Word: preschoolers
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...there is one thing that we've known with great certainty for decades: Preschool works. In research reaching back to the 1960s and confirmed again and again in Michigan, Illinois, New York, Connecticut and elsewhere, we've seen overwhelming evidence that students who attended one year of preschool are less likely to be held back a grade, require special education or commit crimes, and more likely to score well on standardized tests, to graduate high school, and even to own their own homes...
...enough data, though, for the White House, which last week convened a summit headed by Laura Bush on early childhood learning. The summit was not a discussion of how to make preschool available to more children, nor was there a statement of support to find more funding for existing programs. Rather, the two-day conference of 400 education and community leaders ended with Laura Bush reminding us to read to our kids, and education secretary Rod Paige announcing yet another task force on preschool. This one, Paige said, will raise public awareness about the need for early childhood cognitive development...
...preparing to tell parents that this year's New York State budget will prevent the district from offering a pre-K program in the fall that parents and community members had lobbied for and the school board has approved. Nor will it help Head Start, the mother of all preschool programs, which under Bush's budget received just a $125 million increase, which is not even enough to pay for the cost-of-living adjustments for Head Start workers. (In his campaign, Al Gore pledged to spend $50 billion on universal pre-K). It also will mean nothing...
...Various aspects of Head Start have always sparked debate - even among its ostensible supporters. While some, including President Bush, advocate tougher standards for the program, others are concerned that current enrollment guidelines effectively cut out children of the working poor, who cannot afford private preschool, but are too well-off to meet Head Start?s federal poverty guidelines. The AFT pre-school plan would address both those concerns by enforcing vigorous standards for teachers and eliminating financial requirements for enrollees...
...experiences kids need to succeed in school - summer camp, music lessons, computers in the home - all things advantaged kids have almost automatically. It?s all part of a larger structure and path to success. These are things disadvantaged kids simply don?t have and I believe universal preschool is a way of helping them get those things...