Early Ed Watch

A Blog from New America's Early Education Initiative

Teaching America's New Majority, in Today's Washington Post

  • By
  • Maggie Severns
June 1, 2012

A couple weeks ago, the Census bureau announced that minority babies made up the majority of births in the United States in 2011. I wrote an opinion piece for today's Washington Post about why this symbolic shift should be a wake-up call for the public school system: Student demographics are changing, but policies revolving around how we instruct Engilsh language learners have yet to catch up.

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Children and Media: Saying ‘We Just Don’t Know’ Isn’t Quite Right

  • By
  • Lisa Guernsey
May 31, 2012

Last week, the Diane Rehm Show featured a segment on how touch-screen devices – and any other interactive, screen-based media – affect young children. I had the good fortune to be one of the guests, and the recurring theme was that we just don’t have enough research to make broad statements about what is good or bad for kids.

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Podcast: Improving the Quality of Early Child Care

  • By
  • Clare McCann
May 29, 2012
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According to the Department of Health and Human Services, 1.7 million American children receive federal child care subsidies. But poverty-level wages for child care workers, varied state standards across the country and a lack of accountability for many programs mean parents and policymakers are left in the dark about where those funds go and how well children are being cared for.

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Eyes on 2012: Romney Introduces Education Agenda, Says Little About Early Ed

  • By
  • Maggie Severns
May 24, 2012

In a speech yesterday to the Latino Coalition’s Annual Economic Summit in Washington, D.C., Mitt Romney outlined his K-12 education platform, which includes expanding school choice, offering parents more access to information on school performance, and consolidating federal teacher quality programs into block grants to states. Though Latino voters have demonstrated strong support for pre-K programs, Romney did not discuss early education in either his speech or in an education policy white paper released by his campaign.

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How Will Early Ed Fit Into New District-Level Race to the Top?

  • By
  • Lisa Guernsey
May 22, 2012

If school districts want to win between $15 million and $25 million in the next Race to the Top competition, they will have to focus on personalized learning, according to draft guidelines released by the U.S. Department of Education today. They will also need to come up with a way to link student performance to the evaluation of teachers and school leaders, such as principals.

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Recent Budget Bill Provides Glimpse of House’s Early Ed Priorities

  • By
  • Clare McCann
May 21, 2012

In a vote earlier this month, the House of Representatives passed a budget bill, 218-199, that provides a look at how, and if, Congressional Republicans would fund early education programs.  

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HHS Releases Second List of Chances to Vie for Head Start Grants

  • By
  • Maggie Severns
May 16, 2012

Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) posted the remaining 97 funding opportunities for community-based organizations, city agencies and school districts that wish to compete with current Head Start providers for Head Start funds. The new grant-making process, known as recompetition, aims to move funds away from Head Start and Early Head Start providers that were found to be deficient during recent government audits and redirect grants to new providers that appear to meet higher standards.

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How the Common Core Standards Could Help Restore the Curriculum

  • By
  • Laura Bornfreund
May 14, 2012

More than 80 percent of elementary school teachers, grades 3 through 5, report that they are spending more learning time on math or language arts at the expense of other subjects. This is one of the most disconcerting findings from a recent survey of 1,000 3rd through 12th grade public school teachers commissioned by Common Core, a DC-based non-profit that promotes content-rich curricula and instruction.

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Podcast: Turning Around Elementary Schools

  • By
  • Maggie Severns
May 14, 2012
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Two years ago, the federal government began distributing $3 billion in stimulus funds to some of the nation's lowest performing schools through the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program. With SIG funds, states are expected to rapidly transform schools according to program guidelines put out by the Department of Education.

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Cities Focus on the PreK-3rd Continuum

  • By
  • Laura Bornfreund
May 10, 2012

This week the National League of Cities (NLC) released a set of case studies on five cities that are trying to create a seamless educational pipeline for children from birth through third grade: Boston, Hartford, San Antonio, San José and Seattle. The preK-3rd efforts in these cities are led by mayors in partnership with local school districts and community-based organizations.

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