Vol. III, Issue 7—April 1-15, 2014
Bringing you the latest in state and federal early childhood development policy and research.
Questions, comments, or suggestions for improvement? Contact Ashanti Huey.
Contents
Highlight: 2015 House Republican Budget Released ................................................................................... 2
Federal Updates ............................................................................................................................................ 2
Policy Trends and Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 2
New Research ............................................................................................................................................... 2
Upcoming Events .......................................................................................................................................... 3
Other News, Announcements and Resources ............................................................................................... 3
News from the States .................................................................................................................................... 4
California .................................................................................................................................................. 4
Florida ....................................................................................................................................................... 4
Kansas ....................................................................................................................................................... 5
Illinois ....................................................................................................................................................... 5
Louisiana ................................................................................................................................................... 5
Maine ........................................................................................................................................................ 6
Michigan ................................................................................................................................................... 6
North Carolina .......................................................................................................................................... 6
Oregon ...................................................................................................................................................... 6
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Highlight: 2015 House Republican Budget Released
U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan has released the House budget
proposal for fiscal year 2015, titled “The Path to Prosperity.” The proposal would cut $5.1 trillion in
government spending over the next 10 years, and the Congressional Budget Office projects that economic
output will be 1.8% greater than it would be without the proposed House budget. The House passed the
proposed budget 219 to 205; the U.S. Senate has declined to propose a 2015 budget. Read more here,
here and here; view a summary of the bill here and here.
Federal Updates
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New Appointment: Rep. Mark Takano has joined the House Education and Workforce Committee,
and has resigned his position on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. Before
elected to Congress, Takano was a teacher in Riverside, Calif. for more than 20 years. Read more
here and here.
Policy Trends and Analysis
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Head Start: New Republic explores policies that could improve the efficacy of Head Start in a recent
article. The authors suggest borrowing techniques from strong state preschool programs and
streamlining some of the regulations imposed on Head Start providers. Read more here.
Pre-kindergarten Access: The Urban Institute has published “Supporting Immigrant Families’
Access to Prekindergarten,” which includes interviews conducted with over 40 pre-kindergarten
directors and staff, directors of early childhood education programs, and other specialists, to form and
present strategies for improving pre-kindergarten enrollment rates among immigrant families and
English Language Learners (ELLs). Read more here.
New Research
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Health Outcomes: Science has published a report by Professor James Heckman and colleagues at the
University of Chicago, University College London, and Frank Porter Graham Child Development
Institute at the University of North Carolina with findings that suggest children who receive early
education interventions have much lower levels of obesity and other chronic diseases in adulthood.
Read more here and here.
Classroom Observation: The Educational Testing Service (ETS) has published a report examining
the reliability of preschool classroom observation. The document provides a detailed analysis and
description of classroom observation policies for 27 state-funded programs. Read more here.
Data Resource: KidsCOUNT, through the Annie E. Casey Foundation, has released a new policy
report titled “Race for Results: Building a Path to Opportunity for All Children” that unveils the new
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Race for Results index, which compares how children are progressing on key milestones across racial
and ethnic groups at the national and state level. The data can be used to assist leaders who create
policies and programs that benefit children, and identify areas where targeted strategies and
investments are needed. Read more here.
Professional Development: The McKnight Foundation, along with SRI International and the Center
for Applied Research and Education Improvement (CAREI), have evaluated their efforts in bringing
comprehensive pre-kindergarten through 3rd grade efforts to selected districts and charter schools in
Minnesota. A recently produced evaluation brief describes the kinds of professional development in
those funded sites, highlighting both benefits and challenges to their approach. Read more here.
Upcoming Events
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April 24: Thomas B. Fordham Institute is hosting a webinar examining the role of State Education
Agencies titled “State Education Agencies: The Smaller the Better?” and will release the paper “The
State Education Agency: At the Helm, Not the Oar.” Register here.
April 30: Start Kids Bright, a webinar series sponsored by the United Way Center for Excellence in
Early Education, will be hosting a webinar entitled “Learning in Two Languages in Early Childhood:
What Every Early Childhood Professional Needs to Know.” The webinar will cover the language
development process of dual language learners, as well as different types of dual language learners
and pathways to bilingualism, stages of dual language learning for simultaneous and sequential
bilinguals, oral language acquisition strategies used by dual language learners, contextual and
individual factors influencing the dual language development process, and typical and atypical
markers of dual language development. Register here.
