Early Ed Watch

A Blog from New America's Early Education Initiative

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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?

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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.

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A PreK-3rd Spotlight on Union City, NJ

  • By
  • Lisa Guernsey
February 11, 2013
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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.

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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.

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White House Seeks to Avoid Across-the-Board Spending Cuts: What You Need to Know

  • By
  • Clare McCann
February 5, 2013

President Obama called an afternoon press conference today to request that Congress circumvent the across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration scheduled for March 1. Instead of allowing the cuts to take effect, he said, Congress should head them off with a package that cuts spending and closes tax loopholes.

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State of the Union: #16Words to Spark an Education Revolution

  • By
  • Lindsey Tepe
February 5, 2013
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“The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” – George W. Bush, 2003 State of the Union Address
 
A single statement is sometimes all that is necessary to signal a significant shift in policy. Presidents throughout history have used the State of the Union to set their agenda, indicating issues and initiatives that will take priority in the year to come.
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Harkin Retirement Could Have Big Impact on Education

  • By
  • Clare McCann
February 4, 2013
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A ripple ran through the education world last week when Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, announced he would not run for reelection in 2014. Given his seniority and committee assignments, Harkin is one of the most powerful education lawmakers in Congress. What’s more, his retirement comes as a surprise, since he had amassed more than $2.7 million in his campaign war chest.

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Media, Language Development and Cascading Effects

January 31, 2013
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Until I became immersed in research on child development, I thought learning to read was a project confined to the years of kindergarten, first and second grade. But as countless studies have shown, preparing the brain to read starts long before a child has formal reading instruction. No wonder, then, that our country is full of campaigns to encourage parents to read books with their toddlers. No wonder parents today are told to engage their kids in back-and-forth conversations about pictures on the page. 

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Education Ranking Systems Are Based on Varying Measures of Success

  • By
  • Laura Bornfreund
January 28, 2013

Three organizations recently released new education rankings of states. Education Week’s Quality Counts is a comprehensive analysis of states’ education policies and student outcomes, conducted by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center.

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Final Webinar in PreK-3rd Series: Policies for Scaling Up Reforms

  • By
  • Lisa Guernsey
January 28, 2013
Part of PreK-3rd Grade National Work Group Logo

For nearly a year, the PreK-3rd Grade National Work Group has hosted free webinars on how to reduce the achievement gap by focusing on children’s early years: pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, first, second and third grades. The last of these webinars, Scale and Sustainability: Implications for State and District Policy, will be held this Wednesday, Jan. 30, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. EST.

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