It is a busy time for news in the early learning world. Let’s get to the developments:

A new report found U.S. states have made progress in oversight and regulation of child care centers, but that there is still plenty of work left.

The analysis ranked states and the Defense Department on 15 benchmarks and Washington state earned the eighth spot among the top ten for total score on child care center program requirements and oversight.

The Defense Department ranked number 1. Other states in the top ten from second to tenth were:  Oklahoma; District of Columbia; Illinois; Missouri; Massachusetts; Florida; New York; Washington; Rhode Island; and Tennessee, according to the report from the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. Washington also ranked fifth for child care oversight.

Among the lowest states, Alaska received the worst overall ranking, followed by Colorado, Alabama; Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, California, Louisiana, and Idaho.

Despite progress that states made since 2007, the report also highlighted areas that needed improvement.

Progress in particular has been made in online posting of inspections, frequency of inspections, minimum education requirements for caregivers, background checks against FBI records, and health and safety. – “We Can Do Better, 2011 Update: NACCRRA’s Ranking of State Child Care Center Regulations and Oversight.”  The child care workforce is comprised of many individuals who have a relatively low level of education. State training requirements should be stronger.

It is unclear whether child care centers comply with licensing requirements without regular inspections to check for compliance. Many states need to inspect child care centers more frequently.

Check out the executive summary and the report.

Less Teaching in Preschool? A debate is brewing over a new Slate article that suggests “New research shows that teaching kids more and more, at ever-younger ages, may backfire.”

Leading baby and early childhood researcher Alison Gopnik writes about the importance of exploration and play in preschool, an idea that appears to run counter to the push for more curriculum in early learning.

While learning from a teacher may help children get to a specific answer more quickly, it also makes them less likely to discover new information about a problem and to create a new and unexpected solution. – “Why Preschool Shouldn't Be Like School.” Slate, 3/16/11. Knowing this, it's more important than ever to give children's remarkable, spontaneous learning abilities free rein. That means a rich, stable, and safe world, with affectionate and supportive grown-ups, and lots of opportunities for exploration and play. Not school for babies.

Read Gopnik’s article carefully, however, because she calls for a balance. Also check out Sara Mead’s excellent take on the article and possible lessons: “Stop Teaching Preschoolers? Not So Fast.”

Does this mean, folks are asking, that all this pre-k stuff you keep talking about could actually be hurting kids? Mead writes on her Education Week blog. These findings will probably not surprise most people who are involved in conversations about preschool quality – because they reflect what research already tells us about how good preschool teachers interact with kids.

(By the way, if you are not reading Sara Mead’s blog, you should. She is one of the sharpest writers/analysts on early learning.)

Support for Play: Finally, The Chronicle of Higher Education has an excellent overview of the debate over play and education in “The Case for Play: How a handful of researchers are trying to save childhood.”

The article does a great job exploring the arguments for play-based teaching, and those critical of those ideas.

The message is this: The emphasis on standardized testing, on attempting to constantly monitor, measure, and quantify what students learn, has forced teachers to spend more of the school day engaged in so-called direct instruction and has substantially reduced or eliminated opportunities that children have for exploring, interacting, and learning on their own. Recess has, in many districts, vanished from the schedule entirely. After school, parents shuttle their kids from activity to activity, depriving them of unstructured time alone or with friends. – “The Case for Play” 2/20/11.

One of the more interesting parts of the story is the call for more research. Check it out.