Washington state legislators made progress on a key early learning issue this week, as a plan to create a voluntary universal preschool system moved forward.

On Tuesday, the House Early Learning and Human Services Committee approved legislation that would phase in universal preschool by school year 2024-25. But, in the Senate a similar bill remains in the Early Learning and K-12 Committee, according to an advocate who is following the legislation.

Time is running out because legislation must move out of committee by this Friday.

Overall, the Washington legislature could make progress on key early learning issues this session, including developing a preschool system, despite the weak economy that has created another large budget deficit.

Legislators already set a funding floor for one of Washington’s biggest early learning programs, its public preschool program, the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP), at 2009-2011 levels, according to Leslie Dozono, Early Learning Policy Director at the Seattle-based Children’s Alliance.

“It is clear that the legislature really cares about early learning,” Dozono said. “Even in tough times people want to do good things.”

The legislature’s work is nowhere near done. Stay tuned to see if the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Committee will approve its universal preschool bill Friday and for updates on early learning issues next week.

California Budget Battle Update: The budget proposal from California Gov. Jerry Brown would hit early education programs too hard, the Mercury News said in an editorial on Tuesday.

Almost one-fifth of the $4 billion in state program cuts Brown has proposed would come from early childhood education -- child care, preschool and the new transitional kindergarten scheduled to start in the fall. These programs should be among the state's highest priorities. Children are our most precious resource, and their success paves the way for California's economy to grow and prosper.

-- “Mercury News editorial: Don't cut funding for kindergarten, preschool.” 1/31/12.

Economists play an important and growing role in early education policy, and now one of the nation’s leading economic minds is setting out to see if investing more in parents could offer higher returns in education.

With the backing of a wealthy hedge fund executive, University of Chicago economist John List is conducting a field experiment to determine “whether investing in teachers or, alternatively, in parents, leads to more gains in kids’ educational performance,” Bloomberg News reports. The study is designed to track 150 preschoolers and 450 other students long after they become adults, until “they die,” according to the story.

The Griffin experiment may show that the U.S. doesn’t spend enough on helping parents, List says. “We have too many eggs in the kid basket,” says List, himself a father of five. “We need to spend much more time and many more resources on helping parents.”

– “Chicago Economist’s ‘Crazy Idea’ Wins Ken Griffin’s Backing.” Bloomberg Markets Magazine, April.

The story is important on several levels. First, it tackles early learning public policy from a different angle, which can produce new insights.

As important, when a high-powered economist and a wealthy investor wade into education reform they can bring resources – the experiment is backed by $10 million from hedge fund executive William Griffin, Bloomberg reports – and support for important early learning ideas. But, they also can create distractions and support flawed public policies in an arena that is far different than managing investment portfolios and betting on financial markets.

The overall relationship between education reform and Wall Street is a delicate one that’s full of potential and challenges, which is why this new experiment is worth tracking.

(Thanks to the Birth to Five Policy Alliance for highlighting this news.)

The New America Foundation is tackling one of the most important topics in early education, how to improve teacher evaluations, with a new initiative-discussion that’s not only worth watching, it’s worth joining.

So far, the impressive effort includes a new 24-page report “Watching Teachers Work” on how observational tools can improve teaching in early ed, a panel discussion and an op-ed in The Los Angeles Times last week.

How do we halt the teacher-bashing, as President Obama urged in his State of the Union address, and still improve the quality of teaching? The answer is to radically change the evaluation conversation. A focus on watching teachers work — on how they actually interact with students — is long overdue. Several of these observation tools have the potential to bring some coherence to two worlds that are often seen as separate – the world of early learning before kindergarten and the world of K-12.

– “More on Observing Teachers, PreK-12.”  Early Ed Watch, 6/30/12.

One of the most important elements of this campaign is that it features a voice sometimes left out of education reform debates: individual teachers.

This discussion is just getting started. So head over to New America’s Early Education Initiative and join it.