April 30: The Erikson Institute will host a webinar titled “What PreK-3rd Grade Reforms Look Like:
Erikson Institute's Early Math Collaborative.” Instructors and teacher-participants from Erikson
Institute's Early Math Collaborative (EMC) will introduce participants to concepts and activities that
contribute to developing a strong number sense in children from pre-kindergarten to 3rd grade.
Register here.
Other News, Announcements and Resources
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Child Care Providers: “Getting Organized: Unionizing Home-Based Child Care Providers,”
published by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), focuses on the growing movement to
unionize home-based child care providers—both regulated family child care (FCC) providers and
family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) care providers who are exempt from regulation but receive public
funds—to negotiate with the state for better compensation and working conditions. This 2013 Update
edition provides additional information on legal developments between early 2010 and October 2013.
Read more here.
Community Engagement: The New York Times writes on the Henderson-Hopkins School, which is
the centerpiece of a new $1.8 million dollar community renewal project in East Baltimore, Maryland
that will serve infants, toddlers, and children through eighth grade. The community complex where
the school is located will be open to the surrounding neighborhood in a model intended to increase
community engagement in the low-income area. Read more here.
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Dual Language Learners: ChildTrends discusses a review of scholarly literature published between
2000 and 2011 that found only 14 peer-reviewed studies examined social-emotional outcomes for
young dual language learners in family, school and peer contexts. Despite the small number of
studies, researchers reviewing those studies found that dual language learners are equal or better than
monolingual children in social functioning. Read more here and here.
Educational Technology: Libby Doggett, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Early Learning
in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, writes on
the importance of effectively using technology to increase access to high-quality early learning in a
recent HomeRoom blog post. Read more here.
Family Engagement: W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) has announced its 2014 Family
Engagement Grantee Cohort, which consists of 30 organizations spanning work in 18 states and the
District of Columbia. WKKF will invest more than $13 million in family engagement initiatives over
the next three years within these organizations. Read more here.
Infant and Toddler Care: NWLC has published “Opportunities for Progress on Infant and Toddler
Care: New and Proposed Federal Initiatives,” a fact sheet that summarizes new and proposed federal
initiatives for infants and toddlers. Read more here.
Skill Acquisition: Conversation, an online academic magazine, stresses the importance of drawing in
a recent article. The article notes research that supports the view that drawing is a precursor to
writing, and that children who spend time drawing before attempting to write typically produce more
syntactically sophisticated writing. Read more here.
News from the States
CALIFORNIA
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The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has released a new report on revising the reimbursement
system for subsidized child care in California entitled “Restructuring California’s Child Care and
Development System.” The report notes that the availability and variety of subsidized child care
provided varies by location for similarly situated low-income families, and provides a detailed plan to
address these issues. Read more here.
FLORIDA
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The Tampa Bay Times reports on proposed changes to the state’s school grading that could put the
state at risk of losing its federal Elementary and Secondary Education waiver. In a recent monitoring
report, the U.S. Department of Education noted concerns that the state may not have a high-quality
assessment with appropriate cut scores ready by next spring. The state was also requested to clarify its
processes for identifying and intervening in low-performing "priority schools" and to improve its state
and local report cards. Read more here and here.
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KANSAS
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The legislature passed an education bill as a response to a state Supreme Court ruling that funding
disparities between rich and poor schools violated the state constitution. The court ordered the state to
fix the gap by July or risk having the court fashion a solution. The $126 million bill that goes to the
governor to sign includes educational reforms that conservative Republicans championed and also
puts more money into schools. Read more here.
ILLINOIS
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The Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development (OECD) held the state’s first symposium
focusing on “college and career readiness begins at birth” at the Northern Illinois University
Conference Center in Naperville. Funded by a grant from the National Governors Association and the
Midwest Comprehensive Center, the symposium convened national and state experts and
stakeholders representing organizations, school districts and advocacy organizations throughout the
state involved in the birth through third grade educational continuum. Read more here.
