to a release from the Montgomery Public Schools.  

This is the latest finding about how early learning can influence special education, which is expensive. (Pennsylvania Pre-K Programs Cut Special Ed Enrollment, Get Students Ready to Learn) It raises the idea that special education may sometimes be unnecessary if a student receives a top-quality early education, and that this connection is worth more research.

The latest report explains how this progress translates into real money.

“(The costs savings is significant, as the average annual cost for kindergarten students receiving special education services during the 2008-2009 school year was $16,230.)”

The study also found students in the all-day program were more likely to hit reading benchmarks than students in a half-day program.

“This positive effect on reading performance was particularly strong among African American students in the full-day program, who were 94 percent more likely to meet the reading benchmark than their MCPS (Montgomery County Public Schools) peers in the half-day pre-K programs. Students in full-day pre-K who received free and reduced- price meals (a measure of poverty) were 60 percent more likely to meet the benchmark than those in the half-day pre-K classes.”

You might recall the Montgomery County Schools as the district that was lauded for its work and success in early learning last year in the new book, “Leading for Equity.”

Thanks to The Hechinger Report, a brand new education news service that is packed with information and has a link to the EarlyStories blog post about the new report.  Check it out.

I write a lot about funding battles, both federal and state, and hopefully that money eventually goes somewhere and helps someone, though too often we don’t follow the money.  It turns out last year’s economic stimulus package will allow 108 more kids to attend quality early learning this year in Washington State.

Thanks to the law, the federal government is sending $933,171 to this state to allow these kids to enroll in Children’s Home Society of Washington’s Early Head Start programs in King and Walla Walla counties this month. Plus, the money will create 14 new jobs in a region that could use some – the state’s unemployment rate hit 9.5 percent in December.

“The grant will allow CHSW to enhance child development and social competence in children at homes and at childcare centers. Since a strong parent is critical to the success of a young child, the programs also support family development and promote long‐term self‐sufficiency and capability of parents,” Children’s Home Society’s director of Early Learning Cathy Garland said in a statement.

Unfortunately, the new students will not make a big dent in Head Start under enrollment. Only 2.3 percent of Washington’s 69,000 eligible families actually attend Head Start, mirroring the 2 percent national enrollment rate, according to CHSW.

President Barack “Obama hopes to serve five times the amount of families,” the Home Society added.

Hey, 108 new students is a start.
                               
News & Notes: Check out EarlyStories two great posts:

• “New tool asks: Are kids ready for kindergarten?”
• “Are gifted children born, made or purchased?”

The Obama administration released its new budget this morning and despite the large federal budget deficit it contains new money for Early Head Start, child care subsidies and other incentives for early learning, interest groups reported.

Two of the nation’s biggest early learning programs, Head Start and Early Start, would receive a total increase of $989 million in fiscal 2011 over last year’s level, according to Zero to Three. It should be interesting to watch the Congressional reaction to that request, since Head Start was criticized last month in a federal report.

In the hopeful thinking department, Obama also wants $625 million for his Early Learning Challenge Fund, even though legislation that would create that fund remains stuck in the Senate.

It wasn’t all about raises, however, because Obama proposed freezing funding for Part C Early Intervention for Infants and Toddlers at $440 million, the interest group said. (Check out Zero to Three’s Facebook page to read the details of this handy summary.)

Obama already told the nation last week that he wants to nearly double the child care tax credit and add more money to the Child Care and Development Block Grant program. Zero to Three breaks it down this way:

An increase of $800 million (and an additional $11 billion over ten years) in mandatory Child Care and Development Funds to allow states to provide child care subsidies to additional working families. In addition, another increase of $800 million is proposed to provide quality improvements through the reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). Total funding for CCDBG under this proposal would equal $2.927 billion, $137 million of which is targeted for improving the quality of infant-toddler care. – “Breaking News for Babies: President Requests Increased Funding for Key Infant-Toddler Services.”

We are still learning about the president’s new fiscal blueprint, but you can start here:

• The President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2011, Office of Management and Budget. (Check by department links.)