Fresh Economic Analysis of Early Ed: Economist Tim Bartik has been on a roll lately, tackling key topics in early learning with a series of often short stories on his blog InvestinginKids. Some of Bartik’s recent insights include:

• “Given the many problems with our K-12 educational system, what’s the point of adding early childhood programs?”
• “Which businesses should be interested in ‘the business case’ for early childhood programs?”
• “Do early childhood programs represent too much government intervention into the role of parents?”

In Washington state one of the top early education issues in the legislature is a proposal to build a voluntary universal preschool system. Last week, the Department of Early Learning  explained how the system would work.

One of the proposal’s most interesting elements is how it would deal with a phased-in requirement that lead teachers hold a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education or a related subject.  The debate about the role of higher education in preparing preschool and child care teachers is one of the biggest in early learning right now. It is also one of the more complex.

The bill also will likely include a requirement for DEL and others to review current capacity at higher education institutions, affordability in attaining a degree, barriers for child care providers, and any “equivalencies” that would allow child care providers to demonstrate quality without having a bachelor’s degree.

– “Questions and answers about the proposed Washington Preschool Program.” 1/26/11.

We wrote about the preschool bill’s highlights here, but the Q&A is more detailed and useful.

Global Lessons in Early Ed: The United States could learn a lot about high-quality early learning from other nations. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, for example, held a conference last week on early childhood education in Oslo, Norway, the National Institute for Early Education Research reports.

The story, with its many links, is a good launching point to slides, video and views from leading voices in early learning around the globe.

There is no one “right” model for early care and education; programs must be of high-quality, fit the needs of their community while being culturally responsive, and contribute to lasting gains. Cooperative efforts such as those launched by the OECD provide a crucial opportunity to share knowledge and ensure that all children are provided with quality early learning opportunities, contributing to an improved global economy.

– “Early Education on the International Scene.” 1/27/12.

Check it out.

School readiness is one of the biggest issues in early learning. Now, an important new study suggests the inability to pay attention can be one of the biggest hurdles to achievement in kindergarten.

The study shows that kindergarteners with attention problems scored lowest on math and reading tests among a set of defined groups, those identified by attention skills and aggressive behavior, socioeconomic statuses, race and gender, Early Ed Watch reports today.

And a student’s attention struggles had a broad impact, affecting others in a class.

The discrepancy in scores between the full sample and students with attention problems exceeded the gap between low- and higher-income students. But that wasn’t all. In classrooms with students who had attention problems, other students were also negatively impacted; a higher proportion of those students’ reading and math scores averaged 5 percentile points below average than in classrooms without students who had attention problems.

– “New Research on Behavior and Academic Achievement in Kindergarten.” 1/26/12.

On one level, it may seem obvious that the ability to pay attention is important to success in school. But, with all the debates about school readiness and whether children should be able to read by the end of kindergarten, this research highlights a critical skill children should develop before they start school.

These findings could have a major influence on early learning, the story points out, because new “interventions…are suggesting that we can help preschool and early elementary school children do a better job at self-regulation and attention,” co-author Jeanne Brooks-Gunn said in the story.

Brooks-Gunn is one of the most insightful and important voices in early education today, and I try to highlight her new research. Head to Early Ed Watch and check out its excellent analysis of her latest contribution.

Overview of Race to the Top Apps: In the Race to the Top, losing states also could win, in a sense. That’s because one of the ideas behind the contest is that a state could continue implementing plans in its application even if it didn’t win any federal money. (One of the winners, Washington, indicated this approach during the most recent race for early learning grants.)

So, First Five Years Fund’s new report that profiles all 37 state applications could provide a preview of reforms we may see on the state level in the coming years.

We spend a lot of time writing about the importance of early intervention, research-based practices, proven curriculums, and public policies. But, there is another building block of early learning: the family dinner.

Research suggests that children who regularly eat meals with their families reap a lot of benefits, including fewer behavioral problems and better performance in school, Child Trends reports.

The good news is parents are doing a pretty good job gathering their families for dinner during the first five years of their children’s lives – 63 percent of children in this age range eat meals with their families six or seven times a week, according to a fact sheet by the group.

