The U.S. Department of Education took another step to build a better early education system Friday when it announced a proposal to create a new office to coordinate early learning work within the agency and run the Race to the Top early learning grants.

What would the Office of Early Learning really mean?

Creating a new office or agency doesn’t always lead to big changes, particularly when there is little new public money. But, the decision signals that the Obama administration is trying to make good on its promises to improve early learning.

“For too long, federal programs and funding streams for early learning have functioned in isolation, lacking strong, coordinated collaboration across agencies and even within our own Department. Establishing a dedicated office underscores a critical step in progressing the national dialogue about improving outcomes for young children. It will institutionalize, increase, and coordinate federal support for high-quality early learning, manage outreach to the early learning community and enhance support for building high-performing early education systems in states across the country. -- “A National Commitment to High-Quality Early Learning.” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Huffington Post, 11/5/11. 

It is too early to know what this new office could mean to child care, preschool and pre-kindergarten around the country.  But, analysts are already asking good questions, including Early Ed Watch, which reports today that this proposal could signal the administration’s commitment to PreK-3rd, the effort to align early learning and the first four grades of elementary school. Check out the story, “Kudos and Qu’s on New Federal Office for Early Learning.”

Students Are Not Ready for Kindergarten: Two-thirds of kindergarten teachers said students are not academically ready when they start school, according to a new survey.

The survey found 66 percent of teachers said, on average, students “were only somewhat or not at all prepared, and only 6 percent felt that students were very well prepared academically.” Surveyed teachers said their students were weakest in “the alphabet and phonics, with two-thirds of teachers reporting that the majority of children do not know their alphabet when they enter kindergarten.”

The survey involved more than 500 kindergarten teachers and was released by Age of Learning, a California-based early learning educational curriculum company.