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[What Roles Should Schools Play?] School Involvement in Early Childhood, July 2000
A publicly funded K-12 education is considered a basic entitlement for all children in the United States, but the public education system does not extend to most preschool children. There is a growing trend, however, toward public funding for prekindergarten classes. Meeting participants discussed this trend and identified several reasons: the blurry line between preschool care and education, schools' vested interest in school readiness, universal availability of neighborhood elementary schools, universal access to public schools, and an increased understanding that preschool care and education programs can help each other.
Family structures and lifestyles have changed, and most parents share responsibility for their children's preschool care and education with a variety of programs. Almost 65 percent of mothers with preschool children are in the labor force.9 The 1996 welfare reform law requires parents who receive public cash assistance--usually single mothers--to begin working within two years.
In 1995, 59 percent of all preschool-aged children were in preschool care and education programs on a regular basis, including 67 percent of three-year-olds and 77 percent of four-year-olds.10 A recent U.S. Department of Education study found that 80 percent of all children beginning kindergarten in the fall of 1998 had been in child care on a regular basis, and about half continued to be in child care before or after school.11
Research, including two recent longitudinal studies supported by the U.S. Department of Education, documents the impact of preschool care and education on children's school success. The studies demonstrate that high-quality child care is also education that helps preschool children develop emotionally, socially, and cognitively.
The Cost, Quality, and Outcomes study followed approximately 400 children from the time they were three years old in child care centers through second grade. The children who had been in high-quality care demonstrated greater school readiness and success through second grade than children who had been in low-quality care, even after controlling for family differences. The impact was strongest for children whose mothers had not completed high school, compared with children whose mothers had a college education.12
The Abecedarian Project randomly assigned infants in very low-income families to a high-quality early care and education program and has followed them and the control group to age 21. Young adults who had been in the high-quality Abecedarian program have consistently outperformed the control group on cognitive tests and on math and reading achievement tests, and at age 21, more of them were in college or in jobs that required high skill levels.13
Unfortunately, most children are not in high-quality preschool care and education programs that promote their learning and development. The Cost, Quality, and Outcomes study of 400 child care centers in 4 states found that 74 percent of the centers were mediocre in quality--meeting children's minimal health and safety needs but not promoting their development and learning. The study determined that only 14 percent of centers were good quality, while 12 percent were not even safe or healthy for young children.14 A similar study of child care homes in three states found that 56 percent of homes were mediocre, only 9 percent were characterized by qualities that promote learning, and 35 percent were characterized by qualities that harm children's development and learning.15
Some states are trying to improve the quality of preschool care and education as a strategy to help children in low-performing school districts meet state standards.
| The Connecticut Department of Education provides $1,930,000 in quality enhancement grants to its 16 priority school districts to improve preschool care and education, support networks of child care homes, and improve support to parents. |
Most state prekindergarten initiatives acknowledge the close link between preschool care and education. Thirty-three states with prekindergarten programs fund classrooms in Head Start, child care centers, and other community facilities, as well as in public schools.16
| Georgia uses state lottery funds to offer voluntary prekindergarten for all four-year-olds. Initiated in 1993, the program currently enrolls 61,000 children in schools, Head Start, and child care centers. In an ongoing 12-year study of children's outcomes, kindergarten teachers rated 64 percent of the former prekindergartners as above average in readiness for kindergarten, and at the end of the year, rated 68 percent of them as above average in readiness for first grade.17 The program received a 1997 Innovation in Government award from the Ford Foundation and Harvard University. |
Ongoing neuroscience research further blurs the line between early care and education. Brain development occurs most rapidly during the first 3 years of life, when it is critically important for children to be held, cuddled, and talked to. The brain continues developing rapidly until age 8 or 10 when it slows down, suggesting that children's first years are the most crucial for shaping their capacity to learn.18
| Building on a $12 million prekindergarten initiative launched in 1986, the Illinois General Assembly appropriated $169.6 million for the 1999-2000 Early Childhood Block Grant. The block grant includes the Prekindergarten Program for Children At Risk of Academic Failure, the Prevention Initiative Program for birth to three-year-olds, and the Parent Training Initiative for parents with children from birth to five years old. North Carolina initiated Smart Start in 1993, and the program has grown from 18 counties to all 100 counties, with $150 million in state funds. The county-based program is designed to improve school readiness primarily by subsidizing child care costs and improving child care quality. A six-county evaluation found that Smart Start assistance that focused directly on improving child care classroom quality improved children's skills and behavior in kindergarten. Only 9 percent of children from centers that received this direct assistance had low cognitive skills, and only 10 percent had behavior problems, compared with 17 and 18 percent, respectively, of their peers.19 The program received a 1998 Innovation in Government award from the Ford Foundation and Harvard University. |
