The ideas of PreK-3rd are becoming bigger parts of early learning plans in Seattle and Washington state, and a report released today explores both the potential and challenges of this national movement to better integrate pre-kindergarten and K-3.

The Hechinger Report story covers the PreK-3rd movement’s goal “to revolutionize early education.” It also reports on promising work happening at The New School Foundation, which helped to build a PreK-3rd model at South Shore School in the Rainier Beach neighborhood of Seattle.

One of the challenges is that there isn’t enough evidence to support PreK-3rd strategies, author Sarah Garland writes.

…Critics and advocates alike have acknowledged that evidence supporting the collective reforms is scarce. The few schools and districts that have implemented parts or all of the PreK-3 agenda have shown mixed results so far.

“There are a lot of reasons why it should work, and why it would work,” said Robert Pianta, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. “We just haven’t been able to pin the model down in a way to evaluate to say that it’s proven effective in improving achievement.” – PreK-3 movement trying to overhaul early education, but faces obstacles. Hechinger Report. 6/7/11.

This is the nature of a movement that’s less than ten years old. The effectiveness of a PreK-3rd program will be measured, in part, by high school graduation rates and college attendance. The first group of students to enroll in the South Shore’s program has not even started high school.

There is other evidence not in the story. The Bremerton School District, for example, was one of the first in Washington to develop a PreK-3rd strategy, and its plan produced quick and dramatic results. The percentage of kindergarten students requiring specialized services dropped to 2 percent from 12 percent, while the percentage of first grade students able to read at their grade level has jumped to 73 percent from 52 percent, according to Public School Insights.

The movement, however, is running into other hurdles, such as lack of funding from the federal and state governments, Garland reports.  The New School Foundation’s executive director, Laura Kohn, said budget problems will not stall efforts. 

“The concerns voiced in the article about lack of funding being a barrier to realization of PreK-3rd are only partly valid:  it’s true that it will require additional funding to expand access to quality PreK and full-day Kindergarten, but we can make enormous strides immediately on quality improvements across the continuum, aligned testing and data-sharing, increased family engagement, and curriculum connections.  Seattle (has) begun to make these changes and has committed to completing them in the next eighteen months, and other Washington districts are making these changes as well,” Kohn wrote in an email. 

Today’s story is particularly relevant to Washington educators and families as PreK-3rd gains bigger roles in both local school districts and as a statewide strategy. It’s a good story and well worth checking out.