Stay tuned because CLASP and the National Women’s Law Center will host a conference call Wednesday entitled “The President’s Budget Proposal: Opportunities and Challenges for Early Childhood Programs.”

The federal Head Start review continues to generate interesting analysis, including the idea it may show a catch-up dynamic not a fade-out effect.

Once kids hit kindergarten, teachers work hard to help lagging students catch up with the rest of the class, National Institute of Early Education Research co-director Steve Barnett wrote.

“…kids make a lot of growth in kindergarten and first grade, and public schools go to great lengths to help children who have less educational experience, catch up with those who have more,” Barnett wrote.

“This is catch-up, not fade out or wash out.”

In addition, location matters. Many of the students in the study’s control group attended some type of preschool so “that kind of comparison will not likely show big differences.”

But, Barnett is not trashing the report. Far from it, he views it as a platform to make changes.

“I make another prediction that the Obama administration, with its theme of “Change,” will …chart a new course for Head Start based on what can be learned from this study and others. Confidence in this prediction is tempered by the knowledge that real policy change never comes easy, but I have high hopes,” Barnett wrote on NIERR’s website. (Check out Barnett’s new column for six lessons from the new study and three recommendations.)

The National Head Start Association adds that the program has a history of improving, and is currently implementing important changes contained in the 2008 reauthorization of Head Start.

Washington State Gov. Proposes Preschool Expansion and Improvement

Washington State Gov. Christine Gregoire unveiled a new early learning strategy yesterday that promises every 3- and 4-year-old the chance to attend preschool.

Gregoire’s brief but broad proposal is designed to boost preschool quality and offer lower-income parents financial help with tuition and payments.

“Preschools will be required to be certified and meet requirements established by the Department of Early Learning. Currently there are no standards set for preschool programs, and preschool teachers are not required to undergo background checks.” – All Start Policy Brief, Governor Gregoire’s office.

The brief outlines a plan that also would require parental involvement, better coordination with federal early education efforts and includes programs for infants and toddlers. The two-page brief suggests we will see more details in the coming days.

The plan is far from final. It now moves to the state legislature, where lawmakers are struggling with a $2.6 billion budget deficit.

The federal government ignited a fresh debate over whether benefits of quality early education fade over time by releasing a report this week that found few measurable cognitive or social-emotional benefits among a group of Head Start students once they reached first grade.  

In a four-year study that is the talk of the early learning world, researchers found by first grade Head Start students and those in a “control group…were at the same level on many of the measures studied.” The study, however, found Head Start helped prepare kids for school.

Overall, the report raises more questions than it answers.

It offers one stage in the evolution of our understanding of quality early education’s impact. We won’t truly understand fade out until we measure, if we can, its effect in adults, such as better jobs and lower incarceration rates, other research suggests.

The New America Foundation raises an excellent point: Where does this fade out come from, Head Start, the quality of the kindergarten and first grade classrooms these kids entered, the fact that kids need quality support from pregnancy through Head Start, not a single year?

“What this study does, among many other things, is present us with a big question mark about the quality of the primary grades in the public schools that these Head Start children attended. There’s so much we still don’t know,” Lisa Guernsey, director of the Washington, D.C.-based foundation’s Early Education Initiative, wrote during an email interview.

All these questions mean the idea of fading benefits likely will play an even bigger role in future debates over early learning. Fade out was mentioned several times in a television special that aired over the weekend, “Learning for Life: The Path to Better Early Learning" and is certain to play a role in the Obama administration’s ambitious early education agenda.

“Issues of fadeout at specific points in the education process are not new. Previous studies have shown ebbs and flows in achievement from grade to grade throughout the educational experience. In spite of the ups and downs in achievement, long-term studies continue to reach the same conclusion:  significant improvements in a wide variety of educational and life outcomes,” the National Head Start Association said in response to the report.

In fact, one of the longest running studies of quality preschool, the Perry Preschool Project, has shown long-term gains, everything from better jobs to higher homeownership rates. It is neatly summed up in a single finding: The total investment of $15,166 in one Perry Preschool education pays back $244,812 in benefits to society, American RadioWorks reported.