Studies have also shown that participation in Head Start and other preschool intervention programs decreases later grade retention and special education services.20 The Rand Corporation recently analyzed evaluation results of nine early childhood intervention programs and concluded that carefully designed and targeted early childhood programs benefit both children and taxpayers.21
The National Research Council, the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement, and the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development have warned that children who cannot read independently by third grade are unlikely to be successful in school. This is the first priority of the U.S. Department of Education, which supported an extensive research synthesis that documented the importance of young children "starting school motivated to read and with the prerequisite language and early literacy skills."22
However, children's early learning opportunities vary greatly. The Department's study of children who began kindergarten in the fall of 1998 provided national data for the first time about differences in school readiness. Children's literacy and math skills, as well as their general knowledge, were significantly related to maternal education, number of parents in the home, primary language, race or ethnicity, and their age at kindergarten entry. The study also found significant differences in children's social skills, physical health, and approaches to learning.23
The National Research Council highlighted the need for high-quality preschool environments that promote skills that predict later reading achievement. Some states and schools are putting the research into practice.
| In 1997, Mississippi began its Every Child a Reader initiative. Their "Getting Ready for Kindergarten" materials provide parents with tools for introducing children to print and phonemic awareness. Videotapes demonstrate how to read to children, even if the parents are non-readers. The state provides the materials to school districts and preschool care and education programs for every parent with a four- or five-year old child. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina invest most of their Title I funds in Bright Beginnings, a literacy-based program designed to provide the foundation for early literacy development. The program began in 1997, linked to the district's goal that 85 percent of third-graders will read at or above grade level by 2001. It serves almost 2,000 four-year-olds--who demonstrate the highest level of educational need--in 13 schools, 2 Head Start centers, and a church-based child care center. The Kentucky Early Literacy Initiative is working to ensure all children are able to read at the proficient level on the Kentucky Core Content Test at the end of fourth grade. The initiative encourages preschool care and education programs to promote early literacy and provides professional development to help preschool and primary teachers master effective research-based reading strategies. |
High-quality preschool increases low-income children's IQ scores throughout the first few years of school. Dr. Doris Entwisle, a professor in the Department of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University, thinks that this advantage may be underestimated. She believes that even short-term IQ gains may lay a foundation for success by boosting children's performance "during the critical transition into school." Dr. Entwisle points out that higher ability during early schooling can protect children from being placed in lower-ability groups and retained in grade, raising expectations from parents and teachers.24
Some states and school districts are improving school readiness and increasing children's chances of succeeding in school, often offering prekindergarten as an essential element of school reform.
| The Michigan School Readiness Program, initiated as a pilot program in 1985, is serving over 23,000 children, who are at risk of school failure, in 1999-2000. An ongoing program evaluation found that the children entered kindergarten with significantly higher scores, including language and literacy, than similar children who had not attended the program. The children have continued a higher level of success than their peers through second grade, with significant differences in grade retention, interest in school, and physical ability.25 Kentucky offers prekindergarten to four-year-olds who are eligible for free school lunches, 46 percent of all four-year-olds in the state. The University of Kentucky found that prekindergarten participants at ages seven and eight did as well as their peers who were not eligible for free school lunches.26 Texas has the largest prekindergarten program in the country. The state has required school districts since 1984 to offer prekindergarten if they have at least 15 four-year-olds who are unable to speak or understand English, are eligible for free or reduced lunches, or are homeless. Missouri offers the Parents as Teachers home-visiting program in every school district. In 1998, they assessed 3,500 beginning kindergartners in 80 schools on 7 dimensions of school readiness. The highest performing children had participated in Parents as Teachers and in preschool care and education programs, with children in high-poverty school districts scoring above average. Among children whose preschool care and education was in child care homes, or who had not been in a program, those who had been in Parents as Teachers scored significantly higher than children who had not. In addition, teachers rated special-needs children who had participated in Parents as Teachers, preschool care and education, and early childhood special education programs as similar to average children.27 |
Many policymakers are paying attention to the first national education goal that all children will begin school ready to learn, but policy lags well behind research findings on the impacts of preschool care and education. Only 2 percent of Title I funds are spent on prekindergarten,28 and state investments also remain low, compared to investments in school-age children. For example, North Carolina spends about $350 annually on each preschooler through its Smart Start school readiness initiative, compared with more than $5,000 per year on school children.29 Some education leaders, however, are urging greater investments in prekindergarten.