State Senate held hearings on school funding legislation sponsored by Sens. Andy Manar and Steve
Stadelman that would streamline the state’s school funding formula to require districts to demonstrate
need before receiving money. This would be a significant shift from the current method that factors in
a district’s poverty for some types of state aid but not others. Only specialized programs for special
education and early childhood education would be exempt from the formula, and for the first time in
decades, funding for Chicago Public Schools would be part of the same formula used in the rest of the
state. Read more here and here; view a summary of the bill here.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has announced that Chicago’s youth will now have access to an additional
10,000 academic and job training opportunities through partnerships across the City as part of 2014’s
Summer of Learning and Earning, a citywide initiative to keep Chicago youth ages 4 to 24 active and
engaged this summer. Read more here.
ReadyNation and America’s Edge have released a report entitled “Strengthening Illinois Businesses
through Investments in Early Care and Education,” which looks at early childhood programs and the
positive economic benefits they can provide to the state. Read more here and here.
LOUISIANA
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The House Committee on Education has passed a bill concerning the Cecil J. Picard LA 4 Early
Childhood Education Program, or House Bill 954. Sponsored by Rep. Walt Leger, the bill includes
diverse delivery language with the final statute requiring that in the event there is an increase in
funding, 10% of the increase would have to be spent to provide slots in non-school site, community
based settings. House Bill 954 now goes to the House of Representatives for debate. Read more
here.
Reps. Walt Leger and Edward Price introduced HCR 61, which requests that the State Board of
Elementary and Secondary Education develop and recommend a statewide funding model for the
equitable funding and distribution of public funds to support quality early childhood care and
education for Louisiana families of children, ages birth to five, requesting such services no later than
60 days prior to the convening of the 2015 regular session of the legislature. The bill has passed in the
House Education Committee, and now heads to the House Floor. Read more here.
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MAINE
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Both chambers of the legislature have approved a pre-kindergarten expansion bill that would use
casino revenues to expand early childhood education to schools that don't currently offer such
programs. The governor has until midnight on Monday, April 28 to sign or veto the bill. Currently,
60% of the state's 172 school districts offer some kind of pre-kindergarten program, but many
communities are unable to afford offering a program to children. The bill authorizes the
Commissioner of Education to provide grant funding beginning in the 2015-2016 school year and
each subsequent school year thereafter to qualified school administrative units to implement plans to
develop and operate public preschool programs. The legislature will appropriate, allocate or authorize
state, federal or private funds for to be used for those programs. The bill further establishes the state’s
goal to provide adequate funding to ensure that public preschool programs for children 4 years of age
are offered by all school administrative units by the 2018-2019 school year. Read more here.
MICHIGAN
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The Sandbox Party features the story of a Wyandotte parent and her experiences with the state’s
preschool program. Read more here and here.
Mlive notes that child care costs in the state are the 12th highest in the nation, with an average cost of
$10,114 for infant care. The article also notes that finding child care for an infant represents nearly
half of the median income for a single parent and more than 10% of median income for a married
couple. Read more here.
NORTH CAROLINA
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"Research published in the 2012-2013 Children's Outcomes and Program Quality in the North
Carolina Pre-K Program” shows that the state’s publically funded pre-kindergarten program for 4year-olds has produced significant positive outcomes for participants. Gains were found in all areas of
learning including language and literacy skills, math skills, general knowledge, and social skills. Read
more here.
OREGON
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The Oregon Community Foundation has published its latest report on lessons learned from its
“Boomers and Babies” program, a cross-generational program that engages volunteers that are older
adult in activities that contribute to children’s readiness for school. Read more here.
The Ounce of Prevention Fund gives children in poverty the best chance for success in school and in
life by advocating for and providing the highest quality care and education from birth to age 5.
The Ounce National Policy Team partners with and supports early childhood leaders in states as they
advance a comprehensive agenda for at-risk children and families. We do this by providing individualized
strategy and policy consultation and resources; facilitating peer-to-peer learning and networking across
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states; and supporting Educare Schools and the Educare Learning Network in the development of their
policy and advocacy work.
The National Policy Digest is a bi-monthly newsletter that shares up-to-date and noteworthy
developments in state and federal early childhood news, policy and funding changes, research, policy
trends and analyses, upcoming events, etc. culled from diverse sources in the field. To subscribe, please
contact Ashanti Huey, Policy Associate (ahuey@ounceofprevention.org).
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