The experiment also suggests the true impact of quality early ed may not be found in raw test scores.

"Now you're getting into something really deep," economist James Heckman said in the RadioWorks story. "How is it that motivation is affected? What causes motivation?"

"It's true that IQ wasn't raised by the study," Heckman added later. "But it is true that achievement was. And I thought that was amazing."

Overall, the latest Head Start report contains a lot of bad news and good news to digest.

“However, the advantages children gained during their Head Start and age 4 years yielded only a few statistically significant differences in outcomes at the end of 1st grade for the sample as a whole.” – “Head Start Impact Study Final Report, Executive Summary, 1/13/10.

 There are plenty of other findings to chew on, including Head Start’s impact on mom and dad. Maybe impacts on better parenting are more obvious once kids grow up.

“It is possible that these benefits in the parent-child relationship are both related to earlier improvements in behavior and may lead to longer term benefits for children. However, this is only one hypothesis, and the issue requires further analysis.”

This latest report will surely become fodder for sound bites that often pass for debate on Capitol Hill. But, its findings are a big step, but only a step, toward finding out what works and what doesn’t work in early learning.

Any thoughts?

The debate over Head Start has died down with Democrats in charge of the White House and Congress, but a new report offers a long list of reasons why the 44-year-old program helps, including how it helps parents get involved in their child’s education.

The arguments about parental involvement are important because too often Head Start debates focus on fade out concerns and measuring achievement.  This time the National Head Start Association stresses critical and sometimes overlooked successes getting parents engaged. If parents aren’t involved even the highest quality child care educators will struggle to help a child.

For example, “a higher proportion of Head Start parents read to their children more frequently than those parents of children who were not enrolled in Head Start,” – Latest Research on Head Start and Other Early Learning Programs. “A higher proportion of parents with 3-year-old children in Head Start reported that their child was either in excellent or very good health as compared with those parents who did not have children enrolled in Head Start.”

Early Head Start parents also are more likely to hold down jobs, go to school or receive job training, the report claimed.

The PowerPoint is full of research citations about the benefits of Head Start. (Of course, the report’s author has an interest in promoting Head Start, but it’s still an interesting side of the story.)

The report also saved space for a hot congressional topic, home visitation, by citing research that found each dollar invested in the Nurse-Family Partnership Nurse Home Visiting Program saves between $1.26 and $5.70 for every dollar invested.

(Thanks to the Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP for highlighting this PowerPoint.)
 
If you can’t get enough early learning news here, follow my updates during the day on Twitter, @WorkingDad.

Congress’s appetite for early learning legislation appears to grow by the week, with a number of important bills entering the pipeline, including efforts to expand home visitation and child care construction, the Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP reports.

Not surprisingly, there is a lot of interest in pre-k access – five bills in the WSA briefing list its expansion as a goal – but I am more interested in the targeted ideas because of the brutal yet promising budgetary climate on Capitol Hill.

Early learning advocates are working with a sympathetic Democratically-controlled Congress and an administration aggressively championing portions of their agenda, but also are confronting record-level budget deficits. There simply isn’t a lot of money.

In this climate, targeted ideas, such as the home visitation plan backed by Seattle’s own Rep. Jim McDermott are intriguing. The Early Support for Families Act would authorize $2 billon in mandatory funds to support “early childhood visitation programs,” WSA said.

Following up on yesterday’s post on building great child care centers, another bill would help providers construct, acquire or improve facilities.

Over at the House Education and Labor Committee, there is a bill designed to increase the number of early education teachers and assistant teachers with baccalaureate and associate degrees, according to WSA.

Pre-K access, though, remains the top dog among early learning issues. Former presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, is driving a bill that would help states establish universal pre-k and “ensure that all children age three through five have access to high-quality, full-day, full calendar year pre-k education,” WSA reports.

Now these bills are tall orders, sure to change, possibly shrink or die in committee. But, there is a lot for senators and representatives to chew on. It will be interesting to see what they create from this legislative stew.

Check out WSA’s excellent federal legislative summary on their website.