| "Formal education that begins at age five is TOO LATE...While our state continues to spend more and more money correcting problems that occur later in children's lives through remediation, special education, alternative schools, and the criminal justice system, we ignore the front end of their lives, where it could truly make a difference....preschool will make more of a difference than anything else we can do to improve the lives of our children and our state."30 Cecil J. Picard, Louisiana Superintendent of Education "Poor children begin school academically behind their non-poor peers, and schools have traditionally been unable to close that gap as they progress through school...When we know that early intervention may eliminate the need for remediation later, why aren't we investing more of our resources on high quality preschool education programs? What are we waiting for?"31 Mary Jean LeTendre, Director, Compensatory Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education |
Elementary schools are central neighborhood institutions, but preschool care and education programs are not readily available, affordable, and accessible in many neighborhoods. The U.S. General Accounting Office cites obstacles of affordability for low-income families and transportation for rural and urban families.32 Head Start serves only an estimated 27 percent of three-year-olds and 48 percent of four-year-olds whose families have incomes below the federal poverty level.33 Similarly, the Child Care and Development Block Grant is enough to subsidize child care costs for only 10 percent of eligible families with incomes below 85 percent of their state's average income.34
The inadequate availability of preschool care and education led Dr. Ed Zigler, a Head Start founder and advisor, to initiate The School of the 21st Century, a school reform model based on family support. Schools of the 21st Century include full-day, full-year preschool and school-age programs. In addition, there are other supports to parents and to child care programs with infants and toddlers.
| The Independence, Missouri School District became the nation's first School of the 21st Century in 1988. The district provides child care for three- and four-year-olds and before- and after-school care for school-aged children in every elementary school. It operates Head Start and Full Start, a program initiated in Kansas City to blend Head Start and child care. Independence schools also administer Medicaid and case management and offer child development training to families and child care providers. |
Dr. Zigler sees elementary schools as universal neighborhood institutions that can help all families find and afford high-quality child care, and many other education leaders agree. There are now over 500 Schools of the 21st century in 17 states, and the U.S. Department of Education is supporting an evaluation of this school reform approach.
| Connecticut based its statewide network of 60 family resource centers, a $6 million initiative, on the School of the 21st Century concept. Kentucky's education reform includes a network of 638 family resource/youth services centers, funded at $43 million and located at or near public schools. The family resource centers in both states offer parent education and support, preschool and school-age child care, child care provider training, and youth development activities. In addition, they link child care programs with community school readiness programs. |
Neighborhood schools play a key role in our society, and most parents like their children's schools. National Public Radio, the Kaiser Foundation, and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government sponsored a nationwide telephone survey between June 25 and July 19, 1999. Seventy-one percent of parents surveyed gave their children's schools a grade of A or B.35
Many families with children in school also have preschool children, leading some schools to evolve into educational homes and resource centers for families. Including prekindergarten in elementary schools, systematically coordinating preschools and elementary schools, and welcoming young children and families into schools can provide continuity and ease the critical transition to school.
| Minnesota has been offering its statewide Early Childhood Family Education program--currently funded at $39 million with state and local taxes--through the public schools for 25 years. All families with children from birth to kindergarten are eligible, and about 42 percent of them participate--approximately 300,000 parents and children. The program offers parent discussions and education, parent-child activities, early learning activities, early health and developmental screening, lending libraries, community resource information, and home visits. Parents in the program report feeling more supported and confident, with a better understanding of child development and improved parenting skills.36
The Toronto School District in Ontario, Canada--where 50 percent of families do not speak English at home--welcomes all young children and their families and helps ease the transition to school. In 1981, the school board initiated parent centers in elementary schools. Now 34 schools have centers that serve 7,000 families who participate in preschool programs with their young children. The schools are used day and night to serve families and people throughout the neighborhoods. |
Public schools educate all school-aged children, regardless of family income and ability to buy services elsewhere. This tradition can help young children and their families who may not have access to other preschool care and education programs. The federal Head Start program is limited to children whose family incomes are below the federal poverty level, and it is not funded to serve all eligible children. Most private preschool care and education programs depend on tuition, limiting themselves to children and families who can afford the fees.