Connections to early learning are relatively obvious. For example, parents who regularly eat meals with their kids can check on their cognitive and social development.

We know that shared meals do more than satisfy appetites. Family meals demonstrate and build connectedness, as family members use this opportunity to report on their recent activities; to share troubles and triumphs, big and small; to discuss current events; and to teach, plan, laugh, and dream together.

Numerous studies have shown that children and adolescents who eat meals frequently with family members experience better outcomes than their counterparts who do so only infrequently or not at all. These associations hold up even after taking account of other child and family characteristics, including even other forms of family togetherness.

– “Eat and Be Merry … Together at the Dinner Table,” Trend Lines. 1/24/11.

Amid building quality rating systems, universal pre-kindergarten and better professional development – all key elements of a better early learning system  – we should remember the basic family meal is another.

The State of the Union and Early Learning: President Barack Obama delivered his fourth state of the union last night and Early Ed Watch has a good review of what he said about education.

He “didn’t mention early childhood education, making this the first Obama State of the Union to neglect the issue,” Early Ed Watch reports, but there are other important elements to review.

Early literacy programs rely on established research, proven systems and great teachers. But, they also need good books.

The American Library Association identified three new books for aspiring readers yesterday, when it awarded its annual Randolph Caldecott awards for children’s picture books. And these books don’t feature talking cars, prehistoric animals or toys.

Here is a rundown, with links:

Winner:

• “A Ball for Daisy,” by Chris Raschka.
  Any child who has ever had a beloved toy break will relate to Daisy's anguish when her favorite ball is destroyed by a bigger dog. In the tradition of his nearly wordless picture book Yo! Yes?, Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka explores in pictures the joy and sadness that having a special toy can bring. -- Random House.

Honor Books:

• “Blackout” by John Rocco. (Check out the book’s cool website.)
  After a neighborhood blackout, a family feels what it’s like to not be so busy for once. But when the electricity is restored, everything can go back to normal ... but not everyone likes normal. -- Hyperion.
  
• "Grandpa Green" by Lane Smith.
  Grandpa Green wasn't always a gardener. He was a farmboy and a kid with chickenpox and a soldier and, most of all, an artist. In this captivating new picture book, readers follow Grandpa Green's great-grandson into a garden he created, a fantastic world where memories are handed down in the fanciful shapes of topiary trees and imagination recreates things forgotten. -- Roaring Books Press.
• “Me … Jane” by Patrick McDonnell.
  In his characteristic heartwarming style, Patrick McDonnell tells the story of the young Jane Goodall and her special childhood toy chimpanzee named Jubilee. As the young Jane observes the natural world around her with wonder, she dreams of "a life living with and helping all animals," until one day she finds that her dream has come true … -- Little Brown & Co.
  

Children who attended one of the nation’s leading early learning programs were more likely to graduate from college and maintain stable employment, while they were less likely to rely on public aid, a new study found.

The study is the latest to show that benefits of well-designed early education programs help students long after they graduate. In this case, students who attended the Abecedarian Project  were four times more likely to finish college than those in a control group, according to research published in Developmental Psychology, an academic journal, last week.

In addition, when former Abecedarian students turned 30, 75 percent had worked full-time jobs for a minimum of 16 of the previous 24 months, while 53 percent of adults in the control group maintained this job record, researchers reported. (You’ll need a subscription to read the article, but you can get a lot of the highlights in this summary.)

Only four percent of students who attended the program used public benefits for 10 percent or longer during the last seven years, while 20 percent of those in the control group fell into that category, according to the summary released by the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which leads the Abecedarian Project.

“I believe that the pattern of results over the first 30 years of life provides a clearer than ever scientific understanding of how early childhood education can be an important contributor to academic achievement and social competence in adulthood,” Craig Ramey, a co-author of the study and a professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, said in the summary. “The next major challenge is to provide high quality early childhood education to all the children who need it and who can benefit from it.”

Last summer, another study found that “Students in Top Early Ed Program More Likely to Graduate, Less Likely to Land in Jail.” 

