The
purpose of this post is to urge that our community needs to develop an
ambitious, aggressive, comprehensive strategic plan with measurable community
objectives and a timetable leading to a pre-k program that is equal to or
better than any community program in the Country. I believe that it is not enough to simply
try to do more. I believe that we need
to do what is required, and what is require is to develop a plan to meet all of
our needs, not just to do as much as we can.
A number
of communities in the United States have undertaken truly ambitious pre-K
community programs. The City of Tulsa
has recently been covered in a National Public Radio program, Early Childhood
Education, Tulsa, Stands out. Union City, New Jersey, one of the nation’s
poorest urban centers, armed with funding provided as a result of
groundbreaking state constitutional litigation, has allegedly made significant
progress in part by adopting a major pre-K initiative in coordination with its
public school systems. Itasca County’s public school districts and
others have combined to initiate “Invest Early.” Cincinnati Strive has made early childhood
education a central shared objective of the public schools, municipalities and
counties, and the diocese among other partners.
What are
the elements of a successful Pre-K community initiative? The literature seems to support the following
objectives.
A.
All
students whose families want Pre-K education, receive it. To provide children with a solid
foundation for success before they enter school, we need to start treating
pre-K as a fundamental component of the education system, not an optional
add-on. Universal access to voluntary, High quality pre-kindergarten programs
for all 3- and 4-year-olds whose parents want pre-K. “America’s Vanishing
Potential: The Case for PreK-3rd Education” (New York: Foundation for Child
Development, 2008.) I
believe that we have not yet as a community accepted this as a community
mission. Adopting this as a central
mission—objective—would require us to assess the cost of meeting this
objective, and then undertaking to find additional resources to meet that
objective. Transferring scarce funds
out of elementary and secondary education is not sufficient, because the
research makes it clear that early childhood initiatives only pay dividends
when they are followed by outstanding elementary and secondary programs.
B.
Properly
Trained Teachers. Pre-K programs
employ highly skilled teachers who have appropriate credentials. “Teachers
working with young children must have higher education levels that enable them
to support that development.” In a truly successful program, “Qualified
teachers with both a bachelor’s degree and specialized training in how young
children learn.”
C.
Outstanding
Curriculum. Pre-K programs must also
have clearly-defined, developmentally-appropriate curricula and expectations of
children’s learning that are aligned with expectations for elementary and
secondary students. Quality,
developmentally appropriate curriculum and standards aligned from pre-K through
third grade.
D.
Monitoring/Continuous
Improvement. Equally important,
policymakers must develop systems and infrastructure to monitor the quality of
pre-K programs and hold them accountable by tracking comprehensive indicators
of child development and long-term effects of pre-K programs on children’s
academic performance in school.
E.
Integration
with K-3 Education. Research that
shows that pre-K programs can improve student learning also shows that they are
not as effective if children move from quality pre-K programs into poor-
quality elementary schools that are ill-equipped to sustain pre-K learning
gains.
Strong leadership committed to providing children with a seamless
educational experience. We must
ensure that all educators working with young children in this age range have a
solid understanding of early childhood development, recognize the importance of
the PreK-3rd years in children’s development, and are committed to creating a
seamless educational experience in these years. Merely calling ourselves “partners” cannot
achieve this objective. It is easy to
form a partnership in name, but actually assuring robust and coordinated
curriculum demands developing concrete mechanisms to make the objective a
reality.
F.
Emphasis
on both academics and social/emotional development in early grades. If our
schools are to be effective in preparing our youngest children for success—in
school, work, family, and life— they must prioritize social and emotional
development in the PreK-3rdyears, as
well as academics.
G.
Alignment of Standards, curricula, formative
assessments, and instructional strategies must be aligned with one another so
that all work together to support children’s learning. This alignment must
be both vertical—from grade to grade—and horizontal, so that all elements work
together and children in different classrooms have a common learning
experience. Standards must be aligned from grade to grade and over the course
of the year, so that children’s learning builds in a seamless progression on
top of what they already know.
H.
Parental
Engagement. Effective PreK-3rd
educational systems do not operate in a vacuum, but actively establish
connections with the parents and communities they serve. Parental engagement is
important at all levels of the educational system, but it is particularly
important in the early years. PreK-3rd programs must also respect and reflect
the broader cultures and communities their children come from.
I.
Coordinate
with University Education Actually transforming university education
requires courageous action at the university level, because the Minnesota
University culture is not always ready for change.
J.
Develop
Targeted Programs for Non-English Speakers and their Parents
Meeting these objectives cannot be accomplished by any public
entity alone. Early childhood education
starts with parents, of course. But a
few communities across the country have discovered that by acting courageously
and ambitiously, they can significantly enhance the quality of education of the
entire community. To date, we in
Minnesota and in the St. Cloud community have barely scratched the surface of
what can be done. to accomplish the objective of universal quality pre-K. The choice we face as a community, I
believe, is whether we want to make incremental change, inching our way
forward, as resources permit, towards the ultimate but unreachable goal, or
whether we want to set ambitious objectives, funded by grants, or special
taxing authority, or special legislative authority, or by a constitutional
litigation like that which resulted in the funding of Union City. At the rate we are now moving forward, it is
not at all clear that in two decades time we will be any further along towards
the objective of universal pre-k than we are today.
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