| In 1998, Oklahoma began paying for all four-year-olds in public school prekindergarten, a policy that doubled the number of prekindergarten students to 16,000. |
Families are enrolling their children in preschool care and education in record numbers, but the numbers remain unequal. In 1996, 71 percent of children whose mothers had completed college attended preschool care and education centers, compared with only 37 percent of children whose mothers had less than a high school education. Only 37 percent of Hispanic children attended preschool care and education centers, compared to 54 percent of white children and 63 percent of African-American children.37
| In 1996, New Jersey established Early Childhood Program Aid in response to a school finance equity lawsuit in the State Supreme Court. The program pays for prekindergarten for all three- and four-year olds in the state's 28 poorest school districts and offers funds to 108 other districts. The U.S. Department of Education is supporting an evaluation of the program. |
There is strong and ongoing evidence that inequities in preschool opportunities contribute to the achievement gap for students at risk of school failure. Dr. W. Steven Barnett, a professor at Rutger University's Graduate School of Education, reviewed 36 studies of model demonstration projects and large-scale public programs. He carefully examined long-term effects of preschool care and education on children in low-income families. Dr. Barnett concluded that there are "sizeable persistent effects on achievement, grade retention, special education, high school graduation, and socialization. In particular, the evidence for effects on grade retention and special education is overwhelming."38
By joining forces, schools, Head Start, and child care programs can replace the "nonsystem of early care and education to which some 13 million American children are entrusted each day."39 Public schools, Head Start, and child care programs can work together on neighborhood needs assessments, planning, and financing strategies to expand preschool care and education to children who have been unable to participate in Head Start and child care in the past.
| Connecticut distributes $39,000,000 in school readiness funds to its 16 priority school districts and 25 severe need schools, serving 6,352 preschoolers in public schools, Head Start, and child care programs. Community School Readiness Councils--community partnerships between chief elected officials and school superintendents-- coordinate the development of a range of preschool care and education for all children and provide local control of school readiness funds. Florida legislation passed in 1999 requires all counties to form coalitions that include school superintendents and other community and private sector leaders to support early childhood education. The county coalitions are responsible for all state health and education funds for children from prenatal through age five. |
Public education has an infrastructure of state-certified teachers, ongoing professional development, and professional salaries. While salaries are low compared with other professions, public school teachers have higher education and salaries than Head Start teachers, who have higher education and salaries than child care teachers. Child care teachers--with an average annual salary of $14,250--are paid less than maids, waiters, and cashiers, making child care personnel the second worst paid group in the country, after dishwashers.40
Linking Head Start and child care with public schools can communicate that children in preschool care and education need well-trained teachers with equitable salaries, bringing to life research findings that better educated preschool teachers contribute to children's success in school.41
| In 1996-97, 97 percent of lead prekindergarten teachers in Georgia's public schools had state certification in an early childhood field, compared to only 65 percent of lead prekindergarten teachers in Head Start and child care centers. Prekindergarten teachers in Head Start and child care reported more concerns about salaries and working conditions than prekindergarten teachers in public schools.42 In addition, parents with prekindergarten children in public schools reported higher levels of satisfaction and were more likely to attend special programming or to believe their interactions with their children had changed as a result of the program. The Georgia Office of School Readiness changed the requirements for prekindergarten. By 2000-01, all programs will pay minimum teacher salaries based on credentials, and by 2001-02, all lead teachers will have at least a 2-year degree.43 |
Public schools have public resources to meet the needs of children and families, and they have demonstrated the will and ability to provide high quality preschool education.44
| The Georgia Office of School Readiness requires prekindergarten administrators, teachers, and other staff to attend annual training where teachers receive training in early childhood education curriculum and best practices. Classroom observations and teacher interviews indicate that the vast majority of prekindergarten teachers consistently use developmentally appropriate practice.45 |
Including preschool care and education teachers in the public education infrastructure can increase their access to colleges and universities for teacher certification, professional development, and technical assistance. Innovations in teacher preparation and development--such as professional development schools and other ongoing partnerships between higher education institutions and local schools--can include child care and Head Start teachers, as well as teachers in public schools.
| The Castleton United Methodist Nursery School, a full-day child care center in Indianapolis, partnered with Ball State University (BSU) to become the first preschool designated as a professional development school. Because the Castleton director and a preschool teacher have bachelor's degrees in early childhood, the two are qualified to serve as adjunct BSU staff who supervise BSU student teachers while they work and learn at Castleton. A BSU faculty member spends part of his time at Castleton, observing and assisting student teachers and child care staff. |
Head Start and child care programs have many training and professional development opportunities that can also help school personnel. Regional training and technical assistance providers, local child care resource and referral agencies, and colleges and universities conduct workshops in early childhood development topics that could benefit school personnel who do not have early childhood backgrounds.
