Dear Birth to Thrive Online readers,

Birth to Thrive is taking a hiatus for the Holiday Season. We will resume on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012.

Until then, have the happiest of holidays and find every excuse to bask in the joy and wonderment of young children during this time of year!

Washington State

• West Valley tests waters for pay all-day kindergarten – 5/24/11, Yakima Herald-Republic
• Baby, what a lesson! Kids learn a little empathy – 5/19/11, The Seattle Times

National/International

• Feds offer $500M in state grants for preschool – 5/25/11, Associated Press
• Obama aims to boost early learning programs – 5/25/11, The Washington Post (NAT)
• Fight expected in Juneau over early education for preschoolers – 5/25/11, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK)
• Editorial: Early education lesson – 5/24/11, The Detroit News (MI)
• Opinion: Early childhood programs are at risk – 5/21/11, News & Observer (NC)

Research/Policy

• Making sense of the final numbers in FY11 federal funding – 5/20/11, Early Ed Watch (NAT)
• Early childhood education in Vision 2016 plan – 5/20/11, Muncie Star Press (IN)

A new report released today found what many who read this blog already knew: Even college-educated early childhood educators don’t earn much.

The analysis explored how different college majors translate into future earnings, ranking majors with the highest and lowest median earnings. It is no great surprise that early childhood education was the second-lowest, with earnings of $36,000 a year, according to
“What’s it Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors” from Georgetown University. A petroleum engineer major ranked the highest. Those studies translated into median annual pay of $120,000.

Over at Education Week, Sara Mead points out that the relatively weak earning power of preschool, pre-kindergarten and child care teachers affects efforts to improve quality in early education. For example, I think one of the bigger steps in creating a PreK-3rd system is bringing pre-k teachers onto the same pay scale as public school teachers.

So, how do we increase these wages? In an economy that’s supposed to follow the rules of supply and demand, early learning is a glaring exception. There is plenty of demand from the growing ranks of two-career families.  (“Between 1969 and 1996, the number of working married women with children increased by 84 percent. By 1998, two-thirds of all mothers in married-couple families were employed.” – U.S. Labor Department report.)

But, this demand has not translated into higher wages. Instead, these educators often live closer to working poverty than a middle-class life.

One of the benefits of being a journalist is I can ask a lot of questions, without always having answers. I want to hear from educators, economists, parents and, why not, even writers, about how to fix this problem. It is hard to envision an extensive network of quality child care and preschool with the current wage scale.

Parenting is a tough job that comes with no manual, but a new statewide education and awareness campaign aims to help make parenting a little easier by encouraging parents to focus on three actions that will give their child a great start in life: Love. Talk. Play.

Targeting parents with children age 3 and younger, the “Love. Talk. Play.” campaign kicks off this week – National Week of the Young Child (April 10-16). Communities started holding “Love. Talk. Play.” events this past weekend, and additional launch events and outreach activities are scheduled in communities throughout the state over the new few months.

Right now, Washington state is home to more than 348,000 children age 3 and younger, which means there are a lot of parents who could use a little help. Parent awareness and outreach are priorities for the state’s Early Learning Plan that was released last fall.

The “Love. Talk. Play.” campaign was shaped by input from national early learning experts and conversations with lower-income parents, who don’t often have access to parenting support and information and who the campaign wants to reach most with the campaign.

Thrive by Five Washington, the state Department of Early Learning and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction are the primary sponsors of the campaign, but, in an effort to unify messaging to parents, other statewide and local organizations throughout the state have been engaged to participate in the campaign. Ten early learning coalitions that serve families throughout the state will help get the campaign into communities through people parents already trust and places they already go. Other campaign partners are providing content, advising on campaign development, and disseminating materials. Parent calls are being supported by Parent Trust for Washington Children’s Family Help Line: 1-800-932-4673.

Learn more at www.lovetalkplay.org. | Read the full press release here.

Most babies aren't even talking by their first birthday. Yet, starting about 6 months, their brains are able to pull apart the sounds in different languages.

In fact, babies learn one language over another – by listening to the humans around them and "taking statistics" on the sounds they need to know, says Pat Kuhl, a professor of Speech and Hearing Sciences and co-director of the Institute for Brain and Learning Sciences (I-LABS) at the University of Washington. Kuhl is internationally recognized for her research on early language and brain development, and studies that show how young children learn. Kuhl’s work has played a major role in demonstrating how early exposure to language alters the brain.

Kuhl’s presentation on language development is now online at TED.com, a website dedicated to spreading ideas by sharing the best talks and performances from all over the world.

Thrive by Five Washington works in partnership with I-LABS, helping them share their research findings about the baby brain with Washington state  policymakers, community leaders, educators and the media, so that public policy and practice reflect what we know about this critical period of learning and development in a  child’s life.

Gov. Gregoire announced today her intention to create a single, cabinet-level Department of Education that will unite eight state education agencies. The new department will have full authority over the state’s entire education system -- from early learning to K-12 to higher education. In charge of it all will be a new Secretary of Education, appointed by the governor.

According to the governor’s office, the aim of the proposal is to cut down on the time the various agencies already spend trying to align their work and priorities.

• Watch the governor's press conference (should be posted on TVW shortly)
• Read the press release and policy brief

Birth to Thrive will resume publication on Monday, Jan. 3.

Happy Holidays!

Washington State

• Yakima early education gets $1.8M Gates boost – 10/27/10, Yakima Herald Republic

National/International

• TV time limits for toddlers are ignored – 10/28/10, LA Times (CA)
• Study touts benefits of comprehensive pre-kindergarten classes in Harrisburg – 10/28/10, The Patriot-News (PA)
• Interview with Michelle Rhee – 10/27/10, Washington Times (DC)
• School's success with low-income, minority students draws attention – 10/27/10, The Herald (SC)
• Portland aims to add steppingstones to kindergarten – 10/27/10, Portland Press Herald (ME)
• Opinion: Rhee got results, but will they last? – 10/26/10, Huffington Post (NAT)
• W.Va. on target to implement pre-k plan for 4-year-olds – 10/25/10, Register-Herald Reporter (WV)
• Opinion: Early childhood education and the economy – 10/24/10, The Star Press (IN)

Research/Policy

• Proposed: Waiving rules in return for innovations in early ed – 10/28/10, New America Foundation Blog: Early Ed Watch (NAT)

Earlier this month, about 70,000 children in our state started kindergarten, and they're all different in what they know and can do. 

A new program being developed in our state aims to help kindergarten teachers get the best, earliest and most complete look at the children coming into their classroom, so that they give each child the support needed to be successful in school. 

Being tested this school year with 3,000 children in 120 kindergarten classrooms around the state, the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS) creates an opportunity for families, teachers and early learning professionals to talk about an individual child's strengths and needs before school starts. That conversation is then coupled with a more formal assessment of each child's social, emotional, physical and academic skills once school starts. The process is about making sure kids get a great start in school.  

The WaKIDS pilot was designed in partnership with elementary teachers and principals, special education specialists, early care and education providers, parents and representatives from Washington Tribal communities.

Watch this Learning for Life as we talk with a Loyal Heights Elementary kindergarten teacher, whose classroom is participating in the WaKIDS pilot, and state officials to learn more about WaKIDS and why we need such a process in our schools. 

Note: This is the last Learning for Lifesegment. For the past year and a half, Thrive by Five Washington and KING 5 TV have worked in partnership to help raise public awareness about the importance of early learning. This has included weekly news stories, Evening Magazine segments, public service announcement and three primetime specials. We greatly appreciate KING 5's commitment to early learning and look forward to future partnerships with them.

Learn more and watch past Learning for Lifeseries and specials here.