Early Ed Watch

A Blog from New America's Early Education Initiative

< Back to the Education Policy Program
Early Ed Watch
Ed Money Watch
Higher Ed Watch
Ed Data

Don’t Forget Full-Day Kindergarten

  • By
  • Laura Bornfreund
February 21, 2013

An under-examined aspect of President Obama’s new early childhood education plan is his proposal to encourage states to create more full-day kindergarten seats – though only after states are able to guarantee access to pre-K for all 4-year olds from low and moderate-income families.

Issues:

Federal Report Finds Educational Inequities, Pushes for Access to Early Learning

  • By
  • Clare McCann
February 20, 2013
Publication Image

The Equity and Excellence Commission, a board established by Congress in 2010 to study school finance issues, released its final report this week, For Each and Every Child.

Issues:

Georgia and Oklahoma Show What’s Possible in Pre-K – and Where Challenges Lie

  • By
  • Kristin Blagg
  • Lindsey Tepe
February 14, 2013
Early education advocates have been clamoring for details since Tuesday evening, when President Obama used his State of the Union to propose the goal of universal preschool for four-year olds.
Issues:

New Details: Obama’s Pre-K Proposal Stresses Birth through Five Continuum, Presents Political Challenges

  • By
  • Lisa Guernsey
  • Clare McCann
  • Laura Bornfreund
  • Anne Hyslop
February 14, 2013

In President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday, he called on Congress to expand high-quality early learning opportunities to low- and moderate-income children. Today, with the release of a White House document and a speech at a Decatur, Ga. pre-K center, Obama sketched more of the plan’s details.

Issues:

State of the Union Calls for Greater Access to Pre-K, Provides Few Details

  • By
  • Clare McCann
February 13, 2013
Publication Image

In a wide-ranging State of the Union address delivered to the full House and Senate last night, President Obama earned a long applause when he called for a new initiative to “work with states” to expand high-quality preschool to every American child.

Issues:

Question 2 on Obama’s Pre-K Plan: How Will Quality Be Defined?

  • By
  • Lisa Guernsey
February 13, 2013

Every word matters in a State of the Union address, and the words “high-quality” in President Obama’s preschool proposal are no exception. To arrive at the $7 returned on every dollar spent on pre-K – the figure Obama used in his speech last night* -- states and the federal government would need to offer preschool programs that are good enough to make a real, lasting difference for young children. 

Issues:

Question 1 on Obama’s Pre-K Plan: How Will It Be Financed?

  • By
  • Alex Holt
February 13, 2013

President Obama’s State of the Union call to expand access to pre-K for low and middle-income four-year olds leaves the early childhood world excited, but with many questions. The biggest: How does the president plan on funding this ambitious proposal? What might he be able to do using just the executive branch, and what would require cooperation from an often-recalcitrant Congress?

Issues:

Our Official Comments on Federal Data Collection on Pre-K

  • By
  • Alex Holt
February 12, 2013

Last week we alerted our readers to a call from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a division of the U.S. Department of Education, for comments on their proposal to collect data for the annual State of Preschool Survey. The National Institute for Early Education Research has administered this data collection, which they have used in their invaluable pre-K “yearbooks,” since 2003.

Issues:

A PreK-3rd Spotlight on Union City, NJ

  • By
  • Lisa Guernsey
February 11, 2013
Publication Image

In education policy, where so much of the focus is on how much is wrong with today’s schools, it’s refreshing to see examples of something going right. In an op-ed yesterday in the New York Times, David Kirp writes about what he found after spending a year in Union City, N.J., where children are achieving at a very high rate despite coming from poverty and living in families where English is a second language.

Issues:

Ideas Requested on Gov’t Proposal to Start Collecting Data on Pre-K

  • By
  • Alex Holt
February 6, 2013

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a division of the U.S. Department of Education, is proposing to collect data for the annual State of Preschool Survey, which for the last nine years has been administered by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER).  Public comments on this proposal are due February 12.

Issues:
Syndicate content