In one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind, researchers followed 1,400 students – 957 from the well-regarded Child-Parent Center Education Program and 529 from a control group. A quarter of a century after enrolling in the center, 28 percent fewer had been incarcerated and 22 percent fewer had been arrested for a felony, compared to the control group, the study found.

-- 6/9/11. Birth to Thrive Online.

Storms continue to hit Seattle – snow is now turning to rain – but developments in early education continue around the country.

In Congress, House Education Committee Chairman Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., introduced the final two pieces of his plan to revise the No Child Left Behind Act, which governs federal K-12 policy, and there was not a lot for early learning, Early Ed Watch reports.

Early education does not get the same boost it did in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee’s ESEA bill (and we’d argue that even there, early ed still isn’t given enough due). In fact, early education (birth – pre-K) is barely mentioned at all in the House bills and when it is, it’s to simply maintain what was in place. As far as we can tell neither bill adds any new references to early education.

-- “House Bill for ESEA Includes Glaring Omissions on Early Ed Too.” 1/13/11.

Why does a K-12 bill matter to early education? The effort to rewrite No Child Left Behind is one of the best opportunities to improve early learning, as researchers, advocates and policymakers increasingly understand the connections between the first five years of life and the next 16.

Even though Early Ed Watch says this education reform effort is unlikely to go anywhere in a presidential election year, ideas matter. If a connection to early education is to be part of an eventual reform of No Child Left Behind, it should be consistently part of proposals and debates now.

Check out Early Ed’s story for a good overview of what the new K-12 bills would do.
    
Quick Media Hits

Pre-K and the Race to the Top: Sara Mead writes about how the “Early Learning Challenge is NOT About Pre-K” on her Education Week blog.

…Having a high percentage of students in state pre-k didn't translate to high ELC scores. That's not really surprising: Like I said, ELC is about systems-building and childcare quality more than pre-k, and there weren't very many places where having a lot of kids in pre-k could translate into additional points.

-- Sara Mead’s Policy Notebook, 1/18/12.

Thoughts on Washington’s Race to the Top: You can listen to one of the nation’s leading experts on early learning talk about Washington state’s new Race to the Top Early Learning grant on NPR, “Will $60 Million For Early Learning Help Close The Achievement Gap?”

It’s a snow day in Seattle. As the region digs out from the big storm, it’s a good time to check out what is happening in early learning here and around the country.

In Washington, legislators are pushing to phase in universal preschool and pre-kindergarten, the League of Education Voters reports on its blog.

We briefly wrote about this effort earlier this month, but LEV’s story has a lot more detail, including:

• States the legislature’s intent to concurrently phase-in high-quality preschool readiness programs (targeted birth to three and high-quality child care programs).
• Until implementation is complete, the DEL must implement guidelines for prioritizing eligible children.
• Phases in the requirement for lead teachers to have a bachelor’s degree, or equivalent competencies.
• Limits class-size to 18 children per class.
• Limits the teacher: child ratio to 1:9.
  

-- “Bill introduced to prioritize early learning.” 1/18/12.

Help for Parents on the Night Shift: In other good news, there are signs that parents working night shifts and other non-traditional work hours have an easier time finding child care, the National Women’s Law Center reports today. It is still hard to find child care outside of 9-to-5 schedules, however, and the story has proposals to make the system better.

Policies should be flexible enough to allow parents to hold onto a slot in a child care program even if their hours vary from week to week, and to maintain their eligibility for child care assistance without having to constantly report on weekly changes in their work hours. 

-- “Child Care for Parents Working 9 (at Night) to 5 (in the Morning).” Blog, 1/18/12.

Check out the other ideas and the rest of the story.

Child Care Cuts: Unfortunately, there are signs states continue to cut back support for high quality child care:

• “Child Care Cuts Continue in 2012." National Women’s Law Center Blog, 1/17/12.
• “Growth in prekindergarten slowed in recession.” Associated Press via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1/17/12.

(Thanks to the National Institute for Early Education Research for finding the story.)

Good luck with whatever winter weather you have.