Public schools typically operate only 6.5 hours a day, 5 days a week, 9 months a year, leaving most employed parents on their own to find child care during nonschool hours. Most Head Start and prekindergarten programs also operate for only part of the day.46 Child care programs, on the other hand, operate 10-12 hours a day, all year, and sometimes at night and on weekends to help parents with atypical work schedules, including the 25 percent of low-income mothers who work at night.47 Some states are blending child care and education to provide more comprehensive services to children and families.
| The Washington Partnership links Head Start, prekindergarten, and child care programs with state agencies implementing WorkFirst, Washington's welfare reform program. Local pilot projects signed a memorandum of understanding with a common goal of improving access to Head Start and prekindergarten for WorkFirst families. The Partnership is blending child care subsidies with Head Start and prekindergarten funding to provide full-day, full-year preschool care and education services. WorkFirst, Head Start, and prekindergarten representatives meet on a regular basis to provide updates about service delivery and to conduct cross-training to learn about each other's agency culture and services.48 |
Child care programs have a tradition of responding to working families' needs for extended hours of service, providing critical family support. Linking with child care programs can help schools offer extended hours for children who need safe, nurturing environments and additional learning opportunities beyond the traditional school day and year.
| The Connecticut Departments of Education and Social Services established the School Readiness and Child Day Care Program in 1997 by combining a part-day, part-year prekindergarten program with full-day, full-year child care. In 1999, the state doubled the program capacity from 3,000 to 6,000 children. |
Federal Head Start regulations require that local programs work with community resources to provide comprehensive educational, health, and family support services to Head Start children and their families. As a result, Head Start is a fully functioning family support program, based on the concept that serving the whole family is the best way to help children succeed. Head Start programs emphasize parent involvement, hire and train parents as Head Start employees, and are required to have Parent Policy Councils that establish local policies and oversee program activities.
Nearly 73 percent of Head Start families have annual incomes below $12,000, almost 36 percent are African-American, and more than 26 percent are Hispanic.49 Partnering with Head Start programs can help public schools build strong relationships with these families, whose children are typically at risk of school failure.
Head Start parents gave the program the highest customer satisfaction score, 87 on a scale between 0 and 100, of any federal agency on the 1999 American Customer Satisfaction Initiative for Federal Government.50 Long after their children have left Head Start, families continue to identify with the program, often remaining active members of the National Head Start Association, rallying community, state, and national support for Head Start.51
Many parents with children in public schools, on the other hand, may not have enough information to actively support their schools. The National Parents and Teachers Association conducted a nationwide survey of 800 parents with children in public schools in December 1998. Only 17 percent of parents with family incomes below $15,000, and 15 percent of parents with incomes below $25,000, reported that their children received Title I services.52
Parents in the survey cited "most parents don't know what is going on in school" as the number one problem in schools, with 53 percent reporting it as a problem and 24 percent reporting it as a serious problem in their own children's schools. Thirty-three percent said that their schools do not keep parents well informed.53
Perceptions were worse among African-American and low-income parents. Seventy-four percent of African-American parents believed that parents do not know what is going on in their children's schools, and 54 percent said that schools do not keep parents informed. Sixty-four percent of parents with family incomes below $25,000 believed that parents do not know what is going on in their children's schools, and 46 percent said that parents do not know what is going on in their children's schools.54
Similarly, only 25 percent of 1,075 parents who responded to a survey about California's statewide class size reduction initiative were aware of the initiative, including 21 percent of parents whose children were in the smaller classes. This study also found that low-income parents were less informed than other parents.55
Some schools faced with threats of violence may seem intimidating, with locked doors, metal detectors, and guards. Many parents do not speak English, have less education than school personnel, or come from countries where parents are not expected to participate in their children's education. While these parents may be encouraged to visit and get involved in Head Start classrooms, many may not feel welcome in schools.
Cornell University reviewed prekindergarten plans developed by 95 school districts in New York and found that some "involved things done or taught to parents with little opportunity for parent input." Several, however, planned prekindergarten approaches that offered opportunities for parents, including one where parents without high school diplomas can earn credits for work-study experience in the classroom.56
Linking with Head Start and child care programs can help more schools reach families early to encourage active involvement in the school and in their children's education.